RevOps explained: how one funnel and shared goals fix sales and marketing alignment

If you sell for a living, you have probably heard some version of this: marketing says it sent you plenty of leads, and you say the leads were junk. Both of you have a spreadsheet that proves your point. RevOps exists to end that argument, by making sure there is only one spreadsheet.

What is RevOps, in plain words?

Forrester (which absorbed the research firm SiriusDecisions) describes revenue operations as the function that unifies the data, processes, technology and people that serve the customer across the whole lifecycle. Its 2019 Sirius7 framework lists seven things to align: vision, goals, planning, processes, infrastructure, data and measurement (Forrester/SiriusDecisions, 2019).

For a salesperson, that list comes down to a few concrete changes:

RevOps can be a full team with a VP, or one ops person, or simply a set of rules a sales manager and a marketing manager agree on. The title matters less than the rules.

Why are sales and marketing so often misaligned?

Mostly because they are set up to be. They usually report to different leaders, use different tools and get paid on different numbers. The research below is consistent on the size of the gap, though most of it is self-reported survey data, so treat it as a strong signal rather than a precise measurement.

The Gartner figure is the one worth remembering: 90% of leaders say their priorities conflict (Gartner, 2024). When the goals conflict, people working hard on their own goal can still pull against each other.

What does one funnel actually look like?

One funnel means every stage has a name, a written entry rule, an owner and a time limit, and both teams use the same words. Here is a simple version you can adapt. The stage names are common ones, not a standard you must follow.

The SAL stage is what makes this work. Sales gets to accept or reject a lead, but must give a reason from a short list. Marketing gets a record of why leads are rejected and can act on it. The arguments stop because every lead has a status and a reason.

Expect low numbers at the bottom of the funnel. Forrester puts the average sales-qualified conversion rate for B2B services at 3.5% (Forrester, 2023). A shared funnel will not raise that overnight. What it does is show you where the drop-off actually happens.

How do shared goals work in RevOps?

A shared goal is one number that both teams are judged on, usually qualified pipeline created or revenue closed. Each team can still track its own activity metrics, but they report into that one number. Gartner found that when marketing and sales share buyer journey insights, organisations are 2.3 times more likely to see higher sales conversion rates (Gartner, 2024). That is a correlation from a survey, not proof that sharing causes the lift, but it points the same way as the rest of the evidence.

• Shared: qualified pipeline created, win rate, revenue.
• Marketing still tracks: MQLs, cost per lead, campaign response.
• Sales still tracks: follow-up speed, meetings booked, cycle length.
• Both review: rejected leads and loss reasons, every week.

What does it look like on a real deal?

Illustrative scenario: a made-up deal, not a real case.

1. Frame 1: the old way. Priya, an account executive at a small software firm, gets 40 leads from a webinar. She calls five, finds two are students, and stops. Marketing reports 40 MQLs as a win. Sales reports the webinar as useless.
2. Frame 2: one definition. The sales and marketing managers agree in writing: an MQL must be at a company with 20 or more staff and must have asked a question or visited the pricing page.
3. Frame 3: the hand-off. The next webinar produces 40 leads but only 12 MQLs. Each arrives in the CRM with the question the person asked. Priya agrees to call within one working day.
4. Frame 4: accept or reject. Priya accepts 9 and rejects 3, choosing the reason no budget this year from a dropdown. Marketing moves those 3 into a nurture email track instead of losing them.
5. Frame 5: the shared review. On Friday, both teams look at one report: 9 accepted, 4 opportunities, 1 closed. Marketing's target is now pipeline, not lead count, so it asks Priya which questions came up most and builds the next webinar around them.

Nothing in this story needed new software. It needed one definition, one hand-off rule and one meeting.

Does RevOps really increase revenue?

Probably, but be careful with the big numbers you will see online. SiriusDecisions research found that organisations whose sales, marketing and product functions are aligned achieve 19% faster revenue growth and 15% higher profitability (Forrester/SiriusDecisions, 2019). That is a comparison between companies, and companies that align well may also be better run in many other ways. It shows an association, not a guaranteed result.

The more practical benefit is time. Salesforce found the average seller spends 40% of their time selling, based on a survey of 4,050 sales professionals in 2025 (Salesforce State of Sales, 2026). Clean data and clear hand-offs are among the few things that give time back without asking you to work longer hours.

What can a salesperson do if there is no RevOps team?

You do not need a title to start. Most of RevOps is agreement, and agreements can start with one rep and one marketer.

• Ask marketing for the written MQL definition. If none exists, offer to draft one together.
• Log a reason every time you reject or close-lose a deal. Loss reasons are the most useful data marketing never gets.
• Keep your notes in the CRM, not in a private notebook, so the shared report reflects reality.
• Suggest a 15-minute weekly review of last week's leads with one marketing person.

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