When you're building or scaling a RevOps function, understanding how these specialties actually work together matters more than you think.
The Problem with "RevOps" as a Catch-All
I've seen this pattern dozens of times: A company hires their first "RevOps" person, gives them a vague mandate to "optimize our go-to-market systems," and then wonders why nothing gets fixed. The issue? RevOps isn't one job. It's actually four distinct disciplines that need to work in concert to become a beautiful orchestra that helps your company maximize revenue.
After leading RevOps at several B2B SaaS companies at various stages, here's how I break down what each function actually does, and more importantly, when you need which one.
Marketing Operations: The Demand Engine Mechanics
What they own:
- Marketing automation platforms (HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot)
- Campaign execution infrastructure
- Lead scoring and routing logic
- Attribution modeling
- Marketing data hygiene
When you need them:
- Your lead-to-MQL conversion is a black box
- Campaign data doesn't match what Sales sees in CRM
- You can't answer "which channels drive pipeline?"
- Marketing can't move fast because they're waiting on technical resources
Common mistake: Treating Marketing Ops as "the Marketo admin." These folks should be strategic partners who understand both marketing strategy AND technical implementation.
Sales Operations: The Revenue Machine Builders
What they own:
- CRM architecture and administration (Salesforce, HubSpot CRM)
- Sales process design and optimization
- Compensation plan administration
- Pipeline management and forecasting
- Territory planning and quota setting
- Sales enablement tool stack
When you need them:
- Your sales process is inconsistent across reps
- Pipeline forecasts are always wrong
- Deals get stuck in "verbal commit" forever
- You can't easily answer "what's working in our sales motion?"
- Comp plans are calculated in spreadsheets
Common mistake: Letting Sales Ops become a ticket-taker for CRM requests instead of a strategic function that designs how revenue gets generated.
Customer Success Operations: The Retention Engine
What they own:
- Customer success platforms (Gainsight, ChurnZero, Catalyst)
- Health scoring models
- Renewal and expansion workflows
- Customer onboarding processes
- Usage data integration
- Customer communication cadences
When you need them:
- You can't predict which customers will churn
- Onboarding takes too long and is inconsistent
- CS team is reactive instead of proactive
- Expansion opportunities fall through the cracks
- You have usage data but no action from it
Common mistake: Assuming CS Ops is just "customer support operations." They should be focused on retention metrics, expansion revenue, and lifecycle orchestration—not ticket management.
Business Systems: The Integration Architects
What they own:
- GTM systems roadmap and strategy
- Platform integrations and data flow
- Quote-to-cash infrastructure
- Subscription billing systems
- Revenue recognition support
- Data governance frameworks
- Vendor relationship management
When you need them:
- Data doesn't sync between systems correctly
- You're drowning in point solutions that don't talk to each other
- Quote-to-cash requires manual handoffs
- Every report requires data reconciliation
- Your tech stack has grown organically without architecture
Common mistake: Not having this function at all. Many companies distribute these responsibilities across Marketing Ops, Sales Ops, and IT—which means nobody owns the end-to-end system architecture.
The Emerging Role: GTM Engineer
There's a newer specialization within Business Systems worth calling out: GTM Engineers.
This role has emerged in the last few years as GTM tech stacks have become more complex and off-the-shelf integrations hit their limits. GTM Engineers are essentially software engineers who focus exclusively on the go-to-market tech stack.
What makes them different from traditional Business Systems roles:
GTM Engineers focus on:
- Custom API integrations when native integrations don't cut it
- Building internal tools (data enrichment pipelines, custom reporting dashboards)
- Data warehouse management and reverse ETL
- Advanced automation using Python, JavaScript, or other programming languages
- Building scalable solutions that traditional no-code tools can't handle
Traditional Business Systems focuses on:
- Configuring and optimizing SaaS platforms
- Managing vendor relationships
- Process design and workflow automation
- Low-code/no-code solutions
When you need a GTM Engineer specifically:
Your data needs exceed platform capabilities
- Native integrations lose data fidelity
- You need complex transformations between systems
- Real-time sync requirements that standard tools can't handle
You're building custom tooling
- Internal lead enrichment engines
- Custom scoring models using data science
- Proprietary data pipelines from product to CRM
Scale demands it
- Processing millions of records
- Complex data governance at enterprise scale
- Performance optimization beyond platform limits
The trend: Companies at scale (especially product-led growth companies) are increasingly hiring GTM Engineers to sit alongside traditional RevOps roles. Firms like Ramp, Figma, and Notion have built out dedicated GTM Engineering teams.
My take: Most companies under $50M ARR don't need a dedicated GTM Engineer—invest in strong Business Systems generalists first. But if you're hitting the ceiling of what platforms can do natively, or you're drowning in manual data work that could be automated with custom code, it might be time to hire technical horsepower.
The key is not replacing or overwhelming your existing Business Systems with GTM Engineer tasks, but complementing strategic system architecture with technical implementation capability.
How These Functions Work Together
Here's the reality: These aren't silos. They're interconnected parts of a single revenue engine.
A real scenario from my time at Thumbtack:
- Marketing Ops generates a lead and scores it as MQL
- Business Systems ensures that lead routes correctly to Sales with complete data
- Sales Ops provides the workflow and tools for rep to work the lead efficiently
- Business Systems orchestrates the quote-to-cash handoff when deal closes
- CS Ops receives the customer with all context intact for onboarding
- Business Systems ensures usage data flows back to inform health scores
- CS Ops identifies expansion opportunity and routes to Sales
- Sales Ops provides expansion motion playbook and tooling
When one breaks, they all break.
The Organizational Question: How Should These Functions Report?
I've seen three models work, depending on company size:
Model 1: The Integrated Team (Most Common at Scale)
- VP/Head of Revenue Operations
- Director of Marketing Operations
- Director of Sales Operations
- Director of Customer Success Operations
- Director of Business Systems
When it works: 200+ employees, $50M+ ARR, established go-to-market motion
Why it works: Clear accountability for each function while maintaining strategic alignment through shared leadership
Model 2: The Specialized Model
- Marketing Ops reports to CMO
- Sales Ops reports to CRO
- CS Ops reports to Chief Customer Officer
- Business Systems reports to CTO or COO
When it works: Smaller companies (<200 employees) or those with very distinct go-to-market motions by function
Why it works: Deep integration with each functional leader's priorities
Risk: Optimization happens within functions, not across the revenue engine
Model 3: The Hybrid Approach (My Preference)
- VP/Head of Revenue Operations owns strategy and Business Systems
- Marketing Ops, Sales Ops, and CS Ops report to respective executives but have dotted-line relationship to RevOps leader
When it works: 100-500 employees, growing quickly, need to balance functional autonomy with systems thinking
Why it works: Functional teams stay close to their business partners while RevOps ensures they're building toward a cohesive architecture
What's Right for Your Stage?
Startup (Pre-$10M ARR):
- You probably need one person who can do all of this
- Hire for Sales Ops first, let them wear multiple hats and use native functionality of tools
- Build Business Systems discipline as you scale
Growth ($10M-$50M ARR):
- Start specializing: dedicated Sales Ops and Marketing Ops
- Business Systems becomes critical as integration complexity grows
- CS Ops can still be part-time or shared with Sales Ops
Scale ($50M+ ARR):
- You need all four functions with dedicated leadership
- Business Systems should own platform strategy, not just integrations
- Consider specialized roles within each function (e.g., Salesforce Admin, Compensation Analyst)
The Skills That Matter
All RevOps roles need:
- Systems thinking (understanding how changes ripple through processes)
- Data fluency (SQL is a superpower)
- Process design capability
- Vendor management experience
Marketing Ops specifically:
- Campaign operations experience
- Attribution modeling knowledge
- Marketing automation platform expertise
- Understanding of demand generation strategy
Sales Ops specifically:
- Salesforce or similar CRM expertise
- Comp plan design experience
- Sales process design
- Pipeline analytics and forecasting
CS Ops specifically:
- Customer journey mapping
- Health scoring methodology
- Usage data analysis
- Retention economics understanding
Business Systems specifically:
- API and integration architecture knowledge
- Data governance frameworks
- Change management capability
- Vendor negotiation experience
GTM Engineer specifically (emerging specialty):
- Programming languages (Python, JavaScript, SQL)
- API development and documentation
- Data warehouse architecture (Snowflake, BigQuery)
- Reverse ETL tools (Census, Hightouch)
- Software engineering best practices (version control, testing)
- Understanding of GTM business logic and processes
Common Pitfalls I See
1. Building specialists before you have the foundation
Don't hire a Marketing Ops person if your CRM is a mess. Fix the foundation (Business Systems + Sales Ops) first.
2. Treating these roles as order-takers
These should be strategic partners who challenge process assumptions, not just people who execute tickets.
3. Not investing in Business Systems
This is the function that prevents your tech stack from becoming a Frankenstein monster. Don't skip it.
4. Keeping these teams too separate
Weekly cross-functional standups between all Ops functions should be non-negotiable.
5. Optimizing one function at the expense of others
Perfect your lead routing, but if CS can't access that context, you haven't actually improved the customer experience.
The Bottom Line
Marketing Ops, Sales Ops, Customer Success Ops, and Business Systems aren't competing functions—they're different lenses on the same problem: How do we efficiently and predictably generate, close, and expand revenue?
Build them intentionally. Invest in the right sequence. Make them work together.
And if you're trying to figure out where to start, or how to structure this for your specific situation, that's exactly the kind of thing I help companies with at The GTM Advisor Group.
Jordan Rogers is the founder of The GTM Advisor Group and former SVP of Revenue Operations at PDQ, where he led the consolidation of three Salesforce instances and migration to HubSpot while scaling the business. He's spent a decade building and leading RevOps teams at fast-growth SaaS companies.
