Revenue Operations Professionals Are Builders
Creating a new system that solves a revenue-blocking problem is one of the joys of Revenue Operations.
As a Salesforce Admin for 15+ years and Developer for over a decade I can say for sure — bringing these systems to life requires a great deal of thought and collaboration.
Here's a general outline of the process of standing up your own Salesforce solution:
Define Requirements
Choose Development Approach
Design Data Model
Develop UI/UX
Deploy Business Logic
Test, Deploy and Optimize
Let’s walk through these and explore the surface area of successful revenue operations application development.
Define Your Requirements:
The Main Idea
Clearly outline the purpose and goals of your application.
Identify the specific features and functionality you need.
Determine your target users and their roles within Salesforce.
Consider any integration requirements with other systems.
The Details
Revenue Goals: Start by aligning with your overarching revenue objectives. Are you trying to increase lead conversion, shorten sales cycles, or improve forecasting accuracy?
Process Mapping: Map out your current sales, marketing, and customer service processes. Identify pain points, bottlenecks, and opportunities for automation or optimization.
Data Requirements: Determine what data you need to track and analyze to measure your progress toward your revenue goals. This could include leads, opportunities, customer interactions, revenue, and marketing campaign performance.
Reporting Needs: Define the reports and dashboards you need to gain insights into your revenue performance. Consider who needs access to this information and how it will be used to make decisions.
Initiate this phase with a laser focus on your revenue goals. Are you aiming to elevate lead conversion, expedite sales cycles, or enhance forecasting precision? Engage in comprehensive discussions with key stakeholders across sales, marketing, and customer service. Map your existing processes meticulously, pinpointing pain points, bottlenecks, and areas ripe for automation or optimization. This in-depth analysis will reveal the data points and reporting capabilities that are essential for tracking progress towards your revenue targets. Remember, the requirements defined here lay the groundwork for the entire project's success.
Before finalizing your design be mindful of Salesforce governor limits, which are resource constraints on various aspects of the platform. Design solutions that adhere to these limits to avoid unexpected errors and performance issues. Carefully plan and manage integrations with other systems (like ERP or marketing automation platforms) to ensure seamless data flow and avoid conflicts.
Choose Your Development Approach
The Main Idea
Low-Code/No-Code: Salesforce provides several point-and-click tools like App Builder, Flow Builder, and Process Builder for building basic applications without extensive coding. This is a good option for simpler apps or if you have limited development experience.
Custom Development: If you have more complex requirements or need deeper customization, you can use Apex (Salesforce's programming language), Lightning Web Components, or Visualforce to build your application. This requires programming knowledge.
The Details
Declarative vs. Programmatic: Prioritize declarative development (using point-and-click tools like Process Builder, Flow, and App Builder) to streamline development and minimize maintenance. Reserve custom code (Apex) for complex business logic that cannot be achieved declaratively.
Customization vs. Configuration: Aim to leverage Salesforce's out-of-the-box features and configurations as much as possible. This will make your system easier to maintain and upgrade. Only customize when necessary to meet your specific revenue operations requirements.
AppExchange Solutions: Explore existing AppExchange solutions that can address your revenue operations needs. This can save development time and resources compared to building custom solutions from scratch.
The choice between declarative and programmatic development is pivotal. Prioritize declarative tools (Process Builder, Flow, App Builder) whenever feasible. These tools accelerate development and simplify maintenance. Reserve custom code (Apex) for complex scenarios that demand it. Additionally, weigh the pros and cons of customization versus configuration. Leveraging Salesforce's inherent features often proves more efficient and sustainable. Don't overlook the AppExchange – it might offer pre-built solutions that perfectly align with your revenue operations needs.
Design Your Data Model
The Main Idea
Determine the objects (e.g., Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities) you need to store your data.
Define the fields (attributes) for each object.
Establish the relationships between objects (e.g., lookups, master-detail).
Consider using custom objects if the standard objects don't meet your needs.
The Details
Lead and Opportunity Management: Model your lead and opportunity objects to align with your sales process. Consider custom fields to track lead sources, opportunity stages, and key revenue metrics.
Account and Contact Management: Define your account and contact hierarchy to reflect your customer relationships and buying groups.
Product and Price Books: Create products and price books to track your offerings and pricing models.
Campaign Management: Structure your campaign object to track marketing activities and measure their impact on revenue.
Data Relationships: Establish relationships between objects (e.g., leads to accounts, opportunities to accounts) to enable accurate reporting and analysis.
Construct a data model that mirrors your revenue generation processes. Carefully model lead and opportunity objects, incorporating custom fields to capture crucial revenue metrics. Define a hierarchical structure for accounts and contacts, ensuring it accurately reflects your customer relationships. Create products and price books that align with your offerings. Don't forget to establish robust relationships between objects, as this will fuel accurate reporting and analysis down the line.
Build Your User Interface
The Main Idea
Use App Builder to create custom pages, layouts, and components.
Design Lightning Web Components for a modern, dynamic user experience.
Customize record pages and list views for efficient data access.
The Details
Salesforce Lightning: Leverage the Salesforce Lightning interface for a modern and intuitive user experience.
Custom Pages and Components: Design custom Lightning pages and components to tailor the user interface to the specific needs of your revenue teams.
Mobile Optimization: Ensure that your Salesforce implementation is optimized for mobile devices so that your sales reps and managers can access information and update records on the go.
User Feedback: Gather feedback from your revenue teams throughout the development process to ensure that the UI/UX meets their needs and is easy to use.
Embrace Salesforce Lightning for a modern and intuitive user interface. Design custom Lightning pages and components to cater to the unique needs of your revenue teams. Mobile optimization is non-negotiable; ensure your Salesforce implementation functions seamlessly on mobile devices, empowering your sales representatives and managers with on-the-go access. Throughout this phase, actively solicit feedback from your revenue teams to guarantee that the UI/UX not only meets their needs but also enhances their productivity.
Develop Your Business Logic
The Main Idea
Use Flow Builder to automate processes and workflows.
Create validation rules to enforce data quality.
Write Apex triggers and classes for complex logic and integrations.
The Details
Salesforce Flows: Use Salesforce Flows to automate routine tasks, such as lead assignment, opportunity creation, and quote generation.
Approval Processes: Define approval processes for discounts, quotes, and other revenue-related actions.
Validation Rules: Enforce data quality by implementing validation rules that prevent incorrect or incomplete data from being entered into Salesforce.
Harness the power of Salesforce Flows to automate repetitive tasks, such as lead assignment, opportunity creation, and quote generation. Implement Flows to automate approvals, notifications, and field updates. Define approval processes for discounts, quotes, and other revenue-related actions. Ensure data integrity with validation rules that prevent the entry of erroneous or incomplete data. By automating these processes, you'll free up valuable time for your revenue team to focus on high-impact activities.
Test, Deploy & Optimize
The Main Idea
Thoroughly test your application in a sandbox environment.
Gather feedback from users and iterate on your design.
Deploy your application to production when it's ready.
The Details
Comprehensive Testing: Conduct thorough testing in a sandbox environment before deploying to production. This includes unit testing, system testing, integration testing, and user acceptance testing.
Phased Rollout: Consider a phased rollout approach to minimize disruption and allow for user feedback and adjustments.
Continuous Improvement: Monitor system performance, gather user feedback, and analyze data to identify areas for optimization. Implement changes and enhancements iteratively to ensure that your Salesforce implementation continues to meet your evolving revenue goals.
Rigorous testing in a sandbox environment is imperative before deploying to production. Unit testing, system testing, integration testing, and user acceptance testing should all be part of your strategy. Consider a phased rollout to minimize disruptions and allow for feedback and adjustments. But don't stop there. Continuously monitor system performance, gather user input, and analyze data to pinpoint optimization opportunities. Regular enhancements ensure your Salesforce implementation evolves in tandem with your revenue goals.
Once your system goes live, the job is not done! The more you educate the Users on the value of the system and how to leverage it the better the response will be. Provide comprehensive training to users on new features and processes to ensure adoption and maximize the value of Salesforce investments.
As a Revenue Operations builder, utilizing Salesforce effectively is crucial to drive revenue growth and operational efficiency. Here are some best practices that have helped me over the years.
Development Best Practices:
Declarative Development First: Prioritize declarative development (using point-and-click tools) over custom code whenever possible. This reduces development time, simplifies maintenance, and ensures better compatibility with future Salesforce updates.
Follow Salesforce Coding Standards: Adhere to Salesforce coding conventions and best practices to ensure code readability, maintainability, and performance.
Error Handling and Logging: Implement robust error handling and logging mechanisms to capture and address issues efficiently. This helps in troubleshooting, identifying bottlenecks, and improving system reliability.
Testing: Develop a comprehensive testing strategy that includes unit testing, integration testing, user acceptance testing (UAT), and regression testing. Automate testing wherever possible to save time and ensure thorough validation.
Security: Prioritize data security by adhering to Salesforce security best practices, managing user permissions effectively, and implementing appropriate data access controls.
Performance Optimization: Regularly monitor system performance, identify bottlenecks, and optimize code, configurations, and integrations to ensure optimal speed and user experience.
Happy building to all my fellow revenue operators!
👋 Thank you for reading Mastering Revenue Operations.
I started this in November 2023 and technology keeps accelerating faster ever since. Our audience includes RevOps Leaders, Wall St Analysts, VCs, Big Tech Data Engineers and Fortune 500 Executives.
To help us continue our growth, would you please Like, Comment and Share this?
Thank you again!!!