RevOps (revenue operations) is a way of organising so that marketing, sales and customer success share one process, one data source and one set of metrics, instead of three departments with three spreadsheets. The RevOps stack is the software that serves this: a CRM at the centre, connected to marketing tools, communication channels, accounting and reporting. For a mid-sized company, the effective stack is not the one with the most tools; it is the one where data flows automatically between layers and one person is accountable for keeping it running.

Signs a company needs RevOps

  • Marketing reports 300 leads this month, sales says "only 40 were usable", and nobody knows where the other 260 went.
  • The same prospect is called by two salespeople in one week.
  • The end-of-month revenue forecast misses the actual by 30 percent or more, every month.
  • A customer signs a contract and the success team does not know what was promised.
  • Revenue by lead source takes three days of manual work, and gives a different number each time.

Each sign is a place where data falls through the cracks at a handoff between teams. A RevOps stack closes those cracks with connected software, not with more meetings.

The 5 layers of a RevOps stack

Layer 1: CRM, the source of truth about customers

Every customer, opportunity and interaction lives here. For a mid-sized company the CRM does not need to be expensive; it needs to be used consistently. Three rules: every opportunity has a clear stage, every stage has exit criteria, and no deal exists outside the CRM. If salespeople still keep customers in notebooks or personal Zalo chats, every layer below is meaningless.

Layer 2: lead capture and routing

Website forms, advertising, events, referrals. Every lead from every source lands in the CRM automatically with its origin recorded, with no spreadsheet in between. This is the layer that breaks most often: the website form emails one person, that person leaves, the leads vanish. Connect forms directly to the CRM through integrations, and check weekly that leads received match forms submitted.

Layer 3: communication channels

Email, phone, Zalo, marketplace messages. Every interaction should be logged to the CRM automatically or with one click, so whoever picks up the file next knows what happened. In the Vietnamese market Zalo is usually the main channel and the hardest to connect; the practical solution is Zalo OA integrated with the CRM for most interactions, plus a rule to log a summary for the rest.

Layer 4: accounting and contracts

When an opportunity becomes a contract, data flows to accounting for invoicing and collection; when the customer pays, status flows back to the CRM. Not connecting this layer is why "closed" revenue in the CRM and "collected" revenue in accounting never agree.

Layer 5: reporting and forecasting

One dashboard reading from all layers above: leads by source, conversion rate per stage, average time to close, probability-weighted forecast, collected revenue. This replaces the Monday meeting spent reading numbers from three spreadsheets. If the company already has a data platform, this layer is part of it; see building a data platform for a growing business.

Deployment order over 12 weeks

  1. Weeks 1 to 3: clean the CRM. Agree opportunity stages, exit criteria, required fields. Import every existing customer. The least exciting step and the most important.
  2. Weeks 4 to 6: connect lead sources. Website forms, ads, events flow straight into the CRM with source. Verify counts match.
  3. Weeks 7 to 9: connect communication. Email and Zalo OA log to the CRM; summary rule for calls.
  4. Weeks 10 to 12: connect accounting and build reporting. Closed contracts create accounting records; payments update back; first dashboard with 5 metrics.

Do not reverse the order. A beautiful dashboard on a dirty CRM produces wrong numbers convincingly.

5 metrics to track, and no more

  1. Leads by source weekly, and the share accepted by sales.
  2. Conversion rate per stage, to see where the pipeline is blocked.
  3. Average time to close, to know when this month's revenue actually came from last month's leads.
  4. Probability-weighted forecast versus actual at month end; within 15 percent means the system is working.
  5. Cost per closed customer by source, to set marketing budgets by numbers rather than feel.

More than 5 metrics early on is a sign of measuring because you can, not because you need to.

Real costs

  • Software: a mid-tier CRM at 200,000 to 600,000 dong per user per month; marketing tools and Zalo OA add 1 to 3 million dong a month. For a team of 10, total software is roughly 4 to 9 million dong a month.
  • Integration and deployment: connecting layers, migrating data, building reports: 60 to 200 million dong depending on the number of tools and how clean current data is. Where software has no ready integration, custom connectors must be written; Siri9 does this under business web apps.
  • Operations: integrations break when vendors change APIs, fields get added, reports get fixed, new staff get trained: 3 to 10 million dong a month if outsourced. This is the cost most often forgotten and the reason stacks die after three months; the hidden costs of manual operations puts numbers on falling back to spreadsheets.

Why RevOps stacks die after three months

  • No owner. Marketing owns layer 2, sales owns layer 1, accounting owns layer 4, nobody owns the connections. One person (often called a RevOps lead; in a mid-sized company, part of the operations head's job) must own the whole flow.
  • No data checks. The form integration breaks on Tuesday, nobody notices until the following Monday. Automated checks are needed: zero leads into the CRM today triggers an alert.
  • Staff route around it. If entering into the CRM takes 5 minutes and typing in Zalo takes 5 seconds, they type in Zalo. Design the shortest possible entry flow and auto-fill as much as possible.
  • No maintenance. Software changes versions, APIs change, new fields appear. The stack is software, and software needs maintenance like any other.

When to add AI to the stack

After all 5 layers have run stably for at least a quarter and the data is clean. Then an AI agent can do genuinely useful work: summarise a customer's history before a call, classify and score leads against criteria the team has agreed, flag overdue opportunities, draft follow-up emails. Doing it before the stack is clean only automates the mess. AI for small business, the 4 tasks to automate first has the selection criteria.

Frequently asked questions

Does a 10 to 20 person company need RevOps?

Yes when two or more teams touch the customer (marketing and sales, or sales and success). Below that, one consistently used CRM is enough.

Do we need to change our current CRM?

Rarely. Most common CRMs are sufficient for mid-sized companies; the problem is usually how it is used and what it is connected to, not the tool. Switching CRMs should be the last option after cleaning data and attempting integrations.

How soon are results visible?

Lost leads drop immediately after week 6 when forms connect directly to the CRM. More accurate forecasting needs a quarter of clean data.

How does Siri9 help?

Auditing the current stack and showing where data falls through, writing the connectors that do not exist off the shelf, building the reporting, and operating the stack so it does not die. Send us the list of software you use and one sign from the top of this article that you recognise; we reply within 24 hours.