From Tactical to Strategic RevOps | Jeppe Wienziers Stenbæk, Head of Business Architecture at Pleo

I studied finance and statistics, then entered management consulting. Over five or six years, I worked on process improvement and transformation. I first advised on outsourcing, then used software robotics to automate processes across banks and public-sector organisations.

I had long liked technology, but consulting clashed with family life. A product-owner role at a large pension fund felt too slow. A coach encouraged me to explore startups, and my first contact led to Pleo. I joined commercial operations or commercial analytics. RevOps combined technology and operations while shifting my focus from cutting costs to increasing revenue.

When I joined Pleo, the function focused on reporting and system management. It administered the CRM, paid commissions and produced reports. Its strategic influence developed gradually. RevOps earned a place in decisions by assessing wider effects on revenue, commissions, systems and applications.

That meant contributing before choices became final. These included market entry, segmentation, lead distribution and product-led versus sales-led motions. Strategic RevOps helps set direction instead of changing systems afterward. It also works across marketing, sales, customer experience and support. Pleo had seen teams improve isolated areas while information failed to reach the next stage. RevOps connects the customer journey and improves the full funnel.

Pleo structures RevOps around disciplines, not individual industries or segments. Its broader model uses a matrix of domains and competencies. A domain can focus on partnerships, mid-market or small business. It brings together relevant sales, customer experience, RevOps and engineering skills. Customer size shapes service: larger prospects receive more human support, while lower-value segments require less manual work.

Specialist teams cover pricing, enablement, data analysis, Looker reporting, strategic projects, planning, operations and business architecture. My team manages tools, their processes and data flows, including pipelines, automation and engineering. Specialists support shared commercial domains without duplicating operations teams for each segment.

RevOps does not run Pleo's marketing campaigns. Marketing chooses whom to target and how because its specialists know that work. RevOps sets the framework and minimum requirements that make campaigns useful. Leads must meet defined criteria and follow a suitable form or flow. Country and company size help identify segments, route leads, tailor experiences and support attribution.

The same principle applies to sales qualification. Sales leaders can choose a method such as MEDDIC. RevOps turns it into an accessible SDR process for collecting and passing on required information. Since people dislike CRM maintenance, teams should request necessary information at the right moment. RevOps designs and guards the framework, while specialists execute the work.

Pleo uses a hub-and-spoke model that centralises product and commercial-tool data in BigQuery. Fivetran extracts commercial data, while product data can arrive through Segment. Census maps database fields back into HubSpot through reverse ETL. This sends milestones and product information into CRM properties without a developer building every connection. The data can trigger tasks, advance deals and support onboarding communications.

Reporting varies by audience. Sales representatives and managers use HubSpot reports, while senior management uses Looker to combine CRM, product and other data. The customer experience team works in Vitally. BigQuery serves as the main source of truth, avoiding direct links between every system. This reduces uncertainty about errors, ownership and correct values.

The pricing team has two related duties. Its deal desk checks that new agreements meet defined criteria and make economic sense. Broader pricing work examines product cost, plan features, pricing changes and renewals. Decisions use historical usage, sales data, customer feedback, closed-lost deals and competitor offerings.

For standard deals, representatives enter user numbers, plan, commitment, payment terms and discount percentage in HubSpot. HubSpot generates the quote. Rules route discount approvals to a manager, senior manager or deal desk. The deal desk handles exceptions, including custom terms or larger discounts. This process helps salespeople while maintaining control over commercial terms and avoiding inconsistent or uneconomic agreements.

A salesperson or CSM cannot review hundreds of customer data points and consistently choose the next step. One Pleo project created triggers from combinations of customer behaviour and historical patterns. When customers complete some activities but not others, the system identifies a suitable action. Representatives no longer need to interpret raw data independently.

Crossing a threshold can generate a task for the relevant salesperson or CSM. It can flag churn risk or suggest a feature aligned with customer behaviour. Earlier in the journey, product milestones can advance deals or prompt contact with stalled customers. The aim is to turn data into timely actions. These actions help teams work consistently across hybrid product-led and sales-assisted journeys.

The market moved from growth at all costs toward economic discipline. Previously, teams added projects and tools without a strong business case. Rapid workforce expansion also left some implementations unfinished. The shift created time to address technical debt, remove tools, cut costs and simplify the architecture. This gives the organisation more flexibility and a scalable base for change. It also supports operational hires that improve many sales representatives' productivity.

AI needs the same discipline. Data protection matters, and waiting for an integrated core-platform feature can beat building an expensive workaround. Current uses include writing workflow descriptions, creating reports, summarising calls and preparing salespeople with customer context. The broader opportunity remains new, so value, integration and timing should guide adoption.