Designing a scalable revenue management process
Lessons from working with hundreds of B2B companies on building the foundations for scalable revenue collection.
Introduction
Sequence helps technology companies run a seamless quote to revenue process, from signed customer to recognized revenue in the ERP, and every workflow in-between.
Having a reliable revenue system matters. Most companies run a manual, error-prone process using spreadsheets and homegrown tools. Contract and pricing data ends up fragmented across different teams, systems and never quite adds up. As a result, CFOs struggle to share accurate revenue numbers, pricing initiatives are blocked, and customers are left wondering about inaccurate bills. This is not just a back-office problem. It's a top business priority that directly contributes to — or can drastically impede — growth.
In working with hundreds of B2B companies to help them build the foundations for scalable revenue collection, there are plenty of tips and best practices we’ve picked up along the way. In this guide, we offer revenue management insights that can be used across Finance, Sales, and Engineering teams, and implemented across pricing, packaging, infrastructure, and accounting.
Concepts
Designing a scalable revenue management process starts with nailing the basics. If you’re running a sales or product-led B2B software business with hybrid pricing models, here are a few of the things to keep in mind:
Practices
Consider the following practices and reminders to scale your revenue collection process.
- Professional proposals win deals
- Don’t innovate on pricing
- Pricing is never done
- Use hybrid pricing models
- Keep packaging simple
- Align sales and finance goals
- Define a source of truth for products, pricing and contracts
- CRMs are for sales, not finance
- Design good value metrics
- Introduce pricing guardrails for sales
- Roll out pricing changes effectively
Perspectives from industry veterans
Hear directly from seasoned leaders who know what it takes to build lasting B2B companies
Having worked with hundreds of software companies, I've seen firsthand how critical robust revenue management is to sustainable growth. This guide offers invaluable insights into building a scalable revenue process, from defining clear product catalogs to implementing flexible pricing models. If you're running a B2B software company, this is the playbook you need to dodge the usual mistakes and set yourself up for growth.
Gokul RajaramCoinbase, Doordash
Revenue is an important number, but what goes into that number is even more important. Having well defined product, customer and GL structure allows you not just to see revenue, but improve revenue.
Sasha OrloffPuzzle
The gold standard in SaaS is achieving net-negative churn. How do you do that? Great SaaS companies tend to have at least two levers for expanding customers. I'm a big fan of usage-based and product-based expansion.
Kyle PoyarGrowth Unhinged
Often we’ve heard vendors wonder if they’re even sending the invoice to the right email. Is there another email they should be sending it to? Are there multiple people who need to review and approve that invoice before it will be paid back? It may sound like a small problem, but visibility, tracking, responsiveness on whether or not a vendor will get paid for the services they provide becomes a major source of pain. Technology can take care of these small things.
Subham AgarwalDirector of Product, Ramp