What Is Revenue Generation? [+Strategies]

Revenue generation is the process of planning, marketing, and selling products, with the ultimate aim of generating income and increasing profitability. Generating revenue is the most important activity that B2B companies engage in. It may involve some or all of the following tasks: 

• Establishing the business goals for the financial year, e.g., monthly or annual revenue targets.
• Aligning the B2B sales and marketing strategy to match the revenue targets.
• Creating an organisational structure that ensures the revenue generation strategy can be implemented successfully.
• Reviewing all sales and marketing procedures and making sure that best practice is being applied in all areas of the business.
• Using metrics to measure the progress of revenue generation and adjusting the strategy as necessary.
• Providing training and education for staff, so that all colleagues are working to maximise revenue generation.

How to increase revenue?

B2B organizations can generate more revenue by backing their strategy with B2B data. It helps marketing teams target the right audiences and empowers sales to have more conversations. The teams that generate the most revenue enrich their data using sales intelligence tools like Cognism and Zoominfo.

If the data you’re using to generate sales leads, build B2B contact databases or create marketing messages is not of sufficient quality, you’ll be left with a broken sales funnel.

This means your salespeople will struggle with identifying new opportunities in the market, leading to a decline in meetings booked and closed-won deals.

Having high-quality B2B data means you’ll be able to track and measure the performance of your revenue team. You’ll gain insights, enabling you to make amendments and improve your product, sales process, and marketing campaigns.

💡  Shay Khosrowshahi, Head of Revenue Operations at YuLife, was able to streamline revenue operations thanks to Cognism's Diamond Data. Read the full YuLife case study or speak to our team to find out more 👇

What are top revenue generation strategies?

If you want to keep your business afloat and increase its financial health, you’ve got to increase your revenue. 

Here are some tactics you can use in your revenue generation strategy: 

1. Establish your goals 

In B2B SaaS sales, your starting point for generating revenue must be creating a strategy that is clearly aligned to your revenue goals. 

As you continue on your revenue generation journey, you must continue to define your revenue goals at each stage of your business’s growth. 

2. Build a high-performing outbound sales team

A great model for B2B startups to follow is the one we used right here at Cognism.

Split your team into two “pods”, based around roles that are clearly outlined:

• Sales Development Representatives (SDRs): responsible for creating opportunities and booking meetings.
• Business Development Managers (BDMs): responsible for closing deals and generating revenue for the business.

Adopting this model means your teams will have to work together to accelerate your revenue generation.

3. Deploy revenue-focused marketing strategies 

The best way to accelerate your revenue generation is to let marketing own revenue targets. 

Your marketing team can use one or all of the following three strategies to do so:

Content marketing 

Your marketing team should be using and repurposing your existing content - such as blog articles, videos, social media posts, etc. to attract, engage, and retain your audience. 

Performance marketing 

AKA paid marketing, this is where your marketing team pays for online advertisements but only when a specific action is completed e.g.: a prospect clicking on an ad.

Campaign marketing

Your marketing team should be running various campaigns on different online marketing platforms. The goal is to appeal to your target audience, get them excited about your product, and in turn convert them into paying customers.

4. Be flexible with your pricing 

In B2B SaaS sales, pricing is not one-size-fits-all. 

Your pricing strategy should constantly be evaluated and tested based on customer feedback. It should be attributed to personas and based on the correct value measures.

5. Constantly evolve your product 

Your product needs to be developed over time and on a consistent basis. The characteristics of your early-stage product should be vastly different from that of your mature product.

In order to evolve your product, you’ve got to listen to your customers’ needs. Add new features and remove those that are no longer benefiting your clients. If your customers aren’t happy with your product, your revenue generation will stagnate. 

6. Focus on upselling and cross-selling 

Selling to your existing customers is a lot easier than selling to new customers. This is where your Customer Success team comes into its own. They can cater to your customers’ needs and upsell or cross-sell based on what the client is lacking or looking for. 

Cross-selling and upselling are key to your revenue generation strategy, especially as your business scales. 

Who is responsible for revenue generation? 

In B2B sales, there are three departments or teams that are responsible for revenue generation: sales, marketing, and customer success. Sometimes, these teams are combined and referred to as the revenue team.

Sales

Composed of sales managers, SDRs, AEs, and lead generation specialists, your sales team is responsible for meeting and beating the goals your organisation sets. 

The team generates revenue through lead generation strategies, outreaching to prospects, negotiating deals, and closing business. There may also be an account management team to assist with customer acquisition and retention.

Marketing

Your B2B marketing team targets the needs, interests and pain points of your prospects. 

The team generates revenue through their outbound marketing efforts, usually in the form of campaigns, content and ads. These activities bring in targeted leads for your sales team to follow up on. 

Customer Success

Your customer success team forms part of your company’s wider engagement strategy. The team works with customers, ensuring they flourish by proactively meeting their needs and helping them achieve their sales goals.

Your customer success team generates revenue by boosting your key metrics (renewal rates, customer loyalty, and retention) and reducing your churn.

Try Cognism’s premium sales intelligence

With over 1800 revenue teams meeting and beating targets using Cognism, it’s the perfect choice to solve your sales intelligence challenges.

Using our tools means you’ll be able to prospect predictably and in full compliance with global data laws. You’ll be able to identify and engage with your dream customers, faster than ever before.

Click 👇 to speak with one of our experts.