Welcome, Kati Huusko-Viikilä! Could you please introduce yourself, and tell a bit about your company, Revory?
Thank you! I’m a former Chief Sales Officer, currently an entrepreneur. Throughout my career, I worked as a partner in a B2B growth marketing agency and in various business leadership roles. In 2019, I sold my ownership stake and continued to lead sales in an employment capacity. For a period I also led the company’s marketing efforts and served as a vice-CEO. The company itself grew exponentially while I worked there. Additionally, I was involved in founding a national real estate agency, and currently, I sit on the board and hold ownership in the rapidly growing Hopeapuro Oy.
I transitioned into entrepreneurship from my role as the Sales Director at the Helsinki Region Chamber of Commerce. My goal is to help more companies increase their revenue. At its core, Revory is exactly this: helping companies grow and optimize all revenue streams. Traditionally, it’s thought that sales equals salespeople. However, many other teams, processes, and technologies within a company influence the generation of revenue. This shows that organizations need to take the next step in their evolution.
You are talking about RevOps (Revenue Operations) on your website. Could you explain a bit more about this concept? It’s quite new in Finland.
Certainly! RevOps is a business and management model aimed at harnessing the power of commercial teams, processes, data, and technologies to optimize revenue. The goal is to create an internal growth engine focused on increasing revenue and maximizing customer satisfaction as well as maximizing the customer’s lifetime value, not just acquire new deals. I came across this term while conducting research for my book on sales management. Finding out that the concept had already been thoroughly tested in the USA confirmed that I was on the right track. Furthermore, Gartner predicted that by 2025, 75% of the fastest-growing companies operate according to the RevOps model.
Very few in Finland and the Nordic countries are aware of RevOps, and to my knowledge, there are no RevOps offices in Finland that assists in adopting this business model. Some players do talk about it, but often use it as a trendy term without it actually being RevOps. Revory wants to help companies take incremental steps toward a modern sales organization model. Fortunately, significant results can already be achieved with small steps, starting for example with one team, by refining sales team processes or by providing coaching.
Are there any projects you are working on that are particularly significant/important for Revory?
We launched the company at the end of August. The initial response has been extremely promising, and we’re currently following up on numerous inquiries. Most of these are coming from industrial companies, and it’s exciting to see that these “traditional” entities were among the first to express interest in adopting this model. We currently strategize with them on how to best utilize the model and quickly achieve results.
How do you see the market development in this area and what are the drivers behind it?
I believe that Revenue Operations will become a widely adopted business model for B2B companies in the future. It addresses many challenges that current business models fail to alleviate. Furthermore, it inherently focuses on what interests owners and boards: revenue and profitability growth, and scalability. The more scalable the business model, the more valuable the company becomes. For decades, companies have refined processes and models for areas such as manufacturing, logistics, or recruitment. However, there was no model or system for growing a business; it was more art than science. Using RevOps we can turn growth into a science and help companies create a scalable growth model.
I think that “Revenue Operations/RevOps” will become a trendy term used to sell everything from marketing services to cold calling. It will be increasingly challenging to distinguish which provider can genuinely change the growth equation.
Read more about RevOps in this article: What is Revenue Operations and How Does It Create Value (still only in Finnish).
Will you have open positions in the near future? Who is the ideal Revory worker?
Revory has just started, and it’s a bit early to say. If the demand for RevOps model consulting and coaching remains strong, I believe we will soon start hiring. However, since this is a new business model in the Finnish market, it’s challenging to predict. Nevertheless, I’m ready for the challenge because this is absolutely my passion: helping companies achieve profitable growth, ensuring that Finland remains productive and competitive.
The ideal employee would have a strong background in sales and marketing, a thirst for growth and a track record of past successes. In the future, we will likely need two types of expertise: technology skills and leadership experience. Leadership experience is beneficial because it’s essential to understand how we can help clients genuinely implement change within their organizations. Leveraging technology and various systems as part of the RevOps model is also crucial when automating processes, collecting and utilizing customer data, and helping companies forecast future revenue streams.
Kati Huusko-Viikilä, founder & CEO https://www.linkedin.com/in/katihuusko-viikila/
We will post updates throughout the month on ICTOulu, as well as on our LinkedIn channel. If you want to know more about our activities and we how can support your business, please feel free to contact us.