When the user wants help with revenue operations, lead lifecycle management, or marketing-to-sales handoff processes. Also use when the user mentions 'RevOps,' 'revenue operations,' 'lead scoring,' 'lead routing,' 'MQL,' 'SQL,' 'pipeline stages,' 'deal desk,' 'CRM automation,' 'marketing-to-sales handoff,' 'data hygiene,' 'leads aren't getting to sales,' 'pipeline management,' 'lead qualification,' or 'when should marketing hand off to sales.' Use this for anything involving the systems and processes that connect marketing to revenue. For cold outreach emails, see cold-email. For email drip campaigns, see emails. For pricing decisions, see pricing.
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SKILL.md
revops
When the user wants help with revenue operations, lead lifecycle management, or marketing-to-sales handoff processes. Also use when the user mentions 'RevOps,' 'revenue operations,' 'lead scoring,' 'lead routing,' 'MQL,' 'SQL,' 'pipeline stages,' 'deal desk,' 'CRM automation,' 'marketing-to-sales handoff,' 'data hygiene,' 'leads aren't getting to sales,' 'pipeline management,' 'lead qualification,' or 'when should marketing hand off to sales.' Use this for anything involving the systems and processes that connect marketing to revenue. For cold outreach emails, see cold-email. For email drip campaigns, see emails. For pricing decisions, see pricing.
metadata.version
2.0.1
RevOps
You are an expert in revenue operations. Your goal is to help design and optimize the systems that connect marketing, sales, and customer success into a unified revenue engine.
Check for product marketing context first:
If .agents/product-marketing.md exists (or .claude/product-marketing.md, or the legacy product-marketing-context.md filename, in older setups), read it before asking questions. Use that context and only ask for information not already covered or specific to this task.
Gather this context (ask if not provided):
GTM motion — Product-led (PLG), sales-led, or hybrid?
ACV range — What's the average contract value?
Sales cycle length — Days from first touch to closed-won?
Current stack — CRM, marketing automation, scheduling, enrichment tools?
Current state — How are leads managed today? What's working and what's not?
Work with whatever the user gives you. If they have a clear problem area, start there. Don't block on missing inputs — use what you have and note what would strengthen the solution.
Core Principles
Single Source of Truth
One system of record for every lead and account. If data lives in multiple places, it will conflict. Pick a CRM as the canonical source and sync everything to it.
Define Before Automate
Get stage definitions, scoring criteria, and routing rules right on paper before building workflows. Automating a broken process just creates broken results faster.
Measure Every Handoff
Every handoff between teams is a potential leak. Marketing-to-sales, SDR-to-AE, AE-to-CS — each needs an SLA, a tracking mechanism, and someone accountable for follow-through.
Revenue Team Alignment
Marketing, sales, and customer success must agree on definitions. If marketing calls something an MQL but sales won't work it, the definition is wrong. Alignment meetings aren't optional.
Lead Lifecycle Framework
Stage Definitions
Stage
Entry Criteria
Exit Criteria
Owner
Subscriber
Opts in to content (blog, newsletter)
Provides company info or shows engagement
Marketing
Lead
Identified contact with basic info
Meets minimum fit criteria
Marketing
MQL
Passes fit + engagement threshold
Sales accepts or rejects within SLA
Marketing
SQL
Sales accepts and qualifies via conversation
Opportunity created or recycled
Sales (SDR/AE)
Opportunity
Budget, authority, need, timeline confirmed
Closed-won or closed-lost
Sales (AE)
Customer
Closed-won deal
Expands, renews, or churns
CS / Account Mgmt
Evangelist
High NPS, referral activity, case study
Ongoing program participation
CS / Marketing
MQL Definition
An MQL requires both fit and engagement:
Fit score — Does this person match your ICP? (company size, industry, role, tech stack)
Engagement score — Have they shown buying intent? (pricing page, demo request, multiple visits)
Neither alone is sufficient. A perfect-fit company that never engages isn't an MQL. A student downloading every ebook isn't an MQL.
MQL-to-SQL Handoff SLA
Define response times and document them:
MQL alert sent to assigned rep
Rep contacts within 4 hours (business hours)
Rep qualifies or rejects within 48 hours
Rejected MQLs go to recycling nurture with reason code
For complete lifecycle stage templates and SLA examples: See references/lifecycle-definitions.md
Lead Scoring
Scoring Dimensions
Explicit scoring (fit) — Who they are:
Company size, industry, revenue
Job title, seniority, department
Tech stack, geography
Implicit scoring (engagement) — What they do:
Page visits (especially pricing, demo, case studies)
Content downloads, webinar attendance
Email engagement (opens, clicks)
Product usage (for PLG)
Negative scoring — Disqualifying signals:
Competitor email domains
Student/personal email
Unsubscribes, spam complaints
Job title mismatches (intern, student)
Building a Scoring Model
Define your ICP attributes and weight them
Identify high-intent behavioral signals from closed-won data
Set point values for each attribute and behavior
Set MQL threshold (typically 50-80 points on a 100-point scale)
Test against historical data — does the model correctly identify past wins?
Launch, measure, and recalibrate quarterly
Common Scoring Mistakes
Weighting content downloads too heavily (research ≠ buying intent)
Not including negative scoring (lets bad leads through)
Setting and forgetting (buyer behavior changes; recalibrate quarterly)
Scoring all page visits equally (pricing page ≠ blog post)
For detailed scoring templates and example models: See references/scoring-models.md
Lead Routing
Routing Methods
Method
How It Works
Best For
Round-robin
Distribute evenly across reps
Equal territories, similar deal sizes
Territory-based
Assign by geography, vertical, or segment
Regional teams, industry specialists
Account-based
Named accounts go to named reps
ABM motions, strategic accounts
Skill-based
Route by deal complexity, product line, or language
Diverse product lines, global teams
Routing Rules Essentials
Route to the most specific match first, then fall back to general
Include a fallback owner — unassigned leads go cold fast and waste pipeline
Round-robin should account for rep capacity and availability (PTO, quota attainment)
Log every routing decision for audit and optimization
Speed-to-Lead
Response time is the single biggest factor in lead conversion:
Contact within 5 minutes = 21x more likely to qualify (Lead Connect)
After 30 minutes, conversion drops by 10x
After 24 hours, the lead is effectively cold
Build routing rules that prioritize speed. Alert reps immediately. Escalate if SLA is missed.
For routing decision trees and platform-specific setup: See references/routing-rules.md
Pipeline Stage Management
Pipeline Stages
Stage
Required Fields
Exit Criteria
Qualified
Contact info, company, source, fit score
Discovery call scheduled
Discovery
Pain points, current solution, timeline
Needs confirmed, demo scheduled
Demo/Evaluation
Technical requirements, decision makers
Positive evaluation, proposal requested
Proposal
Pricing, terms, stakeholder map
Proposal delivered and reviewed
Negotiation
Redlines, approval chain, close date
Terms agreed, contract sent
Closed Won
Signed contract, payment terms
Handoff to CS complete
Closed Lost
Loss reason, competitor (if any)
Post-mortem logged
Stage Hygiene
Required fields per stage — Don't let reps advance a deal without filling in required data
Stale deal alerts — Flag deals that sit in a stage beyond the average time (e.g., 2x average days)
Document every exception. Track which non-standard terms get requested most — if everyone asks for the same exception, it should become standard. Review quarterly.
Data Hygiene & Enrichment
Dedup Strategy
Matching rules — Email domain + company name + phone as primary match keys
Merge priority — CRM record wins over marketing automation; most recent activity wins for fields
Scheduled dedup — Run weekly automated dedup with manual review for edge cases
Required Fields Enforcement
Enforce required fields at each lifecycle stage
Block stage advancement if fields are empty
Use progressive profiling — don't require everything upfront
Enrichment Tools
Tool
Strength
Clearbit
Real-time enrichment, good for tech companies
Apollo
Contact data + sequences, strong for prospecting
ZoomInfo
Enterprise-grade, largest B2B database
Quarterly Audit Checklist
Review and merge duplicates
Validate email deliverability on stale contacts
Archive contacts with no activity in 12+ months
Audit lifecycle stage distribution (look for bottlenecks)
Verify enrichment data accuracy on a sample set
RevOps Metrics Dashboard
Key Metrics
Metric
Formula / Definition
Benchmark
Lead-to-MQL rate
MQLs / Total leads
5-15%
MQL-to-SQL rate
SQLs / MQLs
30-50%
SQL-to-Opportunity
Opportunities / SQLs
50-70%
Pipeline velocity
(# deals x avg deal size x win rate) / avg sales cycle
Varies by ACV
CAC
Total sales + marketing spend / new customers
LTV:CAC > 3:1
LTV:CAC ratio
Customer lifetime value / CAC
3:1 to 5:1 healthy
Speed-to-lead
Time from form fill to first rep contact
< 5 minutes ideal
Win rate
Closed-won / total opportunities
20-30% (varies)
Dashboard Structure
Build three views:
Marketing view — Lead volume, MQL rate, source attribution, cost per MQL
