The conversation about Revenue Hub from HubSpot thus far has largely centered around its features and functionality around quotes, subscriptions, forecasting, and commerce.
However, the greatest influence it could have may not lie with the sales organization at all.
It could lie within revenue operations.
As companies scale, revenue information is likely to be spread across many different systems: the CRM for sales, the invoicing system for finance, and the renewal management software for the customer success team. Integrations may help, but could result in silos of reality between these teams.
Revenue Hub would seem to work the other way, as it consolidates these revenue-related tasks into one single operational environment.
This will have applications beyond merely closing a sale.
Forecasting will be more accurate when integrated with actual revenue operations. Reporting is made easier as quotes, subscriptions, and customer data get centralized. Visibility across functional teams will be better achieved without the need for spreadsheets.
Technology, however, is not the only answer.
Companies that lack clear processes in terms of approvals, have inconsistencies in product data, or have fragmented workflows cannot hope that they will just disappear because of a new hub.
In other words, while the hub could assist in building efficient processes, it cannot change the fact that these processes need to exist and be in place for the software to work properly.
In this context, Revenue Hub seems to be less like a product and more like an opportunity to reconsider how the company is organized to manage revenue operations.
The businesses that get the most out of it may well be not the businesses using all its capabilities but those who use it as a means to organize their revenue lifecycle.
It would be intriguing to see how Revenue Hub evolves into another sales tool or something else entirely.