"Chief revenue officer," "vice-president of revenue operations," "director of revenue ops..." Within the past couple of years, the number of business roles or titles containing "revenue" has shot up on LinkedIn. What's going on?

Revenue operations, AKA revenue ops and rev ops (RevOps), "the strategic convergence of sales, marketing, and customer success to drive full funnel accountability across the revenue engine," according to revenue operations platformClari.

That entails aligning and optimizing organizational units, technology, and operational efficiencies: teams, data and technology, and processes.

Why is that more important than ever?

Today, your customers can, and do, conduct in-depth research before ever reaching out to you. They are no longer dependent on vendors for information. Moreover, new models of product or service delivery (think Cloud, and subscription-based models) mean ongoing "selling," education, and service, even after the sale, because the funnel is no longer linear, with a clear beginning and end.

Aninfographic by Clarioutlines the case for revenue ops, including what it is, why it's important, what its benefits are, what key metrics to keep an eye on, and more. Check it out: