Handoff

ConceptRevOps

The structured transfer of a prospect or customer between teams (e.g., SDR to AE, AE to CS). Poor handoffs are the top source of revenue leakage.

A Handoff is the structured transfer of ownership and context from one team to another in the revenue process. The most critical handoffs are:

  • Marketing to Sales (MQL → SDR)
  • SDR to AE (qualified meeting → opportunity)
  • Sales to CS (closed-won → onboarding)

Handoffs matter because they are the highest-risk points in the revenue lifecycle where information and context can be lost, damaging the customer experience and confidence.

The Three Critical Handoffs

  1. Marketing to Sales
  • Defines when a lead becomes sales-ready
  • Ensures SDRs get the right context
  • Requires fast, SLA-driven follow-up
  • Poor alignment leads to ignored leads or irrelevant outreach
  1. SDR to AE
  • Transfers discovery details, identified pain, and agreed next steps
  • Prevents AEs from restarting discovery and forcing prospects to repeat themselves
  1. Sales to CS
  • Captures what was promised, success criteria, and key stakeholders
  • Directly impacts onboarding quality and early churn

What a Good Handoff Includes

  • Clear ownership transfer with a specific date and person
  • Documented context (notes, recordings, key contacts)
  • Defined SLAs for response time after the handoff
  • A warm introduction instead of a cold reassignment

RevOps Application

RevOps is responsible for designing and operationalizing handoffs by:

  • Designing handoff processes
  • Building automation and CRM workflows that trigger handoffs
  • Defining SLAs for each handoff
  • Creating standardized handoff templates
  • Tracking metrics like time-to-first-contact and overall handoff quality

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