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The build-vs-buy math

Fix RevOps in-house, or hire a partner?

We sell RevOps engagements, so you'd expect this page to say “hire us.” Honestly? About a third of the firms that call us should hire in-house instead. We tell them that on the first call. Here's the math we walk through, so you can run it without us.

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If in-house is your answer, you leave with a job description. Not a proposal.

Drag the salary. We'll add the parts everyone forgets.

The posting says $145K. The real number is bigger, and the gap is where most build-vs-buy math goes wrong.

Price the in-house hire first

Base salary for a senior RevOps hire$145,000
Fully loaded compBenefits and payroll taxes, 28% on top of base$185,600
Recruiter fee20% of base, one-time. Good ops people don't apply to job posts.$29,000
The ramp quarterFirst 90 days produce close to nothing. You pay for them anyway.$46,400
Tools and adminData tools, enrichment, the stuff a builder needs$6,000
Real year-one cost$267,000

None of this is wasted money. Hire the right person at the right time and it's a good spend. The question is timing: do you need one specialist next year, or three skill sets this quarter?

The part the calculator can't show.

Cost is the easy comparison. These four are the ones that actually decide it.

Time to first real change
In-house hire60 to 90 days to hire. Then a quarter spent learning your business before touching anything structural. Call it month five.
Partner podThe Gap Analysis runs one to two weeks. The rebuild starts within 30 days of sign-off.
The skill-set problem
In-house hireStrategy, architecture, and hands-on build. That's three different jobs. Most postings ask for all three and get one.
Partner podThree people. A Practice Lead on strategy, a Client Partner who runs the cadence, a Technologist who builds.
When someone leaves
In-house hireMedian tenure in mid-market ops roles runs under two years. The knowledge walks out with them.
Partner podDocumentation is a deliverable, not a favor. At handover the system is yours, on paper, run by your team.
Accountability
In-house hireAn annual performance review.
Partner podExit gates at Day 90 and Day 180. If the engagement isn't producing, you stop paying.

When each one wins.

We turn down firms that should hire in-house. Keeps the work we do take on honest.

Hire in-house if

  • You're past $50M and need someone in the building every day
  • You already have a strong ops leader. What's missing is hands, not direction.
  • The system underneath is already fixed. What's left is running it.

Bring in a partner if

  • The forecast misses quarter after quarter and nobody can say exactly why
  • Three different ops leads bolted your stack together over five years
  • You need strategy, architecture, and build at the same time
  • The board needs the number to hold this year. Not after a ramp quarter.

The answer most firms land on: both, in sequence.

A partner rebuilds the system. Your future ops hire runs it.

We've watched the reverse play out plenty of times. A solo hire inherits five years of bolted-together stack, spends month one drowning in list-upload requests, and quits before anything structural gets fixed. The hire who inherits a working, documented system? That one sticks around.

Either way, the first step is the same: a paid Gap Analysis. One to two weeks, quoted on the first call. You get a number on what the misalignment is costing you in dollars. If the report tells you nothing new, keep it. We part fine.

Get the read before you post the job.

Bring your hiring plan to the call. Our Practice Lead has walked a hundred-plus firms through this exact decision. No pitch. If in-house wins, we'll help you write the job description.

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