Inside Zoom’s new revenue operating system

Zoom is betting big on sales tech.

The communications platform announced the introduction of its AI-powered revenue operating system last month, which it says will bring together buyer and conversation intelligence and revenue forecasting. The operating system was made possible through Zoom’s acquisition of Common Room, an AI-native GTM intelligence platform, in July.

“Common Room really rounds out that context around the buyer by bringing [together] these buyer intelligence identity and signals, so together, we have the conversation,” said Linda Lian, CEO of Common Room and Zoom Revenue Accelerator. “We have all of the buyer engagement signals of what’s happening around the conversation, so we can turbocharge how go-to-market teams understand who their customer is, what these customers could be doing, what they’re saying, and how to drive action for their sales teams.”

Zoom’s goal with the revenue operating system is to fully understand its customer and reduce the amount of fragmented information, which can be counterproductive for sales teams.

Lian said the platform has already produced results. Zoom Revenue Accelerator customer Barracuda Networks saw a 15% increase in deals closed and 5% faster deal velocity, resulting in sales reps hitting 100%–140% of their quotas. She also explained that Okta recently expanded its contract with Common Room.

Natural progression: Given Zoom’s core competency of documenting and facilitating conversations, its increasing push into revenue tech is a natural move. The system offers a way to reduce the friction many sales organizations are dealing with.

“Revenue teams have spent years building these ridiculous Frankenstein tech stacks: One tool finds the prospect, another finds their email, another handles outreach, another records the call, another takes notes, another updates the CRM, and somehow you’re still copying and pasting things between all of them,” said Christina Lindley, founder and CEO of VPRG Consulting. “Zoom already owns one of the most valuable moments in that entire process: the actual conversation with the customer. Expanding outward from that into buyer intelligence, outreach, deal intelligence, and forecasting is a pretty logical move.”