Quick Answer
A RevOps consultant is fractional hours on the revenue system you already run. Week 1 is 8–12 hours if you want one operator, or 10–16 hours if you want a studio in the CRM and in n8n. A full-time hire is a seat at about 40 hours a week for a year. em8 is the studio: diagnostic $2,500–$6,000, first production path $8,000–$25,000, retainer $4,000–$12,000 a month. Those are the bands already on the pricing posts. Book a discovery call if you want the week-1 scope, not a definition.
What you are actually comparing
I'm Emil Hjorth. I run em8, a founder-led studio in Mora. People search RevOps consultant when the CRM is lying, the handoff to CS is a Slack thread, and someone rebuilds the Monday report from an export. They are shopping three products. Mixing them is how a quarter disappears.
This page is that shopping decision. The fractional shape is what an AI automation consultant actually is. The pipeline object model is CRM automation. If the runtime should live on infrastructure you control, that is n8n automation.
| Buy | Who shows up | Best when | Weak when |
|---|---|---|---|
| RevOps consultant | One senior operator, fractional hours | The bottleneck is who ships the next system | You need coverage, or a person in every forecast meeting |
| Full-time hire | An employee on payroll | About 40 hours a week, for a year, inside the CRM | You need a production path this month and do not have the seat yet |
| Studio (em8) | Founder-led studio, week 1 in your tools | CRM plus n8n, a scoped build, keys in your name | You wanted a glossary, or a bench for five parallel streams |
Week 1 is on your CRM and your n8n
Week 1 is not a kickoff deck. It is 10–16 hours, the studio band I already publish for this shape of work. We sit in the system of record and in the workflow runtime. Salesforce or HubSpot, whichever one your reps actually open. n8n, on your instance.
- Access. CRM, n8n, Slack, and the sheet that still holds the truth. Credentials in your name. If the keys can live in someone else's tenant, that is a vendor, and I will say so.
- Day 1–2. Shadow the job that eats the week. A stage nobody trusts. Enrichment pasted by hand. The handoff that dies in Slack. The Monday report rebuilt from an export. Pull 20 real records. Write the exceptions, not the happy path.
- Day 3–4. Map the trigger, the n8n path, the CRM writeback, and the failure at 3am. Kill the ideas that should stay a human decision. Self-host or cloud gets said out loud.
- Day 5. One or two builds. Hours. Stack. What we will not touch. You keep the plan if we stop there.
A fractional consultant doing this alone is the 8–12 hour diagnostic on the consultant page. Same job, less coverage. If you wanted that product, start there. If you wanted a studio inside the CRM this week, this is the week.
Discovery is 30 minutes, free, no pitch. Book it. Week 1 starts after the call says fit.
What it costs, next to a full-time seat
I am not going to invent a RevOps salary. We do not publish one. A full-time hire is a different product: a person in the seat about 40 hours a week, including the weeks the CRM is quiet. The other cost is time-to-seat. On the studio site I already call the AI-engineer version of that a 6-month hire cycle, for a role you are not sure you need full-time. Same shape here.
The cash bands below are the ones already on automation agency pricing and on the studio pages. A RevOps engagement uses them because the work is a CRM and n8n build. It is not a new rate card.
| Engagement | Published band | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Consultant, week 1 | 8–12 hours | One operator. Map, red flags, one or two builds scoped. You keep the plan. |
| Consultant, after that | 12–20 hour sprint, or 8 hours a week | Fractional. Senior hourly on the pricing guide is $175–$250. Not a disguised full-time seat. |
| Studio diagnostic | $2,500–$6,000 | 10–16 hours in your CRM and your n8n. Kill list. Scoped builds. |
| First production path | $8,000–$25,000 | Live workflows, docs, your keys. Most first projects we see land at $5,000–$15,000. |
| Studio retainer | $4,000–$12,000 / month | New flows, breakage, coverage. Still not a 40-hour employee. |
| Full-time seat | No salary published here | About 40 hours a week for a year, plus the months it takes to hire. Right when the CRM needs an owner in the building. |
Hourly without a cap is how a scope dies. I quote a fixed diagnostic and a fixed first path when the records support it. If the number you need is bigger than one production path, read the pricing guide before you ask a studio to pretend it is a department.
The proof is Case 01
I am not going to draw you a stack. The live write-up is Case 01.
An $18M B2B sales team. Salesforce, SalesLoft, and Claude, on their n8n. Cadence generator and proposal automation in production in 3 weeks. The rep opens the CRM, picks a prospect, clicks once. The cadence is in SalesLoft when they come back.
Read the caveat on that page before you repeat the headline number. 175 hours a week and $1M+ a year are a model: 7 reps, 10 prospects a day, 30 minutes each, $120 an hour fully loaded. It is rep time pointed at pipeline instead of prep. It is not payroll removed. Their team was smaller. The math on the page is the same shape. Speed and quality (60 seconds, 9.7/10) come from production logs on the client's n8n.
That is the studio product on a revenue system. Hours in. A workflow your team runs. You keep the keys. If a pitch cannot point at a case with the model written next to the number, you are buying a diagram.
When em8 is the wrong fit
Fit. Mid-market B2B that already has deals in a CRM. Services, SaaS, media, education, consulting. A founder, VP Sales, or RevOps lead who can grant CRM and n8n access this week. You want the system on your stack.
Wrong fit, hire the seat. The CRM needs a human in the forecast meeting, the admin queue, and the politics, about 40 hours a week for a year. I will not rent you that person.
Wrong fit, you are early. Pre-revenue. There is no pipeline to wire. A studio in week 1 would be automating a guess.
Wrong fit, you wanted a bench. Parallel workstreams, or you already know the load is about 40 hours a week for a year. A founder-led studio becomes the bottleneck. That is capacity. The pricing guide is the honest page for that buy.
Wrong fit, the ticket is already named. One workflow, one owner on your side. A freelancer is the cheaper honest buy. The consultant page splits operator, agency, and freelancer. Do not hire a studio to pretend it is a ticket shop.
Wrong fit, you wanted a glossary. If week 1 cannot start in the CRM, we should not start.
Frequently asked questions
What happens in week 1 on our CRM and n8n?
10–16 hours inside your CRM and your n8n. Access in your name, 20 real records, a map of the writeback and the error path, a kill list, and one or two builds scoped. You keep the plan if we stop there. The diagnostic sits in the published $2,500–$6,000 band.
What does a RevOps consultant cost versus a studio?
A fractional consultant is hours: 8–12 in week 1, a 12–20 hour sprint, or 8 hours a week. Senior hourly rates on the pricing guide run $175–$250. A studio diagnostic is $2,500–$6,000. A first production path is $8,000–$25,000. A studio retainer is $4,000–$12,000 a month. Most first projects we see land at $5,000–$15,000. Full tables live on the pricing guide.
When is a full-time RevOps hire the better buy?
When the CRM needs an owner about 40 hours a week for a year: the forecast meeting, the admin queue, the politics. That is a seat. A retainer is not that seat. I do not publish a RevOps salary, because I do not hire that role for you.
When is em8 the wrong fit?
Pre-revenue. A transformation deck. Parallel workstreams that already need about 40 hours a week for a year. A single named ticket with an owner on your side. I will say which one you are on the discovery call.
Where is the proof?
Case 01. An $18M B2B sales team. Salesforce, SalesLoft, and Claude on their n8n. Cadence and proposal automation in production in 3 weeks. The 175 hours a week and $1M+ figures on that page are a published model of rep time redirected, not payroll removed.
Come with the CRM job. Leave with a plan.
30 minutes. No pitch. Tell me the one revenue job your team still does by hand. I will say consultant, full-time seat, or studio out loud, and map one or two builds if it is a fit. You can book on the begin page.