Sales operations can be a powerful addition to your business, but what do you need and why? This blog post will give you the information and insight needed to make smart decisions about sales operations.
To know what is sales operations, one must know how to support and streamline the sales force, sales operations that provide processes, tactics, and communication tools. The unsung star of your sales process is most likely your sales operations (sales ops) team. Sales operations (also known as revenue operations) are frequently misunderstood by business management as a cost rather than a potential income generator.
Sales operations, on the other hand, help everyone execute their job better, according to businesses like Snowflake McAfee. In fact, according to our State of Sales survey, 89 percent of sales professionals believe sales operations are critical to the company's growth.
Sales operations are sales enablement, sales effectiveness, and sales productivity all bundled into one. Sales ops or sales operations managers take the reins of many aspects of a sales organization that need to be managed, such as:
Built for any size business, a focused approach to managing these essential components can help businesses drive growth and increase revenue. And with the average global sale price at around $100k per deal, the ROI on a solid sales operation program is well worth it. Let us go through each aspect one by one in detail.
1. Pipeline reporting and forecasting
With sales ops at the helm, teams can ensure that all data is getting into systems and being analyzed accurately. The main goal of knowing what is sales operations according to their Huffington post article is to “turn data into insights” which means insight-driven decision making can happen with ease.
Sales team members monitor forecasting trends for each rep, adjust forecasts as necessary to account for any anomalies (like an important deal starting or ending) ensuring accuracy.
2. Technology implementation and optimization
Sales ops manage the technology in use by the company, they work closely with marketing automation platforms like Eloqua for example, CRM platforms like Salesforce, and various other technologies used within a business. They build processes that maximize efficiency when it comes to using the technology.
For example, Sales Ops knows that there are certain fields that need to be completed in order to run a lead report. With this level of knowledge, they can work with sales reps so they understand the importance of each field within CRM systems.
3. Team management
Sales ops work with teams to ensure alignment amongst all team members including reps, managers, and leaders. They drive process improvement initiatives at the ground level by bridging gaps between departments, leading their teams through challenges, and championing best practices within the company.
4. Process improvement initiatives
The key role is knowing what is sales operations and what role it plays in turning data into insights that then inform better processes. Sales operations experts have extensive knowledge about how business operations work across different departments and how different teams work together. They use this knowledge to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of each step in the sales cycle, making sure that there are no roadblocks to deal flow.
5. Data analysis and insights generation
Sales Ops team members know what data is important, they also understand how different teams can benefit from having access to certain data as well as what processes should be put in place for those strategic departments like Sales, Marketing, and Product who need more information on a daily basis.
They put these processes around data gathering and gain deep knowledge on all aspects of the company’s business operations, including connections between departments and vital metrics for growth.
The benefits of building up a strong sales operations team are many, but here are four ways investing in Sales Operations can help your company grow.
1. Sales Operations Free Up Time and Energy
Sales ops take on the grunt work and allow sales teams to focus their time and energy on what matters: closing deals. If you're spending too much time doing your job instead of growing the business, it may be time to look into hiring some reinforcements.
When done right, it frees up time for reps to actually spend selling on the phone or closing deals with customers instead of prepping for them. But an effective team must be more than just order takers; they need to know how to get prospects moving along the buying cycle at their own pace while offering valuable guidance along the way. It's like having another leader within your organization who can push or pull when necessary.
2. Sales Operations Helps You Scale
As your company grows, the need for Sales Operation personnel will grow with it. And while you may not have considered bringing on the sales talent early in your growth phase, now is the time to make the investment.
With new markets to conquer and customers to serve, scaling is the name of the game today for B2B companies who want to stay relevant in their industry. Sales operations help you scale with better visibility into your pipeline, increased productivity across every department, and more opportunities for growth through an army of engaged employees working together toward common goals.
3. Sales Operations Creates Funnel
Visibility Across Departments Data can be a game-changer when it comes to driving company success, even if it's just the right data at the right time. And while there are many avenues through which businesses can obtain their numbers (CRM tools, sales automation systems), having available information on deck is just the beginning.
Sales ops create a centralized location with all the most important data in one place. This makes doing your job easier and also helps managers make more informed decisions with better information about how their employees are performing throughout the entire organization.
With these operations in sales, you can keep an eye on how your reps aren't hitting KPI targets or whether there is too much time between touchpoints to close deals in customer accounts.
It's another way Sales Operations brings transparency to everyone involved within your company while exposing issues before they become problems down the road. The pitfalls of having no visibility into your sales processes or pipeline? Teams making bad (sometimes costly) decisions based on faulty information; reps missing out on opportunities because they're not getting enough touches from inside the company; lack of accountability from team members.
4. Sales Operation Experts Communicate and Minimize Risks
In a market that never stands still, business leaders need all the support they can get when it comes to managing their sales teams effectively while minimizing risks along the way. Managers should be spending more time on strategy while Sales Operation experts take care of the details within their own lanes, leaving everyone involved free to focus on growing revenue.
A sales Operations team is responsible for the company's forecasting, pipeline management, product adoption strategies, and more. At its core, this team is expected to help align sales plans with marketing campaigns while also increasing the productivity of their teams in order to maximize revenue potential on every campaign. This includes getting deals over the finish line at all stages of development by making sure reps are hitting their targets and following up on opportunities in real-time according to predefined processes.
Sales Operations is the centralized hub for sales activity across your entire company, providing both sales and non-sales teams with dashboards, analytics, and insights to help them improve their workflows.
Achieving success starts with getting everyone on the same page through cross-functional collaboration at every step of the way. The reps let you do just that with real-time data on your pipeline so managers can provide daily feedback to reps while also seeing where issues are arising before they become problems down the road.
Your Operations of Sales team should be working directly alongside marketing and product management teams to increase your revenue by helping close deals faster than ever before via automated lead scoring and nurturing campaigns designed to get accounts over the finish line first—before your competition does.
Whether you're dealing with one rep or a team of hundreds, reps should be your go-to resource for maximizing performance across the entire organization to keep deals moving forward. This includes helping reps make smart decisions by providing data to back up why they made certain moves at each stage of the pipeline, as well as making sure everyone has their finger on the pulse of the market so they can pull resources and information whenever necessary.
The primary duty of Sales Enablement teams is to turn prospects into paying customers by providing valuable content at every stage in the sales cycle. This includes generating leads through data-driven prospecting, nurturing accounts with automated marketing campaigns, and even helping reps close deals faster via personalized outreach. What's more, is that they can also access valuable resources through your company's intranet/knowledge base such as product guides and training videos so they never get stuck when closing a deal.
While both Sales Operations and Sales Enablement strive to help their respective teams generate revenue faster than ever before, this doesn't mean they're one and the same. In short, Sales Enablement helps make reps successful by providing them with value-added resources they can use throughout the sales lifecycle. The former, on the other hand, is responsible for overseeing deal flow in real-time to maximize productivity and revenue potential across the entire company.
It's common for many marketers to think that their job ends once they push a new piece of content lives or launch an automated campaign. In truth, it should be just the opposite since these teams should be working together from beginning to end before, during, and after every engagement to ensure clients are receiving value from your products/services at all times.
For example, marketers could have certain campaigns set up to generate more high-quality leads for Sales Operations to reach out to via email and phone.
While also ensuring that they're redeeming certain offers (e.g., live webinars or free trial accounts) so their pipelines are always full of fresh opportunities waiting to be closed.
Problems occur when marketers aren't setting up campaigns correctly due to misaligned KPIs with the operations team of Sales. For instance, if Marketers know that 15% of leads generated through a particular campaign should be receiving free trial accounts, but it's only set up for 5%, then there will be issues. The same goes for inconsistencies in lead scoring and nurturing: without proper automation and optimization tools in place.
Reps won't have access to the resources they need to do their jobs more effectively. They can help remedy these issues by providing actionable insight on the discrepancies as well as creating a dedicated team to continually work with Marketing and Sales Enablement to make sure everything is in line moving forward. Other common headaches for this team include:
Start with your sales enablement team - why? Because if reps aren't receiving value from your marketing campaigns at all stages throughout the sales cycle, then it's only a matter of time before they start to drop off. If you already have this team in place, that's great! Now let them work with marketing to ensure campaigns are set up correctly and reps are receiving value through your intranet/knowledge base at all times.
The right move for startups is to hire a Senior Sales & Operations Manager with strong account management and prospecting skills. Someone who can create and implement monitoring systems in place for all leads across the entire sales cycle within your CRM platform (e.g., Salesforce).
You can always know where opportunities stand week over week—without having to wait until it's too late to take action. Having this visibility is key because it allows managers and executives to keep their finger on the pulse of every deal, while also providing valuable insight into what steps need to be taken next before deals get lost completely due to their lack of visibility.
Sales Ops can also help startups identify and eliminate bottlenecks in the sales process so reps are firing on all cylinders at all times—from selling to account management to upsell/cross-sell opportunities.
While it's important for startups to hire an excellent Senior Sales Operation Manager, it's also key that they're able to establish a team around them who understands how crucial Marketing Operations is in terms of helping close deals. For example, if you're looking for ways to optimize your marketing efforts or increase monthly recurring revenue (MRR) then having someone within the Sales team constantly working with the Marketing team will help drive success moving forward.
There are several different roles within the Sales team you can hire for, so it's important to have someone with strong managerial skills in place who is well-versed in various disciplines. Some of the key roles to consider hiring are:
Sales Operations Manager/Director - Manages all Sales Operations teams and reports directly to the VP of Sales
Field Sales Manager - Supervises field representatives responsible for working within specific verticals or regions
Solutions Sales Manager - Works closely with the Solutions Account Executives (AEs) to help maximize opportunities across assigned accounts
Product Marketing Manager - Responsible for liaising between Product Marketing and Sales through the development, deployment, and analysis of effective go-to-market he/she will also work closely with Sales Operations to keep the sales organization informed of new product launches and enhancements, as well as upcoming messaging for marketing campaigns.
Sales Ops is a crucial function that every startup should consider as they continue to scale. However, it's important that they establish Sales Operations within their organization sooner rather than later since sales and marketing teams tend to operate in silos and often leave revenue on the table as a result of not having proper checks and balances in place at all times.
