{"id":74095,"date":"2019-05-08T08:48:05","date_gmt":"2019-05-08T12:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.revvsales.com\/?p=74095"},"modified":"2021-11-26T13:26:18","modified_gmt":"2021-11-26T07:56:18","slug":"best-practices-sales-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revv.so\/blog\/sales\/best-practices-sales-operations\/","title":{"rendered":"Going from Good to Great with Sales Operations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If there ever was a golden age for the sales ops – it is now! The sales ops team are equipped to perform post mortems on sales performances and tell their leaders what went wrong, calculate the current trajectory of a deal and forecast better, combine historical data and current trends that their sales goals always reach. The sales team succeed because they are now armed with tools, data, and training they need at every step of the sales lifecycle. All this makes the sales ops team the \u201cunsung heroes\u201d of an organization whose best practices gets the organization winning. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the sales teams don\u2019t have it easy. Customer expectations are constantly changing and to compete, sales deals need to get creative, especially with enterprise sales. These challenges mean that it is important to have a robust sales operations (sales ops) team in place who can provide the necessary superpowers to your sales team to be productive and efficient.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Different functionalities and best practices of the sales ops team<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When you look at the sales ops function, you\u2019ll realize that their role usually cuts across two dimensions – strategy and tact. Their job requires them to possess knowledge of decision areas like designing the overall sales strategy, talent management, compensation management, integration of automation tools like CRM, lessening downtime in closing deals, etc. Companies rely on them for making the sales process seamless, forecast and report, train, map territories and even implement tech that would close deals faster. To achieve this, it is their tactical knowledge that provides the right means to gain the necessary objectives defined in the sales process while their best practices act as the \u2018secret ingredient\u2019 that makes the sales process decadent. <\/span>However, often sales ops is relegated to being a pure sales support role, that is they do everything that a salesperson does not, which is a gross misuse of the person in that role.<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to <\/span>CSO Insights\u2019 first annual Sales Operations <\/span>Optimization Study<\/span><\/a><\/span>, sales team expects that sales ops \u2018deliver key decision-making data to executives\u2019 which fits with their broad selling trends and help them create targeted deals and close said deals faster.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the broad areas where sales ops deliver significant impact are: <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Setting up the right pipeline management<\/li>
  2. Accurate revenue modeling and forecasting<\/li>
  3. Setting up processes to close deals faster<\/li>
  4. Recognizing customer success and retention strategies<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    \"RevvSales<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    In short, the sales operations team works with every aspect that touches sales. By definition, its primary involvement is supporting the sales function itself. Their mission is to align the sales processes with the goals and objectives of the sales team, ultimately increasing revenue and maximizing wins.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Setting up the right pipeline management<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cA sales pipeline encompasses every stage of your sales process. An opportunity moves from stage to stage of your pipeline based on concrete actions, which is usually represented visually in your CRM. Because sales processes differ from company to company (and even product to product), your sales pipeline should be unique and reflect the typical buyer\u2019s journey.\u201d<\/em><\/p>Hubspot<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    There is a significant positive downstream impact when the pipeline definition is given adequate thought. When structured correctly, the sales pipeline stages provide sales reps insights on the customer\u2019s current stage in their journey. This enables more accurate forecasting of when a deal will close as well as activities needed to move the prospect from one stage to the next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"B2B
    Credit: Gartner<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Considerations when defining pipeline stages:<\/p>\n\n\n\n