Is the-future-of-sales-ops-as-successful-process-innovators
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Sales operations (sales ops) have evolved from traditional data aggregation roles to becoming crucial value creators and process innovators within organizations. These leaders are now proactively engaged in enhancing sales strategies, using data analytics and innovative tools to drive efficiency and effectiveness. As organizations prioritize strategic sales ops, the focus shifts from tactical tasks to meaningful actions that improve overall performance and outcomes.
Is the-future-of-sales-ops-as-successful-process-innovators
- 2. demandfarm.com Sales ops has emerged as one of the most significant game-changers of an organization. There ability to increase efficiency from within has lead organizations to take a change of route from going after new customers to growing revenue from within the limits of the current customers. Seeing the success of Sales ops, organizations today are placing triumphant executives to lead this role in their firms. But what are the characteristics of these enormous value creators today and what will it be when they turn into sales process innovators of the future? Lets have a close look at the given table. 2
- 4. demandfarm.com Sales operations have been around since the 1970s when Xerox first established a sales ops group. 4
- 5. demandfarm.com Decades ago, sales ops function was primarily created to crunch numbers. They would aggregate data and hand it over to their Sales Head. For example, Sales ops forecasted travel or asset expenses or observed how well sales were doing against projected estimates. 5
- 6. demandfarm.com Sales ops refer to the role & processes within a sales organization that assist, enable, and direct the sales or account management teams to sell better, proactively and more efficiently. Through the right training, software tools, and processes, sales ops leaders empower account & sales reps to focus more on selling in order to drive business growth. 6
- 7. !!!"#$#%&'()*+"%&' Sales Ops have changed from having a passive role to have an active role in most large enterprises around the globe.
- 9. Sales Ops has come a long way from data aggregators to value creators. Now, their increasing importance will transform them into Sales Process Innovators. demandfarm.com9
- 10. demandfarm.com These individuals will be the ones that proactively engage with account & sales managers and sellers to understand the deal status and recommend actions to increase deal values, accelerate opportunities through the sales cycle, or improve win rates. They maintain a tight focus on sales processes including resource optimization , development, analytics & reporting and majorly forecasting. 10
- 12. demandfarm.com The Visionaries and Innovators see ways to boost excellence delivered to the account that others often dont. Tell a sales ops innovator about a process capability and he will find a way to bend it with dynamic methods for increased effectiveness. The innovator is often an internal evangelist for the breakthrough change your sales ops can create for your organization and value you can co-create with clients. Process innovators synthesize information and can challenge the status-quo with new and improved way of operations. They are also instrumental in facilitating idea exchanges in collaboration with marketing and sales teams. 12
- 13. demandfarm.com Process innovators synthesize information and can challenge the status-quo with new and improved way of operations. They are also instrumental in facilitating idea exchanges in collaboration with marketing and sales teams. 13
- 14. !!!"#$#%&'()*+"%&' The best sales ops leaders will be the ones who arent afraid to draw different conclusions from the rest of the executive team.
- 15. demandfarm.com In a plan to increase productivity and performance, Sales ops will combine innovation with a high level of sales process maturity. This involves formal & dynamic processes, with measurement and accountability. The need for this is highlighted in CSO Insights work, which found that organizations with at least 75 percent CRM adoption, and either a formal or dynamic sales process in place, outperform organiza- tions with less mature processes by 14.9 percent in terms of win rates, and 19.3 percent in terms of quota attainment rates. 15
- 16. demandfarm.com Talented sales process innovators will walk into any role and audit the tools currently being utilized and assess better alternatives. They will examine every tool according to the data it generates, and how that data can be used to improve the sales process. The tools that will elevate the data and show what needs to be fixed, where ef- ficiencies can be improved, etc. will be chosen over tools that just spit out data. PROFILE 16
- 17. demandfarm.com Finding a tool that fosters collaboration will be of top priority. There will be a tool for groups and individuals to present and analyze data, record feedback, review metrics, qualitatively express the concerns theyre running into or the doubts theyre hearing from prospects. Whichever collaboration tool is used, will be available to everyone in the entire company to use. In addition to account managers, sales reps, marketing team and product managers should be able to sign in to gain visibility and offer their own suggestions or solutions. 17
- 18. demandfarm.com The procurement of tools, sales reporting, ad-hoc analysis, data governance, dashboarding, business intelligence and data management processes combine to keep sales ops on their toes. All of these functions & responsibilities leave the capacity to collect and analyze the data the organizations need to stay successful. Sales process innovators will produce more actionable & intuitive data for all levels of the organization with the use of data science & AI. It will help to expand the data sources beyond organizing data. It can automatically provide you with actionable data in real time if set correctly the first time. LOREM45% LOREM45% LOREM45% LOREM45% LOREM45% 18
- 19. !!!"#$#%&'()*+"%&' Are some of the questions they will be able to answer at a click of a button How long will it take to close a deal? What message will win over a specific customer? Which deals to prioritize? What changes will optimize performance within the organization? Which customers will churn?
- 20. demandfarm.com Sales Process innovators of the future will know the pipeline assembly from top-of-funnel to bottom-of-funnel. Where do leads enter? From what source? How many meaningful touchpoints get a certain lead source and mix to close? They will have Intelligent workstations optimized for efficient and effective handling. Maximizing return on effort with the fewest errors. Predictable outcomes will be easy with greater visibility. 20
- 21. demandfarm.com Moreover, process innovators will only measure important account conversations and actions. Value creators utilize all vanity metrics but process innovators will instead replace them with only those metrics that report movement out of the active pipeline. They will separate the active pipeline from the passive pipeline. Too many times the active pipeline seems stuck when actually it is a mix of both active and passive movement. Distinctive pipelines will increase the movement of the account managers that are going after these clients, bringing better visibility to the sales head and sales ops 21
- 22. demandfarm.com Account managers & sales reps are doers. If theyre not sending emails, making phone calls or getting in a meeting with clients face-to-face, theyre not at their best. It makes perfect sense that tactical sales operations appeal to them more than strategical. Instead of attending meet- ings for reviewing data and planning out the account, theyre out there in the thick of the action. 22
- 23. demandfarm.com But heres the problem with sales ops that prioritize tactical over strategic: actions are meaningless if theyre not the right actions. An account manager could spend all day making phone calls and get no closer to closing a single deal. Thats when the sales process innovators strategy comes in. Process innovators will make sure there time is not spent on too many tactical tasks and are able to keep real time to meet the higher needs of the organization According to a study conducted by the SMA, only 46% of firms agree that their sales ops people focus appropriately on strategy 23
- 24. The correct person to head sales operations in the future is someone who will regard both the analysis/design and the process innovation mindset. One who can envision the business and technological future, and who can operate with leaders across the organization, as well as with external partners, to allow ongoing Sales Ops success. As you might have guessed, we're positive on what the future holds for a sales ops leader. All the trend that gassed the initial emergence of sales ops continues to gain momentum. The SaaS gold rush proceeds to flourish, creating a surge of increasingly powerful, advanced and versatile data sources into major enterprises. Its long-proven, more dynamic technology adoption is starting to take place across organizations at large. Free trial Account Planner Free trial Org chart Request a demo KAM Suite