We want to make clear that seldom does one size fit all. Practices often vary. What works for one company may not always work for another.
Culture, size, market, and maturity all play a role in determining how sales ops functions within an organization.
Can RaaStr grow MY revenue?
RaaStr is asked daily if we can grow revenue in a given client situation. There are three categories of inquiries we see most often: expand existing revenue, validate our go-to-market plan, and help us get off the ground.
No matter where you plot on the spectrum, these five best practices can positively impact your sales operations – and your revenue growth.
#1 State your vision
Get crystal clear on why the team exists and what success will look like. Turn these into simple, repeatable statements so your organization’s specific sales operations mission, vision, and goals are easily understood. Often, teams document these elements that are then shared with other functions in the business. Doing so creates visibility around team scope and helps avoid confusion or project randomization.
You are going to want to measure team success by examining how closely they stick to these statements on a quarterly or yearly basis.
#2 Collaborate on core strategy formulation
Achieve tight alignment with other teams by holding weekly leadership syncs. Sales operations should work alongside sales leaders and sales enablement leaders to form goals based on experience, market understanding, and experience in the territory.
In our experience, leaders of high-performing sales operations teams are always ready to discuss progress on major initiatives and prioritize work. Openness like this builds trust and confidence quickly.
#3 Motivate your team
Recognize and share your team’s success. Sales operations has the ability to improve processes, automate non-core tasks, and administer CRM systems and other tools. When these functions are handled well, it transforms a salesforce’s ability to work efficiently. The impact on your bottom line can be dramatic.
Whether in quarterly shoutouts, or presenting achievements at all-company meetings, public recognition is a powerful motivator. The more you can support and motivate your team to deliver on high-priority initiatives, the more you can help your company succeed overall.
#4 Integrate with marketing
Embrace the opportunity to work closely with marketing. Besides helping you develop a better funnel structure, marketing can use the data-driven insights collected by sales operations and measure their lead effectiveness. Alignment also helps ensure the integrity of account data and lead management.
Failure to stay in sync can create problems with your technology stack. Integration, redundancy, and adoption can become a source of confusion at best and finger-pointing at worst.
#5 Nail key metrics and KPIs
Measure the success of sales operations with clear metrics. While specific numbers will vary from business to business, sales operations should focus on a few key elements to measure success. The biggest metrics for sales operations fall into two categories: performance and efficiency.
Examples of top performance metrics are sales quota achievement rate, win rate, deal size, pipeline value, and forecast accuracy. Efficiency metrics include items like length of sales cycle, lead response time, prospect meetings, and pipeline efficiency.
Ask for help
Sometimes a helping hand is what you need to bring your sales operations strategy to life. That’s where our capabilities can help. Whether consulting, project management, or technical staff augmentation, we can assemble the project team to help your sales operations team get more done faster.
Contact us today to learn more.
