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Sales Operations: The J.A.R.V.I.S to Your Iron Man

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Everyone knows who Iron Man is, and for those who don’t—please come out from whatever cave you’ve been hiding in. While Iron Man is a superhero in all his right, he would be flying blind most of the time had it not been for his trusty AI, J.A.R.V.I.S, that gives him the much needed edge to fight the bad guys. 

That’s exactly what Sales Operations does for a company. It provides the sales team with the edginess, strategy, and tactical advantage they need when they deploy their salespeople into the battleground. This blog post talks about the unsung heroes and how their work allows for salespeople to be the best superheroes that they can to be. 

Sales Operations is a team that takes care of all the functionality and activities a sales organization needs to be successful. This includes everything from lead management to data analytics to training. They work behind the scenes to ensure the sales team has all the resources and insights needed to win. 

It’s easy to confuse Sales Operations with Sales Enablement, because they both deal with the same objective: Sales Productivity. 

But there’s a fine line between the two – the Sales Operations team makes decisions, while the Sales Enablement team executes them. The two teams should have a clear division of labor so that everyone knows their roles and responsibilities. 

The Top 9 Functions of Sales Operations

  1. Lead Organization and Management is a crucial part of Sales Operations. They work alongside the marketing team to create lead generation programs, nurture campaigns, and organize leads in a customer database. This allows sales reps to prioritize leads and provide each one the undivided attention they deserve. 
  2. CRM System Management is another essential function. Sales Operations can customize fields and data, manage contact lists, and make sure the CRM data is up-to-date. This frees up valuable time for salespeople so they can focus on what they do best: Closing deals. 
  3. Establishing Scalable Sales Processes. To create scalable sales efforts, Sales Operations can provide hands-on help to set up the overall sales strategy for the company and make sure everyone knows their role and responsibilities. 
  4. Data Analytics and Management The Sales Operations team reviews available data and creates viable data sets. These data sets can then be used in a multitude of different ways to pinpoint areas of improvement in the sales process, campaigns or products. 
  5. Territory Structuring and Management is a central task for sales teams that divide their work this way. The Sales Operations team continuously optimizes territory structure, guaranteeing effective allocation and usage of resources at hand.
  6. Compensation and Performance Management can involve Sales Operations in a lot of ways. They can manage and set incentives for sales personnel and establish processes that recognize or remediate good and bad performance. The team might also supervise, conduct, or coach managers on periodic sales performance reviews.
  7. Sales Automation can relieve sales teams of burdensome manual tasks, and Sales Operations can research, recommend, and implement automation solutions.
  8. Assistance for Sales Training. While Sales Enablement might deliver training, Sales Ops helps by setting up the internal Learning Management System and coming up with onboarding processes that will teach new employees how to use the blend of sales strategy and tech sales stack to their advantage.
  9. Reporting allows sales teams to get a clear view of successes and areas for improvement. Sales Ops can help by producing reports on revenue team activities to help managers make decisions and changes.

Roles and Responsibilities of a Sales Operations Team

Each company defines its Sales Ops function and roles uniquely to fit their needs and perspectives. Here are a few basic roles that every company needs to fill in a Sales Ops group.

Roles Job Description and Responsibilities
Sales Operations RepresentativesThis is an entry-level position
where the rep has about 0-2 years of
experience. They need to possess
a keen eye for details, excellent
communication skills, technical
aptitude, and the ability to
understand marketing and sales
automation tools.
Sales Operations AnalystThis position requires the reps
to have worked for at least 3 years
in sales operations. They should be
able to liaise across multiple
departments such as marketing, sales,
IT, data analytics, engineering etc. They
should be proactive and have exceptional
problem-solving skills. Advanced
knowledge of data mining, data analysis,
automation tools, and Excel is also a
major plus.
Senior Sales Operations Analyst This position requires about 4+ years
of experience. They should be
well-versed in CRM management,
business intelligence modeling, Excel etc.
They require impeccable communication
skills to interact with sales executives.
Sales Operations ManagerThis position requires an individual
who has about 5 years or more
experience working in a Sales Ops team.
They typically manage and lead the
Sales Ops team. They need to possess
troubleshooting skills, ability to coalesce
different points of view, and put together
comprehensive reports to present to
the senior management. They should
have a deep understanding of
data modeling, data analytics, sales
behavior what drives sales, and
how sales processes work.
VP of Sales Operations Typically the individual who’s at the
helm of a Sales team has more than
10 years of experience. They are usually
the ones who closely work with the
senior leadership in the company. They
should typically have an MBA and should
have held multiple senior roles in
their career. They should understand
the overall process of a Sales Ops team
and provide key insights on how to
create and maintain an efficient
Sales Ops team. 

Measurement of Sales Ops Success: Metrics and KPIs 

Broadly classified, Sales Ops success is measured on the following 2 metrics: 

  1. Performance Metrics. Deal size, Pipeline value, Forecast Accuracy, Sales Target Achievement Rate and Closures Won. 
  2. Efficiency Metrics. Lead Response Time, Sales Cycle Length, Selling Time Cycle, Efficiency of the Pipeline and Prospect Meetings. 

You’re Never Too Late to the Party

Sales Ops is pertinent to any company looking to create a sustainable and scalable business. It’s never too late to add this team to your company.

The 6sense Team

6sense helps B2B organizations achieve predictable revenue growth by putting the power of AI, big data, and machine learning behind every member of the revenue team.

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