When it comes to the super stars of sales, it’s the reps on the front lines that tend to get all the glory. After all, they’re the ones in the trenches, working hard to close deals, make more sales and generate more revenue. What many fail to realize, however, is that behind every rockstar sales rep there is a sales ops professional working behind the scenes to make his or her life easier.
In fact, sales operations is sort of like the engine that drives the sales process, making it as efficient and effective as possible so that it can produce the best results. Let’s take a deeper dive into a few of the many ways sales ops can deliver exceptional value to your sales team (and your organization as a whole.)
Save Time
What could your sales reps accomplish if they had two, three, four or more extra hours to focus on lead nurturing and conversion? While sales ops obviously can’t add more hours to the day, what they can do is take measures to help the sales team optimize their time. For instance, vetting and implementing technology, such as automation, can take much of the busy work and administrative tasks off the plates of the sales reps, freeing them up to focus on revenue-generating activities.
Prioritize Leads
There is often a disconnect between the marketing team, who is working hard to create a pipeline of leads and sales, who find that many of those leads aren’t actually worth pursuing. A good deal of time and effort can be wasted chasing cold leads, which is where sales ops can help. By acting as a liaison between the two departments, sales ops can do the legwork to validate and prioritize the leads coming in so that when they reach sales, they’ve already been pre-qualified. That means more closed deals.
Facilitate Training
Whether it’s educating sales reps on how to use the latest CRM technology or working with other departments and/or third parties to arrange training, sales ops can bring tremendous value by making sure the sales team is always armed with knowledge. Working closely with reps, sales ops can identify areas of struggle and initiate the appropriate course of action to address the situation. All of this is done seamlessly and with the sales team’s best interest in mind.
Report on KPIs
Sales reps need to know how they are performing against their goals, as do their managers. But who has the time to dig through numbers to extract the data that’s needed? This is yet another key area where sales ops brings value to the table. By tracking and gathering pertinent data and generating reports that provide visibility and insight, sales reps can stay on top of their performance and leadership can quickly and efficiently identify areas where additional training or coaching might be warranted.
Compensation Assistance
Keeping track of commissions and payment structures can get complicated. But sales reps work hard and they want to be rewarded for their time and efforts. Part of the role of sales operations is to calculate commissions and manage the checks and balances that are in place to ensure that reps are meeting their goals and that when those objectives are met, they’re being properly (and promptly) compensated.
In conclusion, the sales team may be the ones center stage, but it’s the folks in sales ops that are working behind the curtains making sure the show goes off without a hitch.
Need help building out a super star team of sales operations professionals? Let us do the legwork for you! Contact us today to get started.