Building a successful sales operations team is key to a promising future in any business. But this is easier said than done. At the same time, it may take some work but it’s not impossible and is definitely worth it in the end. While sales operations will look different for every company, there are some universal easy steps that you can take to build a successful sales operation:
Table of Contents
Solidify the Foundation of the Team
The first thing that you need to do when building a successful sales operation is to solidify the foundation of the team.
- Assemble your team: You are only as good as your team, so you will need to assemble a strong team with project management backgrounds and collaborative natures. It’s generally a good idea to have people from different backgrounds so that they can balance each other out when it comes to different skill sets since sales operations can be pretty far-reaching. Here are some different roles that you might want to fill: sales operations representative, sales operations analyst, sales operations management, and director of sales operations.
- Create your mission and vision: Once you have your team it’s time to sit down and figure out what exactly the sales operations team is trying to do. This is where collaboration will be key in order to come up with a strong and clear mission and vision for the team to follow.
Work on Organization
The next thing that you need to do in order to build a successful sales operation is to spend time on the organization of the department. There should be no questions around who is supposed to do what. Everyone needs to be clear about their roles and the roles of others. Some of the key things that you need to delineate during this phase include:
- Hiring
- Territories
- Compensation
- Communications
Create a Strategy and a Process
Once you are all organized, you need to come up with an overall sales strategy and create a process to how that strategy will be implemented. Your strategy should align with the vision of the company and current market trends in order to be successful. It’s also important to create a strategy that meshes well with future growth in the company. Some key elements in creating a sales strategy include:
- Assessment of the go-to-market model
- Evaluation of sales methodologies
- Analysis of sales metrics
- Forecasting numbers
Integrate Technology
Another key aspect of creating a successful sales operation is to embrace technology in your team. Initially, a lot of the responsibilities of sales operations seem impossible to do on your own. But with the help of technology, you are able to get the information you need more accurately and efficiently.
A big part of sales operations is understanding and analyzing data. Utilizing specific programs can help you collect, analyze, and make sense of all of your sales numbers. That way, it can sort through all of the information you don’t need and help you understand the information that you do need.
Adjust when Needed
The last aspect of implanting a successful sales operation is to not be afraid to adjust your practices when you need to. It’s important to keep communication open entire team and take any of their concerns and feedback into account to create a seamless department. Furthermore, you need to be able to take the data that you are receiving and use it to figure out what’s working, what’s not, and then adjust accordingly. However, it’s important to stay patient and avoid being overly reactionary and leave enough time for things to start working before changing course.
