Learn how sales operations can increase your sales team’s efficiency and drive more revenue, faster.
By taking on administrative tasks, sales operations provide a solid foundation to allow the sales team to focus on the activities that drive revenue. It also allows sales managers to spend more time recruiting, training, and coaching teams. Sales operations teams can generate the data, forecast strategy, and manage the systems sales team need to be successful.
One overarching goal for sales operations teams is to improve the speed of the sales cycle to help teams close more deals and close them more quickly. The operations time functions in a continuous improvement mode to find incremental improvement at each stage of sales. When your sales operations team is functioning well, you will see benefits such as improving workflow and reducing friction, enabling automation to reduce manual tasks, and process optimization.
A seamless, high-performing sales organization excels in three key areas:
- Sales Strategy
- Sales Technology
- Sales Analytics
Each of these areas helps with process design and tactical support that are essential for sales teams.
Organizations that invest in resources for sales operations see significant results. A study by the Harvard Business Review found that companies boasting a sales ROI in the top 25% have a 30% higher level of sales support than other companies.
Sales Strategy
Sales strategy focuses on a high-level vision for sales organizations and the tactics to accomplish goals.
- Sales forecasting
- Technology and methodology
- Process optimization
- Sales territory planning and assignment
- Planning and goal setting
- Data analysis
- Sales incentives and compensation plans
- Planning go-to-market plans
Sales operations teams pay special attention to automating everything possible. Teams that automate significant parts of their sales process perform at significantly higher levels.
Sales Technology
Sales technology will vary by organization, company, and industry but typically use Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software and Software as a Service (SaaS) to manage the customer journey. SaaS can include marketing automation, measurement, and tracking.
Sales operations includes managing the tech stack, including:
- Adoption, customization, and management of CRM
- Sales engagement platforms
- Integration and implementation of sales apps and tools
- Communication management
- Customer lifecycle management
- Business intelligence
Operations also make sure there is alignment between sales and marketing to optimize outreach efforts for better lead generation.
One powerful tool that we recommend is HubSpot. Beyond a CRM, HubSpot also has a sales engagement platform to automate your outreach strategy and lead nurturing. It can also help you manage your total sales pipeline and automate tasks, such as scheduling meetings.
FounderScale is a HubSpot-certified B2B sales agency. We can help you implement, train, and optimize your HubSpot CRM, marketing, and reporting.
Sales Analytics
Sales analytics can take several different iterations but they typically measure process and performance.
- Measuring performance against Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
- Pipeline performance and lead management
- Forecasting accuracy
- Performance against budget
- Conversion rates at various levels of the customer journey
Depending on company goals, KPIs might include metrics such as:
- Quota achievement
- Win Rate
- Deal Size
- Pipeline Value
These metrics help to identify areas where additional process improvements or training is needed. For example, monitoring conversion rates of sales-qualified leads can help determine if changes need to be made to lead scoring. Monitoring lead response times can measure the efficiency of sales teams making contact.
When you have mapped the customer journey and know the appropriate actions that must be taken at each stage, your analytics can hold teams accountable and identify potential bottlenecks where deals stall.
Focus on Sales Operations in 2021
Sales operations is responsible for developing leads and nurturing them efficiently through the sales funnel. This takes careful measurement and monitoring of conversion rates at each stage and working to continually improve throughput. When the pandemic disrupted so much of the B2B selling process, these focused sales strategies forced many companies to move to remote selling and pivoting business models. They were unable to maintain their previous levels of sales operations. As a result, 40% of businesses failed to meet their revenue targets in 2020.
In 2021, it’s going to take a more focused effort on sales operations and sales enablement to drive revenue.
Improve Sales Operations with FounderScale
FounderScale helps founder-led B2B businesses increase sales by improving the sales operations process with a comprehensive approach to pipeline management. As a HubSpot solution partner, we help businesses maximize their ROI. As a sales-first B2B agency, we can reduce your burden, help you scale, and create a sales-engine that provides sustainable growth.
Contact FounderScale today and let us help you grow your business.
How to Increase B2B Sales Engagement by 667%
Engaging people on a human-to-human level to provide experiences and education is one of the few long-term sustainable lead generation methods that you can employ. Many other methods like contact and pitch may provide a certain level of results but the efficiency and cost are less than ideal. To maximize sales engagement platforms, you have a number of different options ranging from webinars to group lunch and learns which provide 667% higher engagement than cold outreach to set a meeting.
Read our new mini-book to learn real-world strategies to boost sales engagement by 667%.
