• Define company sales strategies to ensure profitability and contin- ued revenue growth.


• Report sales plans and results to management, making recommen- dations for future objectives.


• Design and implement company sales strategies, working to ensure profitability and continued rev- enue growth.


• Coordinate training delivery to sales, sales management, and sales support personnel in the sales organization supported.


• Provide input to senior leadership in the development and adminis- tration of sales incentive compen- sation programs.


• Work with accounting, finance, and human resources, providing assistance with sales incentive compensation administration on an as-needed basis – or when required to arbitrate or clarify the application of sales compensation program policies and procedures.


• Direct and support the consis- tent implementation of company initiatives.


• Build peer support and strong in- ternal-company relationships with other key management personnel. If you think you fit the bill, great. But


let’s take a look at how the position of sales operations manager evolved. Then maybe you’ll find it really might be a good fit for you.


GIVE ME A BREAK Some day, every VP of sales and sales manager in every industry in every company will have the time to wade through the mass of details and get to the big sales picture. Well, hello, Cinderella – and some- day your prince will come. The trouble is, someday never does come. “People in sales often say, ‘When things calm down, I’m going to take a look at all that,’” says a director of field operations for a giant software com- pany. “But they’re so busy with the on- going pressure of meeting quotas that they let the big-picture stuff drop.” Hence, the arrival of the sales


‘‘


The trick is, when there is nothing to do, do nothing. – WARREN BUFFETT


operation manager – an umbrella position for overseeing all the func- tions of sales management, includ- ing technology adoption, revenue growth, and process efficiency. The sales ops manager supports the VP of sales, handling all those things the VP planned to get to on that calm, stress- free, mythical day in the future. Sales ops managers have been


around for decades, but the position really exploded due to two factors: the increasing sophistication of tech- nology and the economy. A recent report by IDC showed that 1) more leads are needed now to close a deal, 2) 72 percent of companies have seen an increase in the buying cycle, and 3) the rise in sales costs is outpacing revenue growth. It’s no secret that sales departments


are under pressure to do more with less, and using technology effectively is a large part of how they hope to do this. But which technology? How will it be implemented and standardized, and how will the effects be measured? The sales ops manager spends 100


percent of his or her time focused on these big-picture issues. As compa- nies become more global and more technologically sophisticated, the sales ops manager will undoubtedly become an even more pivotal part of the picture.


HOW SALES OPERATIONS HAS EVOLVED “Twenty years ago, the VP of sales would look to sales ops primarily to crunch numbers,” says one expert. “Sales ops might, for example, have forecast travel expenses or monitored how well sales were doing versus projected estimates. But, from these humble beginnings, the role has evolved. Now the VP of sales looks to the sales ops manager not


just to give the numbers, but to help interpret research.”


“New companies, at first, are in


pure growth mode,” says the software manager, “and then they suddenly get to the point where sales is no longer just about the numbers. They realize they need to streamline their processes, put a CRM system in place, figure out a better way to pay people. There’s also a move toward central- izing functions. Whereas, at one time, HR might’ve handled certain issues and accounting might have handled others, growing companies get to the point at which there’s overlap be- tween what all these different depart- ments are doing. It becomes clear it would be more efficient to have one central team – sales operations – overseeing these functions and serv- ing as the glue to bind it all together.” He sees this centralization of func- tions as an important part of effi- ciency. “Everyone is concerned with driving revenue,” he says, “which often comes down to finding a way to improve productivity without hiring more salespeople. The question has become, how do we make the sales process more efficient without just adding more bodies? The second ma- jor problem is that the actual selling process has become more complex, requiring a wider spectrum of technol- ogy. We have different kinds of sales specialists all over the world trying to work together, and the process is harder to monitor.” It’s a double whammy: fewer sales- people in the field and those already- pressured few being overwhelmed by the technology and information- processing aspects of their jobs. Enter sales ops on a white horse to save the day. “Sales ops concentrates on all these behind-the-scenes things, like simplifying processes, setting


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