Part 1 of a 2-part series on how a new Sales Operations Leader navigates their first 12 months on the job. Learn the steps needed for success and also the tools to help along the way. Free job aids are available to download as well as a free copy of the ebook on the last slide.

1. 1
SALES OPERATIONS LEADER’S TOOLKIT
Success
in the
First Year
(Part 1 of 2)

2. You’ve just accepted the new role as
Head of Sales Operations
Now what??

3. 3
 Take the Helm
You’re in a new organization in a new sales environment and THINGS HAVE CHANGED.
 Q1: Plot Your Course
Make a thorough assessment of your environment
 Q2: Make Headway
Launch initiatives that provide immediate value to the organization
 Q3: Set the Data Anchor Project
Choose a more formidable project that will make a lasting impact on the sales organization
 Q4: Disengage Auto-Pilot and Drive
Adoption
 Year Two: Oceans of Opportunity Ahead

4. 4
What Should You Focus On?
• The specific responsibilities of
the Sales Ops Leader vary with
each organization.
• This table provides a generic list
of Priorities and Activities
• As you start, take time now to
understand which of these apply
to you
• Download this table of world-
class B2B sales operation
priorities and use it as a checklist
to track your activities

5. • Predictive analytics produce a new realm of leading indicators that
enable managers to be proactive.
1. Quantitative Decision Support
• Take a more direct control over compensation and the overall incentive
plan. Ensure it drives behaviors that achieve the objectives of the sales
organization.
2. Compensation Administration
• When onboarding new hires and enhancing the skills of tenured reps,
ensure the course content is focused on the ideal customer profiles and
mapped to the buying process.
3. Sales Enablement

6. BEWARE OF THE VALLEY OF DEATH!
• The orange line represents the contribution of a sales operations leader who is learning the new
role.
• From the Start Date, the new leader consumes more in compensation than they generate in value
to the organization.
• Unfortunately, this is the normal trajectory for most new Sales Operations Leaders.

7. IT DOESN’T HAVE TO
BE THIS WAY

8. 8
It can be managed...
 Arrive with a plan and an approach.
 Set expectations with stakeholders
 Deliver value from day 1.
 Don’t simply react to the situation and crises at hand, ATTACK IT!
The results are less time and depth in the valley.
Your contribution to the organization comes much sooner than expected!

9. 9
Step #1 – Perform a Content Audit
EXAMPLE
• Key Points
1. Specific content types can serve across
2. Content types can be tailored to a need at the specific stage in the
buying process
Make
decisions
Q1: PLOT YOUR
COURSE

10. 10
Scan the Horizon
Common conditions to
look for:
 Low Selling Time
 Misaligned Processes
 Parallel Reporting
Systems
 Excessive Customer
Churn
 Missing the Number
Understand the key factors impacting your business.
Does the CRM data meet the needs of the business?
What is working? What is broken?

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Here’s what to look for in
your initial assessment:
1. Sales Performance Management (SPM)
Reporting
2. Pipeline Management
3. Forecast
4. Structure and Roles

12. 12
Use an Assessment Tool
Use the SBI Best Practices Assessment Tool to score these
key areas of your business.
Click here to download your copy

13. 13
Conduct Discovery Using Multiple Methods
Interviews
Expert Panel
Surveys
Documentation Review
Metrics and Reporting Review

14. 14
Generate Findings
Use a “bubble diagram” to identify the areas of opportunity
in terms of cost to implement, ROI and likelihood of success
For example, “Actionable Data” in the
lower right quadrant will require a
high degree of effort, has a low
probability of success and a small ROI.
This analysis quickly shows that it is
the weakest of all potential projects.

15. 15
• Once you select a project, manage and communicate your plan
with a schedule.
• An executive version of your plan should be simple and provide
a high level overview.
• Use it to set expectations for the overall project timeframe.
Here’s an example of an executive-level schedule:

16. 16
Each of the individual
projects should be
managed by a detailed
project plan.
Download this project
plan template by
clicking on this link.

17. 17
Q2: MAKING
HEADWAY

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GAIN STEAM WITH QUICK WINS
Your goal should be to launch 2-3 rapid improvements that make
impact on the key areas of reporting, data integrity, or sales
process.
Four Quick Win ideas:
1. Drowning in Data – Stop collecting useless data
2. Shift & Lift – Focus on early stages of opportunities
3. Win/Loss Analysis – Understand what works and what doesn’t
4. Baseline Selling Time – An essential metric for sales
productivity

19. 19
• Analyze the data that sales leaders use to make
decision. Create a flow diagram that shows the
data sources and linkages.
Step 1: Map the Decision-
Making Process
• Find out who decides when , why, and most
importantly, what data they need to make that
decision.
Step 2: Inventory Key
Decisions
• Compare the data from your inventory to the
decisions that need to be made. You will discover
a lot of data is collected but not used.
Step 3: Stop Reporting on
‘Nice to Have’ Data
• To ensure efforts do not become a one-time
improvement, set up an audit of data collection,
reporting, and usage.
Step 4: Institute a Periodic
Sales Data Audit

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Sales managers spend the majority of their time working in the
wrong stages of the sales process. They often focus on deals too
late and ones that are ready to close.
The most common reasons
for the wrong focus:
1. Managers are unaware of early
stage deals
2. Some managers are super-reps
who think they should always be
closing
3. Show me the money
4. Empty toolkit
5. Get the leads out

21. 21
There are negative consequences for
devoting so much time in the late stages:
1. No Inflow: Without guidance, reps fail to qualify leads correctly so the
early stages yield little.
2. Next Rep, Please: The unskilled sales rep often fails to move the
prospect through the early stages. The manager’s focused on late-stage
deals and isn’t there to provide feedback. The rep develops bad habits
and fails.
3. Stormy Forecast: Just when a deal is about to close, the prospect
suddenly reverts to an activity that should’ve already happened. Reps
tend to skip activities in a rush to move the opportunity forward. The
deal is suddenly delayed.

22. 22
How do sales operations leaders provide the manager with the
visibility they need on the true state of early stages?
1. Ask the Rep: Provide the sales
managers with a report that can help
them during weekly coaching
sessions
2. Plan for Success: Sales managers
need a tool to coach reps to stay in
sync with the customer’s needs,
timeline, buying criteria, and
decision making process.
3. Sharpen your Tools: Make sure Reps
have Job Aids
4. Exit Ahead: Clearly defined exit
criteria are essential

23. 23
Quick Win #3 – Win/Loss Analysis
This Quick Win can deliver immediate results that will
improve your Sales Team Win Rate.
Click here to download your copy

24. 24
Quick Win #4 – Baseline Selling Time

25. 25
This means the idea of
“customer-facing” time is no
longer an adequate measure of
selling time, since the
customers need less of it.
The 3 fundamental components of selling time are:
1. Time spent in preparation for prospect-facing
discussions (research & intelligence gathering)
2. Time spent in discussions with qualified
prospects
3. Time spent in coaching sessions to plan the
activities described in 1 & 2
On average, customers are 60% through the buying
process before ever requiring a rep’s involvement.

26. 26
The first step is to measure the actual selling time of your
organization.
There are 3 important things to consider:
1. Keep the measuring process as simple
as possible.
2. Make sure the sales people
understand the purpose of the metric
is to gauge the effectiveness of efforts
that will give time back to them.
3. Make sure the method is repeatable

27. 27
1. Face to Face Customer Meetings
2. Proposal Preparation
3. Prospecting, Cold Calling
4. Pre-call Preparation
5. Post-call Follow-up
6. Account Specific Research
7. Demonstration Preparation & Delivery
8. Account Planning
9. Opportunity Specific
Emails/Communications
10. (Add others that are relevant to your
sales process)

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1. Time Survey: Download the sales rep time tracker template here and
enter the categories that represent the majority of the sales team’s time.
Decide Which Time Method to Use:
2. Direct Observation: Spend time in the field with your sales reps for a full day
and record where they spend time.
3. Stop Watch: Ask each rep to record their activities in 30 minute intervals.
Have each participant do this for at least two weeks.

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• After you establish a baseline, begin to use it in your ROI calculations for sales
force effectiveness projects.
• Calculate the value of each selling hour by dividing the weekly sales quota by the
number of available selling hours.
The Financial Impact of Sales Productivity
Example – calculate the value of reducing an admin task from 1 hr to 30 mins
each week for 100 sales reps with $1MM annual quotas:
An automated expense reporting solution that costs $240K seems expensive until
you discover it pays for itself in just 10 weeks!!

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Take a Breath…
You’ve made it through
Q1 & Q2.
By now, you should have:
• Improved your understanding of your
organization
• Implemented 2 or 3 quick wins
• Gained experience in successful small projects
• Narrowed your choices for a Data Anchor
Project
In Part 2, you will learn:
• How to set your Data Anchor Project in Q3
• How to disengage auto-pilot and begin driving adoption in Q4.

31. 31
Learn More
If you don’t have a content management process or need help
optimizing your current one,
Contact us to hear the rest of the story...
Email - info@salesbenchmarkindex.com
Phone - 1-888-556-7338
Web: http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com
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