A sales operations manager is what you need to render your sales team more effective and productive in their roles. If you are someone who revels in the process of refining and implementing the sales system, you would want to take up a role as a sales operations manager. However, to finally stop hemming and hawing about considering anything and to arrive at a decision, you need to know more about it.
So, here is a brief guide that covers everything about the role of a sales operation manager you will need to know. Read on!
Who is a sales operation manager?
Sales operations’ goal is to minimize friction in the sales process and to enable high success in the regular activities that salespeople undertake. In addition to sales processes administration, these managers are often accountable for superintending a team of sales operations experts.
As a sales company starts scaling to facilitate a thriving organization, sales operations become a crucial function. As the customers and revenue rise, the team has to backtrack more KPIs and handle complexities when selling.
Often Sales Operations managers are constantly and simultaneously on multiple projects that entail shareholders across the business, like finance teams, HR, strategic teams, etc. Each team comes with its priorities. And the priority of Sales Ops Managers is that they need to juggle all of these diverse interests and negotiate among several teams.
So, sales managers administer sales processes to enable organizational growth and success.
What does a sales operation manager do?
A sales operation manager hogs various skills to accomplish the job fruitfully. For instance, they are deft in program management, project management, organizational skills, program management, business acumen, pipeline management, people management experience, analytics and reporting expertise, and more. Now, let’s discuss the key responsibilities that a sales operation manager has to dispense.
1. Supervise the sales funnel:
A sales operations manager’s primary responsibility is to ensure that contacts smoothly glide through the company’s sales funnel. A professional has to track conversion rates through every stage of the funnel and scrutinize relevant data to develop sound suggestions for enhancing the funnel performance.
Furthermore, when regulating the sales funnel, the Sales Ops manager has to be privy to any touchpoints that could affect sales velocity and offer and execute improvement solutions.
2. Manage CRM data:
When it comes to the sales stack, the CRM system is one of the most widely used and critical tools. Nonetheless, if your system is not optimized for your sales team, you can’t expect to reap the most advantages even with a robust CRM. To make a difference, you will need a Sales Ops manager who can regulate contact lists, audit data for constancy, manage data and custom fields, ensure that CRM is always updated, and establish automation.
3. Execute sales forecasting:
Although your sales reps might be sharp-focused on satisfying their objectives, it is significant that every team member grasps the broader goals they are striving towards. A Sales Ops manager can manage data analysis and forecasting to deliver worthy insights into the team’s performance and all that is required to ensure consistent growth of the business. Additionally, the sales operations manager can regularly transmit this information to the stakeholders and team to maintain the alignment on KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).
4. Simplifying & optimizing the sales process:
A deft sales operations manager can identify the areas of your team’s sales process that could be costing you worthy deals. Furthermore, besides pinpointing these areas of possibilities and opportunities, a Sales Ops manager can present and offer solutions to maintain the sales process in its prime. Thus, a Sales Ops Manager supports enhancing the efficiency of the sales process and introducing needed improvements in it.
5. Choose, implement, & manage sales automation tools:
A Sales Ops manager can ascertain that the sales team has the tools needed to invite success and thrive by assessing the capability and usage of your current tools. In addition, a sales operation manager can trace and manage the execution of sales automation systems, which your team requires in the future.
6. Develop organizational goals with sales leadership:
Sales Ops managers can deliver data-driven input on prospective organizational goals by working with their sales leaders. Furthermore, the manager also analyzes pertinent data that apprizes future sales targets and compensation decisions.
7. Spearhead sales operations professional team:
Sales operations sector often poses large undertakings, which depend on the complexity and size of the organization. Thus, a team of sales operations is highly needed for huge enterprises. In such a scenario, a Sales Ops manager’s responsibility would be to oversee the team, their activities, and responsibilities.
Read More: The Team Sport Approach: 3 Keys to Fostering Sales and Marketing Alignment for Revenue Growth
So, in a nutshell,
When running a booming sales operation and facilitating the sales team to perform its best, sales operations managers are indispensable. This role may be your calling if you have project management experience, enjoy streamlining work procedures, and are highly organized.