Sales Operations

Sales Operations

Sales Operations Jonathan Poland

Sales operations is the management of the processes and practices that support the sales function of an organization. It involves coordinating and overseeing the various activities and tasks that are necessary to ensure that the sales team operates efficiently and effectively. Sales operations is often managed by a separate team from the sales team, with the sales team focused on closing sales and managing relationships with customers, and the sales operations team focused on managing the day-to-day processes and systems that support the sales team. By effectively managing sales operations, organizations can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their sales team, and increase their chances of achieving their sales goals.

Lead Qualification: Evaluating and rating the quality of leads.

Sales Pipeline: Developing and managing a sales pipeline to meet sales targets in upcoming quarters. A sales pipeline represents deals at different stages such as leads, opportunities, proposals and customers.

Proposals: Support proposal development such as RFP responses.

Training: Training processes for sales teams such as new product training.

Knowledge: Developing knowledge sources such as sales manuals.

Sales Collaterals: Developing sales collaterals such as white papers and presentation materials.

Data: Managing sales pipeline, contact and customer data.

Tools: Acquiring, managing and configuring sales technologies and tools such as a sales force automation platform.

Metrics: Measuring the performance of the sales team.

Integrated Planning: Liaison with teams such as marketing and operations to support processes such as S&OP.

Forecasting: Developing sales forecasts.

Targets: Managing sales goals, targets, quotas and campaigns.

Deal Approval: A process for management and legal to review deal margins and terms.

Compensation: Administering sales performance management programs, sales incentives and commissions.

Compliance: Manage sales compliance policy, enforcement and reporting.

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