Here's how you can foster a culture of accountability and timeliness in sales operations.

To foster a culture of accountability and timeliness in sales operations, set clear expectations and measurable goals for your team. Implement regular check-ins and performance reviews to monitor progress. Utilize CRM tools to track activities and deadlines, ensuring transparency. Encourage ownership by recognizing and rewarding timely and responsible behavior. Promote open communication and provide support to address obstacles promptly. Lead by example, demonstrating commitment to deadlines and accountability.

Having a clear distribution of responsibilities and tasks is quite important to define the responsibilities across the team. For example, a group can focus on qualifications, the others on demos for sales-qualified leads, and the rest focus on the accounts that passed these filters. Each group must document their progress in a CRM where the other team members can check information and get updated asynchronously, else the collaboration might break and information gets lost in the cracks.

Have goals that are achievable in at least 70%, but set the expectations higher so your team can give their maximum effort and aim higher than the initial expectation. It helps to develop specific key performance indicators (KPIs) that measure the progress objectively, such as the number of calls, qualified clients or demos presented. This can ensure that the progress is being quantified, and if the performance is below expectation, it is easy to identify where the bottleneck is.

Making a horse "moo" is not an effective strategy - even if mooing worked for you, "back in your day". Yes, some KPIs are non-negotiable - like results - but leave room for differing approaches. Ex. Some reps thrive on volume, others are surgical. Don't aim for homogeneity in approach - only aim to drive results. Track: Total Activity, Emails, Calls, Meetings Booked, Conversion Rates, etc. Then, in coaching, review each rep's PERSONALIZED results and determine the inputs HE/SHE needs to achieve their target. Don't be so glued to input quotas that you hamstring your surgical reps - them spending hours on mass emails is a waste. Similarly, be honest with those reps who realistically need to EXCEED input quotas to achieve their target.

Some of my favorite KPIs are: - Number of qualified clients - Demo showcases done - Email open rate - Email response rate - Cold calls done - Deals closed per quarter - Clients contacted per fair - MRR secured I believe these are good for tracking different approaches and allow you and your team to have a clear metric. Do you notice any missing?

Having a daily stand-up or a weekly sales funnel review is important to understand what is working and where the team notice any blockers or barriers to closing deals. This also allows the team to adapt to possible trends and to ensure the quarter goals are achieved, rather than putting all the effort into a stiff campaign that won't go anywhere. Be honest and objective when sharing your opinions and progress, as this will allow everyone to give their support and expertise.

By nurturing a culture of open communication, you not only enhance accountability but also strengthen team cohesion and productivity. It's about creating a supportive environment where everyone feels valued and empowered to contribute towards shared goals.

3 KEYS to fostering accountability that sticks: Ease: You MUST make it easy for your team to do its job. This means putting significant investment (financial & time) into building systems that are sound and user-friendly - NOT band-aid solutions. Think CRM, PM, VoIP. Be willing to spend - it's worth it! Visibility: Reps need to SEE their performance in real-time. a) it keeps them on track, b) it's motivating, amid competition and shared accountability across the team. Be thoughtful about your CRM dashboards (what they see is what they'll focus on). Guidance: You need to UNDERSTAND their KPIs. When coaching, use THEIR data to show them the gap and how to fill it. With AI-powered CRMs, this can be automated / personalized in real-time.

Embed a culture of ownership and urgency. Foster an environment where sales operations team members take pride in their responsibilities and deadlines. Set clear expectations, define measurable goals and provide the necessary tools and training. Encourage open communication, recognize and reward timely achievements and address delays promptly. Lead by example, demonstrating a commitment to accountability and timeliness. By instilling a sense of personal responsibility and a relentless drive for results, you'll create a sales operations team that consistently delivers high-quality outcomes, drives sales growth and fuels business success.