"Dear Overhead Cost"

TL;DR This article covers my view on what Sales Operations really is about and why it is so hard to define. All opinions are my own.

Chapter 1: “Dear overhead cost”. I will always remember the start of that email I received from my customer facing peer during my first year in Sales Operations. My immediate reaction was to be insulted - how dared he address me like this given how much I worked and “did for sales”?

As an insecure overachiever, doubt quickly snuck up on me - just the fact that I still remember that specific email more than six years later shows the effect it had on me. Was I just another overhead cost for the company? What value did I actually add?

Today, I am very thankful for the email. It kicked-off my quest to better understand what Sales Ops is - and why so many businesses decide to invest in this function. Also, I owe it to myself to better explain what this job is about (my family still believes I fake being busy and potentially am a secret agent).

Was I just another overhead cost for the company? What value did I actually add?

So here it is - the elevator pitch you were looking for

"Sales Operations is responsible for everything from developing the sales strategy to improving daily operations - this can include, but is not limited to - business planning, sales process optimization, sales automation, training, data analytics and reporting. 

Sales Operations reduces the friction so that sales can be more productive and successful. This department handles anything and everything that helps sales to support and accelerate the business growth."

Yes, so either you just had a very long elevator ride or you spoke very fast...

Why is Sales Ops so hard to explain?

The first and most important reason is because the scope of the role is very dependent on two dimensions - the maturity of the organization and the degree of topic specialization. This sometimes makes it hard to understand how much or how little is covered by the function.

The maturity of the organization

The maturity of the organization will dictate how much time you will spend on strategy and how much time you will spend on operations. Don’t get me wrong - you are expected to manage both no matter how mature/immature the organization is (Hint! If you aren’t into operations and prefer to only strategize, Sales Ops is not for you!).

"The role is very dependent on two dimensions - the maturity of the organization and the degree of topic specialization."

The start-up (the 70/30)

If you are in a hyper growth environment - which most commonly would be the case in a start-up - your daily work as a Sales Ops lead will to a large extent be focused on operations. It is likely that you spend up to 70% of your time on more operational topics.

Questions that might keep you busy:

• How do we get sales to use the CRM (at all/in the optimal way)?
• How do we launch and enable sales on our new sales process?
• How do we ensure we have a regular and well-working business review cadence?
• How do we secure good data for our analysis/reporting?

The stable growth machine (30/70)

If you are in a stable growth environment, the likelihood of spending more time on the longer term strategy is high. Leadership will be concerned with how to keep/accelerate current growth levels and how to confirm the current market position against competitors for the next coming years.

Questions that might keep you busy:

• How does the 3-5 year plan look for the business?
• What is our TAM and what activities do we need to drive over time to keep/grow it?
• How can we improve our go-to-market strategy and stay relevant for our customers?
• How do we need to think about hiring & talent development to meet the future requirements of the market/business?

The degree of specialization

Taking it back to local vs central, the rule of thumb is that the closer you work to sales, the broader your scope and the more topics you will manage on a daily basis. On the other hand, the closer you work to central/global, the more specialized your scope will be. 

This is of course hugely dependent on the size of the organization and the market footprint since that’s directly related to the overall size of the Sales Ops organization.

The Local Sales Ops

Most likely you will work very closely with the country/regional sales leadership and even have a dedicated business partner in the country/regional lead. You will on a daily basis battle the fact that sales stands at your desk with their questions, asks and complaints - since you are the face for everything. Although you manage multiple priorities on a daily basis, you are regarded as a topic matter expert on everything - since there is no one else to ask!

You are the spider in the net and the person your business partner will call first when a problem comes up and he/she needs a sounding board.

The Central Sales Ops

You do most likely sit in a central hub with one degree of separation from sales. You don’t have a business partner, but you live to make the local Sales Ops leads life better. You will most likely focus on a more specialized topic (e.g. Headcount & Org, Sales Excellence, Business performance, GTM strategy), but cover a larger geographical scope.

You are ultimately responsible for making sure the country Sales Ops receive all the necessary information and support to drive the right conversations on a local level - and still remain aligned with the central/global approach.

"Don’t get me wrong - you will be expected to manage both strategy AND operations."

The long story short

Sales Ops comes in many different shapes and forms and depending on the size of the Sales Ops organization the function will cover more or less ground.

In the end it all comes back to the same, though - to ensure sales can successfully go after the market opportunity and offer the best possible experience for our customers.

Happy Sales, happy Sales Ops!