It is not easy to build relationships with clients who often make decisions and also influence decision making. The value of a B2B seller is in the ability to maintain high loyalty and project competence through the prism of company values.
This requires powerful tools, such as, for example, LeadLeaper. The sales department will be able to increase the efficiency of processes, reduce costs and increase productivity if it has at its disposal:
- Optimal structure.
- Reliable lead generation.
- Key KPIs and metrics.
- Long-term development strategy.
Below you will find answers to questions regarding the structure and increase in the efficiency of operations of the sales department.
What Are Sales Ops?
Sales Ops help to develop sales in accordance with the goals of the company. The sales department acts as a link between sales agents and departments of finance, marketing, logistics, etc.
They deal with administration, analysis, sales forecasting, customer search and best scenarios for sales agents. That is, the general organization and management – everything except personal communication with customers. This function is assigned to another department, which we will discuss below.
Sales Enablement Functions
The Sales Ops department concentrates the resources of the company, providing sales professionals with the necessary marketing information and tools. Its main functions:
- development of algorithms and sales methods and audit of the work of sales specialists;
- implementation of CRM;
- development of organizational, management and reporting documentation.
For this, they use:
- “portfolios” of sales professionals;
- trainings;
- marketing events.
The department’s activities focus on improving internal processes and resources needed to communicate with clients.
Content management
Sales Ops specialists cooperate with marketers and creators of promotional materials to ensure they are able to buy business leads. They guarantee that sales agents provide potential customers with highly convertible content.
Training
The department ensures that sales agents receive the right recommendations to attract customers. It is responsible for creating a sales playbook ─ a document with general recommendations for sales representatives. It describes operational procedures, includes successful interaction scenarios, examples of “good” emails, negotiation tactics, handling objections, and more.
Use of technology
You need to prove to the client that you will solve their problems. The sales ops department guarantees the quality of the virtual presentation of your products. The team is always ready to use alternative methods to demonstrate the company’s advantages – for example, LeadLeaper, our email verification software, and other advanced communication tools.
Sales Ops Roles and Responsibilities
Sales Ops solve high-level administrative, strategic, communication and technical tasks.
Sales and Operations Planning
Decisions are made based on operational analytics data. Strategic S&OP includes sales forecasting that takes into account market demand, availability and profitability of offers. This task requires the coordination and management of data from different departments – and here Sales Ops specialists are responsible for communication.
General strategy
You need to identify risks, focus on vulnerabilities, and minimize efforts to reach your revenue target. Sales Ops specialists study the experience of industry leaders, so they understand which points to pay more attention to.
Sales Data Analysis
Process analysis
You need to know what search methods, customer qualification criteria, and objection handling criteria your sales representatives use. Understanding the processes will show how close you are to closing a deal, because all clients are different, and even brilliant scripts may not always work with unexpected objections.
Productivity assessment
Monitoring key parameters helps to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the sales reps. It is worth paying attention not to quantitative, but to qualitative indicators that directly affect conversion.
Technical support
Advanced automation tools will increase sales and simplify the work:
- A CRM will simplify and speed up the work with B2B leads;
- A product showcase program will allow you to share screens and content;
- Programs for recording and analyzing calls will help you generate reports in real time.
Administrative duties
Recruitment
Sales Ops create the ideal candidate profile and help HR professionals prepare the job description. They conduct interviews and develop test tasks in accordance with the internal policy of the company.
Team structuring
Sales Ops specialists analyze top-level data to estimate the number of leads they can reach. Based on the key indicators, they determine the number of teams for b2b sales lead generation.
Sales reps remuneration
Motivating employees on terms acceptable to the company is a task solved by Sales Ops. They allocate commissions, upfront payments, and bonuses based on profits, but taking into account employee expectations.
Business lead generation
The sales department does not engage in conversations with potential customers. He works with b2b leads and this makes the processes customer oriented.
Team Structure
The size of the sales department depends on the amount of information processed and the number of customers.
Sales team lead
The team lead develops a strategy, organizes the continuous movement of contracts and optimizes the search for new opportunities. They also write reports, report on the performance, and motivate sales agents to improve the KPIs.
Sales operations associate
These people work closely with agents, take part in the organization of sales, and solve emerging problems. They are responsible for generating leads through corporate CRM, developing proposals and approving contracts in contact with legal representatives and financial managers.
Analyst
Analysts collect, structure, and analyze data from various sources and forecast sales. Their key responsibilities are data management and performance evaluation of operations. Based on their reports, senior managers make decisions. Operational analysts also develop metrics to evaluate processes.
Sales representative
Beginner level. A sales rep is a technology connoisseur with good analytical skills, ready to communicate with the heads of other departments. They are able to work with large datasets, have excellent command of Excel and can handle multiple tasks at the same time. With experience, they can be engaged in setting up platforms and generating reports.
Sales KPIs and Metrics
Even with the best team, you will have to measure its effectiveness. To do this, you need to use proven indicators.
Customer acquisition cost
CAC is the ratio of investments in marketing and sales to the number of new customers over a certain period. Used to determine profitability.
Lifetime Value
LTV shows the total profit from working with one client. Needed for revenue forecasting and budgeting, as well as identifying the most loyal customers.
Average sales cycle
This parameter shows how long it takes to turn a business lead into a buyer. It allows you to understand what obstacles arise on the way to concluding a deal, and what efforts are required to overcome them. It also helps to find effective ways to interact with potential customers at the last stages of the sales funnel.
Closing ratio
Indicates the percentage of closed deals at the time the offer was approved. Calculated using the ratio of the number of customers and generated B2B leads for each sales representative. Informative for evaluating overall sales performance.
Lost deals
Indicates the number of missed opportunities. Needed to identify the causes and ways to avoid errors in the future.
Number of calls, emails and booked demos
Allows you to evaluate the activity of the seller. It is not always informative, so it is necessary to compare KPIs with given benchmarks, e.g., the ratio of cold emails to calls, and study the reasons for deviations. Emails, response rates, and appointments will indicate audience reach.
Average profit margin
This indicator shows the average profit from each product. It is especially valuable if you offer different pricing models and discounts. By tracking upgrade packages, you can see the value of each product. In addition, the parameter is used to evaluate the individual work of sales agents and the profit received from customers in a certain territory.
Churn rate
The loss of customers results in a loss of competitiveness, so this indicator needs to be controlled. Churn rate helps you identify where your offerings are least in demand and take action.
Of course, there are many more indicators that evaluate sales. The choice of KPI for each role in the sales department is influenced by the nature of products or services and the specifics of the company.
Sales Strategy Development
Support for the company’s trading operations requires investments and phased implementation:
- Select the KPIs to evaluate sales reps. Analyze which of the metrics can reflect the productivity of the sales team. Explore cold calling presentations, email templates, watch a few demos, and track the stages of drafting and executing customer agreements.
- Create an ideal candidate profile, hire and train sales staff. Determine the required skills, responsibilities and reward plan. And then, together with HR, compose and post a vacancy. After signing the employment agreements, start training.
- Divide the sales reps according to potential customer segments. Ask sellers what kind of clients they prefer to work with. After they successfully buy business leads, assign them the appropriate roles in the CRM.
- Select a CRM and organize training. Operations reps need an advanced tool. And to use it, you need knowledge.
- Find and fix weaknesses in sales. Make sure each salesperson knows the product, takes into account the profile of the ideal client, and does not leave potential customers without an explicit response to offers.
Sales support representatives must identify the shortcomings in customer interactions, develop new tactics for lead generation and retention. If you need to increase sales through new B2B leads, Belkins company is ready to assist. Our specialists will provide you with the best set of technologies, including email marketing B2B lead generation, and define the KPIs to optimize your sales efforts.
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