In recent years, an increasing number of companies in the United States have established organizations called " Sales Operations (SalesOps) ." (According to a LinkedIn survey, this number increased by 38% between 2018 and 2020 alone .)
Some of you may be thinking, "Sales enablement was the trend just a while ago, but what's next?" or "Sales reform needs more serious thought..."
However, there is much to learn from American companies' organizational reforms to adapt to trends in the business environment, and their underlying mindset of rejecting the status quo.
It is true that the sales field is becoming more sophisticated and complex. Even if the goal of maximizing sales results remains the same, the methods, operations, and scale of achieving that goal will need to change.
Because organizational structures and personnel allocation netherlands business email list methods differ between the United States and Japan, there is no need to copy everything exactly, but there should be hints at key points that will help you reconsider your own company's sales structure.
This article provides a clear explanation of the meaning of sales operations, their purpose and role, as well as the steps to implement sales operations.
What is Sales Ops?
Sales operations refers to various strategies and implementations that can be used to maximize the capabilities of the sales department. The scope of work varies slightly depending on the company, but generally, it is positioned as a department that provides comprehensive support to the sales department.
Here's HubSpot's definition:
"Sales operations handles everything from lead management, sales strategy, and territory structure and alignment to sales process optimization, compensation plans, sales automation, training, and data analysis and reporting." (Source: HubSpot )
This defines them as being responsible for higher levels of sales.
Of course, the positioning of organizations within a company varies, with some companies only having sales operations (SalesOps) within the company, while in larger companies it exists as a function of revenue operations (RevOps) .
The general roles and components of sales operations are as shown in the diagram below.
Sales operations have the functions of optimizing the sales process, providing data analysis and insights to the field, and acting as a bridge between marketing and the customer department. The launch of sales operations can support the sales field and is expected to increase profits.
Sales operation image
(Source: Business2community.com )
The Importance of Sales Ops
According to a 2018 survey by the US CSOinsight, 63.9% of companies have introduced a dedicated sales operations team . Also, as mentioned above, the LinkedIn survey shows that the number of companies has been increasing rapidly since 2018.
Why have so many companies adopted sales operations?
The background of the creation of sales operations
Ambition.com points out five trends that have driven the growth of sales operations teams:
Enterprise Technology. SaaS Tools
CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
Marketing Automation
The spread of B2B communication tools such as Slack
Data analysis
If you take a look at our sales site, I think you'll understand.
Today's salespeople are expected to use different communication tools for each customer, input data into their company's CRM or SFA, and thoroughly manage their own actions based on the data. They are expected to perform like supermen, selling to customers with insight.
Of course, it is impossible for anyone other than a select few salespeople to do this perfectly. I think that in Japanese companies, not just in the sales department, but even within the company, there are very few people who have sales skills, IT literacy, analytics skills, a strategic mindset, and the ability to execute.
Sales already involves a lot of administrative tasks, such as writing proposals and contracts, but according to a 2022 Gartner survey, sales reps are now spending 73% of their time supporting non-sales tasks as their workload expands, up from 39% in 2019 .
It's clear that salespeople are facing increasingly tough times due to new tools and the increasing number of channels their customers are using.
In the midst of the chaotic situation we have been experiencing in recent years, increasing attention is being paid to organizations that support the sales field, such as sales operations and sales enablement, in order to allow sales representatives to focus on sales and increase their productivity (the difference between the two will be discussed later).
(Reference: Ultimate Guide to Sales Operations - LinkedIn )
Current state of sales operations in the United States
According to " The State of Sales Operations ," a LinkedIn survey report published in 2021 that surveyed 500 sales operations professionals in the United States , the number of sales operations professionals increased by 38% between 2018 and 2020.
During that same period, Sales Operations grew 4.8 times faster than the Sales Department.
