Sandy Robinson, M.Ed.

Truly keeping the “door open” means the world, especially in a cross-functional environment. It’s easy to get caught up in the silos of an organization. Working across departments, and being mindful of continuing a dialogue even if in a casual manner is so important. In my experience, it’s common to get caught up in your own world, with endless meetings, emails, chats, etc. and it takes a conscious effort to promote the dialogue. It’s not that it’s unwanted, it just gets pushed in the shuffle of the day. It’s important to make time for real dialogue, a phone conversation, or something more than the monthly cross-department meeting to truly promote a culture of openness.

Culture plays a big role in SalesOps. Establishing trust and providing support as a leader paves way for a culture of empowerment. SalesOps leaders should strive to empower their teams to make decisions and take action based on a vision. Establishing a vision, and priorities for the SalesOps team will help to guide the decision making and empower the team members to take action without fear.

Acknowledging issues is definitely a first step. Sweeping challenges under the rug or hoping they go away is going to hurt the team short and long term. Leaders must deal with the conflict, and address root causes. Understanding the “why” behind the conflict from each party’s point of view will help to move towards a resolution. Often times it can be as simple as a miscommunication but it’s important to slow down and address the issues so they don’t get out of control. This is especially important in SalesOps because they are working collaboratively with other teams and departments in the organization.

Establishing clear, communication, goals, and guidelines will help to ensure the team adheres to deadlines. Commissions related activities that come with deadlines such as end of the month, signature requirements, etc. require hard rules with no exceptions. The general rule is don’t reward bad behavior. If somebody misses a deadline, that’s been clearly stated, or is missing paperwork, then the consequence is commission being held or delayed. That being said, if the sales ops team has not established clear guidelines, rules, terms, and conditions, etc. then they cannot expect the team to adhere.

Conflicts will arise from time to time, to combat this it’s important to foster joint collaboration. Establishing a common goal between teams can help to enable a positive environment for collaboration. When conflicts come up, ideally, they can be worked out with the folks involved, not having to bring in leadership. Establishing clear process and guidelines, basically rules of the game, can also help to prevent conflicts. If the leaders create an environment of fairness, and establish common goals, most conflicts can be avoided. The most common conflict I see is around account ownership, so it’s important to establish clear guidelines in terms of territory rules, active accounts, prospecting rules, etc.

Looking at conversion rates, establishing a baseline, and striving for improvement is a core responsibility of sales operations. Improving sales cycle time by identifying problems and creating solutions for challenges in conversion from stage to stage is critical. SalesOps should be able to look at the data, point key drivers, which in some cases are related to people behavior, and vet out solutions. it’s critical to work closely with the sales leaders and sales people to diagnose the issues and create practical solutions.