Many people know—or at least suspect—that there’s a lot of untapped potential in the Sales Ops function. Yes, the function is very often mired in tactical firefighting. But with its “nexus point” position in the organization, it clearly has the potential to play a far more strategic role in driving sales effectiveness.
In a tutorial in the SellingBrew Playbook about how to turn that strategic potential into a reality, “Building a Sales Ops Center of Excellence,” the author makes an intriguing point…
“It’s not about getting the rest of the organization to view Sales Ops as something more than a tactical support function…at least not at first. The first and most important step in the transformation is about getting Sales Ops to view themselves as something more.”
The author then goes on to talk about how the Sales Ops team itself must embrace and own a bigger and more impactful vision of what they’re trying to do for the organization; how the Sales Ops team needs to actually become something more before others in the organization can recognize them as something more.
It’s a great reminder about where positive transformation really begins.
My father gave me a piece of advice when I first starting working for a living. He said that the best way to get ahead in an organization was to just start doing the job you want next. In other words, don’t wait for someone else to say that you’re something more. Just make the decision to become something more and get to it.
Far too many Sales Ops teams get stuck in an external feedback loop. They may want to contribute more. They may want to play a greater role and get beyond the tactical firefighting. They may want to have more influence and command more respect.
But then they wait for others in the organization to grant them permission. Or they wait for some executive to anoint them with these characteristics.
And most often, they find themselves waiting for a very long time.
Building a Sales Ops Center of Excellence
Sales Operations has long been characterized as a tactical support function. This tutorial provides advice on moving beyond tactical support and transforming Sales Operations into a strategic driver of sales effectiveness.
