During World War II, the United States was developing and testing its first jet aircraft. Because information about this cutting-edge program could have been incredibly valuable to the country’s enemies, the military went to great lengths to keep it secret.
Those lengths included a gorilla mask.
The senior test pilot on the project was Jack Woolams, a well-known practical joker. When they discussed ways to keep word from getting out, Wollams had a novel suggestion: he should wear a gorilla mask and a derby hat and smoke a cigar while up in the air.
While the idea seems outlandish, it actually made some sense. Pilots often encountered each other in the air and could look into each other’s cockpits. If another pilot reported seeing a strange, super-fast aircraft piloted by a gorilla, who would believe them? They were more likely to get sent off for a psych evaluation than to have their story repeated in credible channels.
You might be hoping that we’ll now explain how wearing a gorilla mask can help you improve your sales results. Sadly, we will not.
In fact, while you do want to keep certain sales strategies and tactics confidential from competitors, we’re not even going to suggest that you engage in deception or practical jokes. We are going to suggest, however, that this story is a good example of the importance of considering other people’s reactions when crafting your strategy.
To be successful in Sales Ops, you need to understand how your sales team and customers will respond to different processes and initiatives. For that, you need to focus on two fundamental concepts: sales segmentation and sales influence.
Sales segmentation involves organizing your customers into distinct groups based on factors like industry, size, purchasing behavior, or geographic location. By tailoring your sales approach to each segment, you can meet their specific needs more effectively.
Sales influence refers to your ability to effectively guide and support the sales team in adopting new strategies and adapting to market conditions. By building strong relationships and establishing credibility, Sales Ops can influence the sales team to embrace new processes, tools, and methodologies that enhance performance.
By combining these two concepts, you can develop Sales Ops strategies that offer the right solutions to the right customers at the right time, with a sales team that’s aligned and responsive. In practice, this means investing time and effort into understanding your sales team’s perspectives and your customers’ needs, then leveraging your influence to implement effective strategies.
To learn more about how to put these concepts into practice, we recommend a pair of resources: The Fundamental of Sales Segmentation and Boosting The Sales Team’s Influence. They’ll get you started with the basics and point you to related strategies that can help you understand your sales environment even better.
And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to study how wearing a gorilla mask during team meetings affects the behavior of my colleagues.
The Fundamentals of Sales Segmentation
Segmentation is critical for anyone using data to analyze and improve their sales operation. In this session, we explore the key concepts of effective segmentation and discuss different types of models that are useful.
Boosting the Sales Ops Team's Influence
How can Sales Ops implement their plans and improve results when they lack the direct authority to ensure that those plans are executed? In this session, learn to leverage the principles of influence and persuasion.
