Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos says that there are two types of decisions. The first type he calls “one-way doors.” These decisions are almost impossible to reverse. Like jumping out of a plane. Getting a black-out tattoo. Eating the entire chocolate cake. Having a baby. Once you commit, it’s really hard, if not impossible, to change your mind.
But most decisions are more like two-way doors. If things don’t work out you can easily go back to the way things were. Like getting a new hair color. Trying a new exercise routine. Picking up a new hobby. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to stick with it.
Bezos says that many companies mistake the second type of decision for the first type. They spend hours, days, weeks, or even months considering the ramifications of proposals that they could easily undo if necessary. As a result, they find themselves in decision paralysis.
That has huge consequences for their organizations. They become less agile. Less innovative. They fall behind the competition and fail to delight their customers. Bezos explains,
“Most large organizations embrace the idea of invention, but are not willing to suffer the string of failed experiments necessary to get there.”
Fortunately, most Sales Ops decisions are two-way doors.
If a particular sales process change or tool implementation doesn’t work out, you can easily revert back to the old way. The most successful Sales Ops teams regularly experiment with new ideas, discarding approaches that don’t work and refining the ones that do.
But to people outside of Sales Ops (especially those in the sales team), every change can feel fraught with consequences. They can get caught up in hand-wringing about what will happen if sales teams resists a new process or if KPIs dip temporarily.
Overcoming decision paralysis
If you find yourself in a situation where other groups oppose proposed sales ops innovations, we have a suggestion that almost always works:
Pilot programs and testing.
If you can’t get stakeholders to agree to a wide-scale change, suggest trying it out on a smaller scale. This minimizes potential downsides and removes any illusion that a decision might be a “one-way door.”
If this concept intrigues you, we have a couple of webinars you should watch.
Successful Sales Ops Pilot Programs ooffers advice on how to set up an effective pilot program. In addition, it covers strategies for pitching the program internally and effective approaches for expanding pilots when they succeed.
Building Sales Ops’ Credibility With Sales walks through a variety of strategies to get others to see Sales Ops as a trusted partner. It explores 7 of the top credibility enhancers that Sales Ops teams can use to their advantage. These can go a long way in getting others to be receptive to your ideas.
Experimenting and making mistakes are essential to growth and learning. That’s as true in sales operations as it is in other parts of business—and life.
In conclusion, we’ll leave you with one other Jeff Bezos quote that we think is highly applicable to Sales Ops:
“If you only do things where you know the answer in advance, your company goes away.”
Successful Sales Ops Pilot Programs
How do you get your company to accept new sales tools and approaches, while maximizing your odd of success? In this session, learn how to leverage pilot programs and in-market trials to accelerate your progress.
Building Sales Ops' Credibility with Sales
Sales often views Sales Operations with skepticism and doubt. And as a result, they disregard our suggestions and ignore our recommendations. What can we do to get them to see us as a trusted partner and ally?
