10 Ways Sales Operations Drives Revenue [Infographic]
Becca Eddleman
To this day, after working with 1,000s of sales teams and 100s of sales operations teams, we still see companies struggle to define what is sales operations and, quantitatively, the impact sales operations has on revenue.
Sales operations experts and leaders will tell you sales ops increases rep productivity and decreases sales time lost from a technology and administrative lens, and sales ops decreases sales cycles and increases conversion rates and quota achievements from a process lens.
But it can be hard to apply a specific revenue number without teams tracking before and after metrics, and we still don’t have a lot of this information on a large scale to apply averages.
Here’s what we do know.
Sales Operations is essential to the Sales organization and revenue growth. This article will identify the 10 ways sales ops drives revenue and connect them to statistical data to back it up.
What is Sales Operations?
Before diving into how Sales Operations drives revenue, let’s confirm what it is they actually do.
The term sales operations can mean many things to many organizations and span across operations, technology, performance, and strategy functions – but at its core, sales operations is here to drive revenue by supporting Sales to close deals faster.
At its core, Sales Operations handles all of the non-selling processes and tasks within the sales process to reduce friction and help Sales close deals faster.
Almost anyone will agree that Sales Operations helps sellers spend more time actually selling by again, handling non-selling, but essential tasks.
However, Sales Operations is not just tech support or report generators. They also focus on sales performance and sales strategy, such as optimizing the sales funnel, removing bottlenecks, and creating actionable takeaways and improvements from the reports and analytics they generate.
Sales Operations is not just tech support or report generators. To perform their core function (help Sales close deals faster), they also focus on sales performance and strategy.
10 Ways Sales Operations Drives Revenue
#1 Sales Ops decreases Sales time spent on administrative tasks
45% of teams spend 32+ hours a month per rep on non-revenue generating tasks. – Skaled Survey
#2 Sales Ops improves process efficiency and increases lead response time
35-50% of sales go to the vendor who responds first. – Xant
#3 Sales Ops identifies and removes bottlenecks to shortens sales cycles
Shorter Sales Cycles = More Deals Closed Per Quarter = More Revenue.
#4 Sales Ops increases alignment between Sales and Marketing
Sales and Marketing alignment can lead to a 32% increase in YoY revenue growth. – Aberdeen Group
#5 Sales Ops increases forecasting accuracy
Accurate forecasting leads to 19% greater success in meeting annual quotas and 27% greater win rates. – Aberdeen Group
#6 Sales Ops manages the deal desk and optimizes deal margin and price management
Deal desks can reduce sales cycle times, improves rep productivity, and can increase profitability by 5-10%. – PwC
#7 Sales Ops shortens onboarding and ramp time
An AE with a $1 million annual quota will bring in about $83,000 per month on average. That’s $4,150 a day unfilled or partially filled during a delayed ramp.
#8 Sales Ops doubles down on KPIs to increase sales performance
The implementation of a consistent sales process based on historical company data, increases win rates by at least 25%. – Salesforce
#9 Sales Ops increases technology adoption and optimization
49% of Sales teams struggle with sales tech adoption because of poor setup and training. – Skaled Survey
#10 Sales Ops ensures data hygiene and decreases the costs associated with bad/decayed data
The average financial impact of poor data quality on organizations is $15 million per year. – Gartner
Increase Revenue with Successful Sales Operations
Looking at these 10 data points, it’s quickly apparent just how many ways Sales Operations impacts and influences revenue and growth. Either in a positive direction or a negative direction if they aren’t themselves supported.
Skaled supports Sales Operations either by helping build out your first Sales Operations unit or augmenting current staff.
Contact us for more ways Skaled and Sales Operations can drive revenue growth.