We see two primary challenges to growth for upscaling companies: 1) A Sales VP who doesn’t have the bandwidth to do the planning required for success; 2) An under-resourced Sales Operations function unable to provide the support that the Sales team needs to excel, particularly when scaling. The following discusses each of these challenges.
Challenges for the Sales VP
The average tenure of a Sales VP in the hi tech world is 18 months. Amazing right! That’s because the Sales VP job is hard: he/she is on the front lines with prospects and customers all the time, under a microscope by the board and usually the first one blamed if revenue falls short.
This job requires immediate focus on revenue producing activities as shown in Covey’s Quadrant 1 below. The activities in Quadrant 1 are a full time job, (Quadrant 3 is also a major distraction), leaving the equally critical but less time dependent Quadrant 2 neglected. In order for a Sales VP and consequently a sales organization to be successful, the planning and infrastructure activities of Quadrant 2 need to be addressed. This latter is the primary function of Sales Operations.
Hitting the Wall
In large companies, a good Sales Operations team should have this covered. However, in smaller, mid-sized and especially upscaling companies, this function is often under-staffed or neglected, making it even more difficult for the Sales VP to succeed. Per the below graphic, as the sales organization grows to about ten people, the complexity (territories, comp plans, sales roles, sales process, training etc.) increases dramatically. If Sales Operations is not addressed in a meaningful way, the sales effort will tend to be a series of fire drills and not very effectOur objective and expertise is to help you plan, build and manage this infrastructure to free the Sales VP to succeed.
Our objective and expertise is to help you plan, build and manage this infrastructure to free the Sales VP to succeed.