Sales operations is a set of business activities and processes that help a sales organization run effectively, efficiently and in support of business strategies and objectives. Sales operations may also be referred to as

sales Sales are activities related to selling or the number of goods sold in a given targeted time period. The delivery of a service for a cost is also considered a sale. A period during which goods are sold for a reduced price may also be referred ...

, sales support, or business operations.

Categories

The set of sales operations activities vary from company to company but often include these five categories: Sales force enablement * Sales process development * Sales process adoption and compliance * Sales development * Sales training * Sales force communications management Business analytics * Sales metrics * Sales forecasting Sales administration * Proposal/contract development * Vendor selection and management * Planning process stewardship Attainment planning * Incentive sales compensation plan design * Go-to-market (GTM) strategy alignment with roles and components * Territory analysis and definition * Goal setting Sales operations mandate and design * Chief of staff to the sales organization * Stewardship of sales force capacity * Initiative change management * Sales operations team design * Sales operations talent management The sales operations team members are often liaisons for sales to other parts of the organisation such as

finance Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and Academic discipline, discipline of money, currency, assets and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business administration, Business Admin ...

marketing Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of Business administration, business management and commerce. Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or ma ...

legal Law is a set of rules that are created and are law enforcement, enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a Socia ...

, QA and IT departments. They represent the needs of sales in meetings and cross-functional projects. More and more companies are forming sales operations departments within their organizations and, per the sales operations excellence center, sales operations is an established process and considered to be vital contributor to business operations and accounting functions. Sales operation analysts as a department usually have sales analysts who work directly under them, supplying them with the data needed to make decisions. These decisions can transform a fragmented and stilted model into a customer-adaptive enterprise. Nowadays, many businesses use

internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

tools to improve sales function.

Sales strategy

The UK's

Institute of Directors The Institute of Directors (IoD) is a British professional organisation for company directors, senior business leaders and entrepreneurs. It is the UK's longest running organisation for professional leaders, having been founded in 1903 and inco ...

argues that every growing business requires an effective sales strategy. A clearly thought out strategy supported by clear objectives and a good understanding of the requirements of customers and the business's market environment can contribute to better sales outcomes.

Sales target

A sales target is the minimum sales goal for a set time span. A sales target may be a minimum amount of value (monetary) or product sold (volume). Sales targets may also be for sales activities, such as number of calls per day.

Management Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a Government agency, government bodies through business administration, Nonprofit studies, nonprofit management, or the political s ...

usually sets the sales targets and the sales territory. The time span could be set for the day, week, month,

fiscal quarter A fiscal year (also known as a financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. La ...

or year. In some businesses, staff pay includes earn a bonus that a member of staff may earn for reaching a specific sales target.

Sales territory

A sales territory is usually the customer group or geographical area assigned to an individual salesperson or a sales team. The geographical area may also be assigned to a franchisee,

distributor A distributor is an electric and mechanical device used in the ignition system of older spark-ignition engines. The distributor's main function is to route electricity from the ignition coil to each spark plug at the correct time. Design ...

, or

agent Agent may refer to: Espionage, investigation, and law *, spies or intelligence officers * Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuran ...

. A territory may also be assigned by industry verticals, such as all retailers or all wholesalers in a geographical area. A sales territory may be as large as a

continent A continent is any of several large geographical regions. Continents are generally identified by convention (norm), convention rather than any strict criteria. A continent could be a single large landmass, a part of a very large landmass, as ...

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

, or as small as a precinct,

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

. Generally, a sales manager will assign a sales territory based on the territories of the sales resources reporting to him/her.

Sales forecasting

Sales

forecasting Forecasting is the process of making predictions based on past and present data. Later these can be compared with what actually happens. For example, a company might Estimation, estimate their revenue in the next year, then compare it against the ...

uses past sales figures to predict the short-term or long-term future performance to enable sound

financial plan In general usage, a financial plan is a comprehensive evaluation of an individual's current pay and future financial state by using current known variables to predict future income, asset values and withdrawal plans. This often includes a budg ...

ning. Historical sales and/or economic data is often used to improve the forecast of sales. For shops and stores,

market research Market research is an organized effort to gather information about target markets and customers. It involves understanding who they are and what they need. It is an important component of business strategy and a major factor in maintaining com ...

may yield the following indicators for deriving initial forecasts:Three Methods Of Sales Forecasting - Sales Forecasting By Multiple Methods Is Most Accurate
/ref> * average sales volume per unit area for similar shops in similar locations of similar size * number of consumers or consumer households in appropriate vicinity of the store and their annual expenses on the product in question.

References