Table of Contents
Share this article
Learn from the brightest minds how to predictably and efficiently grow revenue.
Related Content
90 Days to Make an Impact with Louis Poulin of Buildertrend
Guy and Louis Poulin, VP of Revenue Operations at Buildertrend, discuss boosting revenue efficiency, key growth drivers, and leveraging AI for deal qualification on the Revenue Insights Podcast
Happy Customers Lead to More Customers with Kathleen Booth of Pavilion
In this episode, Guy and Kathleen explore community-led marketing and its impact on pipeline growth, how data can be used to drive a community-led GTM strategy, and how to improve customer retention through cohort analysis.
You Can’t Sell to Someone Who Can’t Buy with Michael Dalley, CRO at Aerial Vantage
In this episode, Guy and Michael explore the lessons Michael has learned over his twenty years of sales leadership experience. Discover the importance of forecasting accuracy, the potential of the Challenger methodology, and why you can’t sell to someone who can’t buy.
The Most Difficult Job in the World with Carl-Johan Färnström, Head of Business Operations at Mynewsdesk
In this episode of Sales Ops Demystified, Tom Hunt and Alex Freeman are joined by Carl-Johan Färnström, Head of Business Operations at Mynewsdesk. They discuss CJ’s journey from Sales Ops to Business Ops, cleaning up Mynewsdesk’s tech stack, and how they plan to overcome Salesforce CPQ implementation problems.
Table of Contents
Carl-Johan’s journey from Sales Ops to Business Ops
CJ’s role as an Account Manager helped him appreciate the difficulty of a salesperson’s job. Along this journey, he realized his strength for systems and processes while working in a sales role at Projectplace International AB. He got the chance to set up a Business Operations group there that kick-started his career in sales ops.
During his early days in sales ops, CJ was expected to apply his knowledge on how systems work and how salespeople should use them. He also executed reporting and analytics duties. His current role as the Head of Business Operations at Mynewsdesk is more holistic and managerial in nature and involves a lot of change management.
The structure of Carl-Johan’s team
CJ adds to his team’s skill set in the business operations area by looking at it from a holistic perspective rather than just from a sales operations view. He works with two other Salesforce admins and serves forty-five sales reps, fifteen customer success professionals, and ten SDRs.
Managing relationships with reps as the sales team grows
Automate as much as possible, so you don’t have to explain to every new sales rep about Salesforce. This adds flexibility to your systems and allows for scalability in the long run.
Sales tech stack at Mynewsdesk
- HubSpot – Marketing automation
- Salesforce – CRM
- Salesforce CPQ – Quoting and subscription module
- NetSuite for ERP
- Smaller apps connected to Salesforce for digital signature
- AI prospecting tool
- Stripe – Card payments
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Focus in the first half of 2021 in the Business Ops team at Mynewsdesk
In the first half of 2021, CJ’s team at Mynewsdesk has been moving away from a fragmented and legacy-like Salesforce implementation. This effort to cleanup data reporting includes the implementation of Salesforce CPQ.
Moving away from a fragmented Salesforce implementation
This fragmentation in Salesforce implementation, especially in European Sales teams, comes from the fragmented working style and disparate processes of teams in different European countries.
The focus should be on unifying not just the systems and tools but also the core processes. Bring teams together and on the same page with their processes so that you can start straightening out their systems and tools.
Recommended episodes
- Riding the Salesforce Wave with Megan James, Director of Sales Operations Lead at Knock
- Director Business Operations: Jennifer Laurie of Bonfire Interactive
- Head of Business Operations: Marvin Varnphruk of StreamSets