Using Data to Empower Sales Reps with Max Stirling, Sales Operations Manager at Adarma Security

In this episode of Sales Ops Demystified, Tom Hunt is joined by Max Stirling, Sales Operations Manager at Adarma Security. They discuss how to keep processes simple and efficient, overcoming sales reps bias with data, and building productive relationships with them.

• Max’s Linkedin
• Adarma Security’s website

Max’s journey into sales ops 

A commitment to continuous improvement and a strong desire to improve processes can go a long way in your career. Throughout Max’s career, his drive for continuous improvement has helped him explore new areas in all his jobs and helped him transition from working with printed circuit boards (PCBs) all the way to sales ops. 

Sales ops team structure at Adarma

They have a small team composed of sales reps, client directors, and analysts. Enabling simplicity for everyone in the team and getting them on the same page helps them drive high efficiency in their small team. Having a collaborative workflow helps break silos and deliver a cohesive, high-quality output on time. 

Adarma’s priorities for sales ops in 2021 

Adarma overhauled its sales reporting processes in 2020.  In 2021, they hope to keep improving on this and bring in business intelligence capabilities to satisfy reporting requirements across all levels and democratize insights in the company.  

How to keep data analysis simple

Keeping your decisions objective by writing things down instead of being subjective and taking decisions based on “gut instincts” helps keep things transparent and simple in the team. 

The role of sales ops in an organization

The sales ops function fixes processes at the base level, helps improve reporting at the outcome level,  and makes sense of data across all levels to achieve the company’s goals. This multifaceted nature of the sales ops role keeps the role interesting for Max.

Sales forecasting at Adarma and managing sales rep bias

They use a tool called Kimble to predict the revenue curve from the initial sale data from a sales rep. An objective viewpoint from someone in the management helps balance the positive/negative biases in the instincts of sales reps. An evidence-based sales methodology called MEDDIC helps judge the accuracy of predictions from these reps. 

Building productive relationships with sales reps

Building productive relationships which helps influence sales reps starts with building trust. Working with sales reps (and not micro-managing them) and actively helping them become better at their job are some ways of how you can build that trust. Be a helper and a fixer, not an annoying hindrance in their jobs.

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