Simplify and Scale Sales Ops with Silvia Buermann

In this episode of the Sales Ops Demystified Podcast, Tom Hunt and Alex Freeman are joined by Silvia Buermann. They discuss the evolution of sales ops as a holistic function, how to boost sales productivity, and tips to simplify and scale sales ops. 

• Silvia’s LinkedIn

Silvia’s sales ops journey 

Silvia holds over twenty years of experience in sales management, marketing, and finance. She started her sales journey in 1990 as a Sales Assistant. 

Silvia’s proactive approach to simplify sales ops and related functions led her to work in several key positions at industry-leading companies. She was previously a Senior Manager in Sales (Oracle Corporation), a Strategic Account Manager (Hewlett-Packard), a Director of Sales (Salesforce), a Sales Leader of Digital Marketing (Adobe), and the list goes on.  

The frontline experience in dealing with customers and employees at different levels and job positions enables the sales ops professionals to work together as a team and empathize with the employees to enhance work efficiency. 

Evolution of sales ops as a holistic function 

Previously, the idea of treating sales ops function as silos was popular. However, the modern era and its pertinent success factor depend upon the inter-connectedness and communication between the sales enablement departments to simplify the process.  

Working on sales ops and not considering management and marketing functions might result in hurting finances. It’s all interconnected, and it’s important to treat sales ops as a holistic-interlinked process instead of a standalone process.

How to boost sales productivity 

The success of sales ops does not depend on the number of employees working on the team but the amount of rich, authentic data. 

Sufficient data provided by the customers back up the entire sales ops process. Moreover, it saves the time of sales reps to work more on selling rather than spending time collecting relevant data. 

Structured and organized data such as specific information on customers’ behavior, expectations, and needs can help sales professionals make informed decisions. Consequently, it helps boost the sales productivity and ROI.

Best ways to package sales data 

The best way to package sales ops data is to simplify it into required formats, dashboards, and reports. Sales ops professionals can also build weekly summaries on the ongoing process and check with customers to see if they are going in the right direction.  

Sales ops data must be simple and usable to keep the entire process manageable. Therefore, two key points to enhance sales ops are to acquire relevant data and then equip your team with it to increase sales and revenues.  

Silvia’s advice to simplify sales ops 

If you are switching from a different field, it would be better to start from scratch. However, you can alter the existing infrastructure of the business model by de-cluttering the history and breaking down the process into “good” and “bad”.

For the sales ops professional, Silvia advises them to keep things simple at their end and work collectively as a team while keeping all the stakeholders on the same page. 

Recommended episodes 

• Sales Operations Best Practices: Kirsty Charlton of Signal AI
• Accelerate Sales and Rev Ops Efficiency Through Engaging Video Platform With Antoine Leprince, Revenue Operations Manager at EasyMovie
• Progression in a Sales Ops Role with Susan Metz, Senior Manager, Sales Operations at Turnitin

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