25 Years of Sales Ops with David O’Neill, Consulting Partner at RAIN Group

In this episode of Sales Ops Demystified, Tom Hunt is joined by David O’Neill, Consulting Partner at RAIN Group. They discuss the evolution of Sales Ops over 25 years in the industry, major shifts in the industry, and how to have a positive and productive relationship with sales reps.

• David’s Linkedin
• RAIN Group’s Website

Evolution of Sales Ops over 25 years

In the earliest days of sales ops, the core of the sales ops function was separated from the Sales Manager’s role and it didn’t provide any feedback to the sales rep rather it only focused on finding faults in their work.  Sales Ops today is more of an opportunity to improve the sales function rather than just being a cost center. 

Major shifts in the Sales Ops industry

The ability to accurately measure metrics that truly matter for sales reps, such as customer interaction monitoring, has matured. This has helped reps hit their targets more often because they now recognize the ability of sales ops teams to give precise feedback as a value-adding, often essential, service and not as a threat to their function. 

Modern sales reps are more open-minded and eager to learn. This truly helps in using analytics in an effective way. 

Types of information accessible to sales reps 

Sales reps today have access to every important or unimportant metric. One of the most important of these key metrics is their performance against their targets. Information about how far they have come on their prospect list also helps keep them informed and accountable.

Advice on tackling difficult times in business

For salespeople, the key to success during these difficult times is to put all the required effort into improving their output and go above and beyond to achieve customer delight. 

For sales management and leadership, the key to getting sales reps to improve their performance is supporting them instead of beating them up about their low output.  Right now, the sales function is probably one of the most vulnerable and exposed roles and their work depends on a lot of variables out of their control. 

Recommended episodes 

• Supporting 1,000 Sales Reps with Shiv Walia, Global Sales Operations Manager at Mindbody
• The Most Difficult Job in the World with Carl-Johan Färnström, Head of Business Operations at Mynewsdesk
• Sales Operations Manager: Jeff Davis of Baker Hill