The Sales Operations Blog is dedicated to the goal of educating and informing its readers on sales operations strategy, best practices, innovations, and industry trends.  Since early 2009, it has been a destination for sales operations leaders looking for guidance to better perform their jobs, sales leaders seeking a better understanding of the sales operations function and how to leverage it, and sales productivity solution vendors (a.k.a. Sales 2.0) who want insights into how technology can best integrate people, processes, and information in support of improved selling.

Unlike the many blogs on sales, we focus on how to increase sales productivity and performance through the application of modern principles of sales operations.  By providing our readers with independent, fact-based insights, we hope to improve people’s understanding of what sales operations is, clearly articulate its role in successful sales strategy development, and establish it as a profession vital to companies seeking operational excellence.

As the blog moves into its third year, it receives about 2,000 global visitors per month and has hundreds of email and RSS subscribers.  In addition to sharing the views of the primary authors, we also provide the opportunity for other thought leaders to express themselves on topics of interest to our readers.  Whenever possible, we cite experts and reference case studies so that our counsel can be unbiased and free from hype.

The Sales Operations Blog is sponsored by Sales Productivity Architects, a Greater Boston-based sales consultancy.  If you value the insights offered here and would like expert guidance on your particular sales or sales operations challenges, we encourage you to visit their website to learn more about their approach and the services they offer.

The topics we cover here include (click on a title to see a listing of posts in that category):

Sales Methodology and Process, including:

• Sales cycle, stages and motions
• Call and account planning
• Opportunity management
• Process standardization and optimization

Sales Enablement and Readiness, including:

• Asset creation, management, delivery, and governance
• Delivery vehicle selection and management,
• Knowledge management (corporate, marketing, product, and tribal)
• Internal communication

Market and Customer Intelligence, including:

• Customer purchase and relationship history
• Share of wallet
• Role-based intelligence
• Company-based intelligence
• Industry/vertical intelligence

Talent Management and Development, including

• Organizational and sales planning
• Candidate sourcing, recruiting, selecting, hiring, on-boarding, and retaining
• Compensation, contests, spiffs
• New hire and ongoing sales training

Sales Planning and Management, including:

• First line sales management (FLSM) and sales coaching
• Sales strategy: design, planning, and execution
• Performance management, sales policy
• Quality and change management, process improvement, project management
• Forecasting, quota setting, and pipeline management
• Organizational structure, coverage model, channel strategy

Sales Automation and Tools, including:

• Customer relationship management (CRM)
• Sales technology and productivity solutions, sales 2.0

Metrics and Reporting, including:

• Reporting, analytics, trending
• Data and knowledge management

Alignment with Other Organizations, including:

• Sales and marketing alignment
• Working with IT
• Human resource compliance

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