When a team grows to a certain point, the time comes to consider a manager to oversee that group, keep them focused, and provide guidance on reaching goals. When this growth happens in the sales team, it becomes mission critical to have a qualified manager in place. For sales, any startup that reaches 20 or more sales reps should consider hiring a sales operations manager who can alleviate the pressure for a VP of Sales or the person that happens to know the most about CRM but not necessarily about managing the entire group.
This realization soon struck Mikita Mikado, CEO and Co-Founder of PandaDoc. He reached 20 sales reps and realized that they were floundering on their own and needed an effective sales operations manager to take the helm. Reaching this conclusion was a lot easier than locating an ideal candidate. That’s because the role came with responsibilities that require different skills sets and ways of thinking than just a typical management position.
Mikado knew that a sales operations manager should be able to understand sales and know how to deal with the sales people, be technically adept enough to set up and manage numerous software tools, find holes in the funnel and routines of individual reps, and build insightful reports and forecast the revenue. Beyond that, Mikado only knew that he wanted someone who could support a sales organization that would grow from dozens to hundreds and quite possibly thousands of people. In his search for an answer, Mikado asked others who had filled this position effectively.
Hard Skills for Sales Operations Manager
By all accounts, others view the sales operations manager as the "glue" that holds the sales team together, working between sales reps, sales management, customers, back-end operations like order management, and even marketing. They have to be both strategic and tactical, working with, and sometimes developing, the strategies for sales and then turning around to put all of the necessary processes in place for the team to execute on those strategies. An effective sales operations manager also has to consider and include numerous functions, such as revenue forecasting, quota management, opportunity management, product setup execution, sales training and enablement, analytics and metrics related to revenue and products, lead management, partner enablement and more.
In addition to these hard skills, a sales operation manager must also have some soft skills and traits that help them stimulate the creative side of sales. For example, key traits to look for include patience, open mindedness, relationship building, problem solving, and an interest in helping others. They also must have a willingness to motivate and encourage collaboration, communication, and creativity. Other traits to look for is an individual who is focused on the team no matter what type of pressure or demands from the company is thrown at them. They will continue to pay attention to what the team needs to succeed and how they are feeling in order to manage effectively and provide what’s necessary for them to do their job.
On the Hunt for a Sales Operations Manager
Mikado and his team spent considerable time searching for the right potential candidates. For him, it was important not to rush filling this critical position just because he had over 20 sales reps without a direct manager. Instead, they used the criteria from above and spent time looking for candidates through various job sites and headhunters and then rigorously interviewing and assessing each candidate. This included having many sales reps meet with the sales operation manager candidates to get a sense of personality traits and the ability to work together.
Eventually, they found a good fit for their startup and have been able to benefit from the sales operations manager’s experience and enthusiasm to fulfill his role in the organization and help build out what has become a much larger team of sales reps. The lesson to be learned here is that the best approach to finding and filling such a role is knowing exactly what works for the sales organization, understanding the key hard and soft skills that can benefit sales, and identifying a candidate that integrates well with the developing company culture.
