If you’ve been following SellingBrew for any length of time, you know that we believe Sales Ops has the potential to become much more strategic and add a lot more value. Over the last year, we’ve highlighted a number of “greenfield” opportunities for Sales Ops to take the initiative, leverage their unique position in the organization, and perform functions that ultimately improve overall performance.
And I believe win/loss analysis is yet another opportunity for Sales Ops to step up.
Now, I’m not talking about simply reporting the reason codes that get entered into the CRM system. Rather, I’m talking about driving rigorous investigation into the real reasons your team wins, why they lose, and what can be done to correct the issues in a systemic and sustainable way.
If you’re unsure what real win/loss analysis is all about, I suggest you check out “Digging for Gold by Analyzing Wins and Losses” in the SellingBrew Playbook. Through this expert interview with Rick Reynolds of AskForensics, you’ll gain a lot of insight into the processes involved, as well as the huge strategic and tactical benefits that result.
Whether actually doing the work, or involving a specialist like Rick, there are a couple of reasons I believe Sales Ops is in an excellent position to drive the effort…
To minimize bias and maximize objectivity, win/loss analysis should be under the purview of a group that wasn’t directly involved in the deals being analyzed. However, Product and Marketing groups are often too far removed from Sales to really know what to look for, or translate the findings into meaningful operational improvements.
In other words, Sales Ops is neither too close, nor too far away; and they possess the intimate knowledge of the company’s sales processes and systems necessary to identify solutions that can work at-scale.
Of course, taking on rigorous win/loss analysis isn’t easy…particularly for a Sales Ops team with a full plate already. Nonetheless, the opportunity is there for teams that want to add more substance to their diets.
