An important part of our mission here at SellingBrew is about tapping into the insights, experiences, and perspectives of real-world practitioners—people who are working in the trenches right now, figuring things out on a daily basis, and being held accountable for the success or failure of their actions.
So naturally, I was very pleased when Scott Kolar, the VP of Sales Operations for LexisNexis Risk Solutions, graciously agreed to take time out of his busy schedule to subject himself to an interview for the SellingBrew Playbook.
In the interview—“Inside a Sales Operations Group On a Mission“—Scott gives us an inside look into how his team is structured, their priorities and responsibilities, the challenges they’ve encountered along the way, and the significant contributions they’ve made to the company’s performance over the last few years.
One of the success factors that Scott highlights speaks to the opportunity for a sales operations function to act as the glue, or nexus, between the sales team and all of the other functions inside a company:
Collaborating within the company is extremely important for us—making sure the people that we either deliver services for, or need to get input and information from, understand what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and creating awareness of the best practices that we’re trying to get implemented. It’s not always easy, but collaboration is critical. And our team has done a very good job with that.
But to my mind, the most important success factor has to do with the team that Scott has been able to assemble. Listening in as Scott describes his team members, their backgrounds, and what they do, it becomes very obvious that this is a sales operations group on a mission to make things happen:
They like to win. So they’re always looking to do something better, or deliver something new and improved.
And I have to say, if you’ve ever wondered what a motivated sales operations team can really accomplish, pay close attention to the list of major achievements that Scott details in the interview. It’s not just impressive; it’s inspiring.
