At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, the US track and field team made the final for the men’s 4 x 100 relay. As the reigning world champions, they had an excellent chance to win.
On the first leg, Christian Coleman rocketed to the front of the pack, seemingly putting the Americans in a good position to win.
But then came the first baton handoff.
The second runner, Kenny Bednarek, seemed to start too early. So early that he had to come to a complete stop before he received the baton. The botched handoff cost precious time. While the next three runners tried valiantly to make up the loss, the final American crossed the finish line seventh. Making matters worse, the judges later ruled that the first handoff had actually occurred outside the allowed area, so the team was actually disqualified.
It was a heartbreaking end to a very promising beginning. And it’s an apt metaphor for a common problem in B2B sales operations.
A Bad Sales Ops Handoff
Here’s a scenario that plays out more often than it should.
A sales ops team spent weeks analyzing new hire performance data. When all was said and done, the findings were crystal clear: reps who hit quota in their first year were taking nearly twice as long to ramp as they had three years prior — and the trend was accelerating. The culprit was equally obvious: a dated onboarding program that hadn’t kept pace with an increasingly complex product and longer sales cycle.
The fix was straightforward. But they expected the numbers to speak for themselves. They slapped them onto a slide and presented their findings at a leadership meeting.
But they had flubbed the handoff.
The sales VP pointed to the ramp data and concluded that hiring standards had slipped — the team just needed to recruit stronger candidates. HR latched onto tenure figures showing that fast-ramping reps had higher turnover and argued the real issue was compensation structure.
Sales ops worked hard to get the meeting back on track, but the damage was done. The onboarding overhaul they had carefully built the case for got shelved while leadership chased two different problems that weren’t actually the problem.
Their initial analysis was solid, but their failure to frame the data appropriately ultimately sabotaged the entire project.
Finishing the Job
Sales ops professionals usually spend the bulk of their effort on the analysis itself. They double- and triple-check that they’ve collected the right data and drawn the right conclusions.
But that’s only half of the job.
The other half involves shaping the message, aligning the audience, and steering toward the right decision. And it’s just as important as the analysis.
In the Delivering Data to Decision Makers webinar we cover three necessary ingredients for ensuring a solid data handoff:
- Beyond what they want, work on delivering what they need.
- Strive to make it a no-brainer for others to interpret.
- Go further by suggesting priorities and potential next steps.
The full webinar offers a step-by-step playbook for moving from analysis to action without dropping the baton.
You should also check out the Golden Rules of Sales Ops. One of those rules is “Never assume others will draw the right conclusions from the data.” And the others are just as helpful.
Just like a relay race, B2B sales ops is a team sport. Make sure that you not only run your leg to win, you also set the rest of the team up for success with a solid data handoff.
Golden Rules of Sales Ops
Sales Operations has its own set of rules and governing principles...most of which you'll never find in a textbook. What are these "golden rules" and how you keep from breaking them?
Delivering Data to Decision-Makers
Providing sales data to executives and other decision-makers is a core responsibility for most Sales Ops teams. In this session, learn what leading teams are doing to make their efforts in this area far more effective.
