How do i increase my sales for operations

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welcome to the SBI podcast offering CEOs sales and marketing leaders ideas to make the number welcome SBI listeners readers and viewers my name is Greg Alexander and I am the CEO of SBI a management consulting firm specializing and sales and marketing dedicated to helping you make your number this is the weekly SBI podcast and its purpose is to help you make your number by getting your peers to share with you how they make theirs today's guest is Todd Doolittle and he is the head of sales ops at concentra the leader in occupational health operating 300 medical centres in 38 states and an additional 140 on-site medical facilities Todd welcome to the show Greg thanks for having me okay today's topic is critical success factors for the new sales ops leader the role of sales operations has become mission-critical for many companies in the last few years and as a result many b2b companies have a sales ops leader who has been on the job for one year or unless these leaders face similar challenges and opportunities in those critical first few months and how new sales ops leaders manage this transition can make the difference between success or failure Todd took the sales ops job at Concentra just a few short months ago and after many years as a successful sales VP director and manager he has spent the last few months overcoming the challenges new sales ops leaders face and I wanted him to share his experiences on this show we're gonna use SBI's revenue growth methodology to guide our conversation today specifically pages 186 to 192 which discusses sales ops sales support and sales systems strategy if you want to follow along at home get a copy of this at salesbenchmarkindex.com forward slash 2016 report ok Todd I'd like to begin our dialogue by asking some contextual questions so my first question is this why did you take this job yeah Greg so I spent 15 years with Concentra in the sales organization as you mentioned and I guess you could say that I had become impatient with what I would call gaps in the sales process how the company required or asked sales to utilize our CRM and really the misalignment between the incentive plans and overall sales actions in the field and so our company went through a restructuring here about eight months ago we were sold a new leader came in and when I met with that leader basically had the opportunity to talk talk with with him about the direction and some of the things that I wanted to change within the organization or I felt like ours you know our incentive plans were driving the wrong behaviors within the sales teams and we were telling our sales team that for example hunting was the most important thing but we had a farmer Laden comp plan where over 2/3 of the of our sales bonuses were driven based on how our existing business perform so I guess you could say I I put my money where my mouth was a little bit and so I got off the opportunity to take this job and and come in and fix some of those things so and for that I'm grateful yeah that's a great story that really is all right so when you were interviewing and you took the job I'm sure your boss John the head of sales and marketing there issued you a mandate you know the things that you need to get done so what is your mandate well so I think the first one was to rebuild the the sales ops organization from concentr standpoint we actually had like a about a two-year void of sales ops leadership and as you can imagine you know I don't think even I as a Sales Leader really understood the value that sales ops provides and the some of the structure that it provides to the organization until it's gone and so the first mandate and really the most important was to create organizational confidence in sales operations in general specifically with our sales team compensation plans had errors and consistency of reporting was was off etc and obviously that led to a lot of confidence within within the organization so so that was really a key one the other things was obviously to look specifically at how we aligned our compensation and how we designed our CRM to maximize the benefits and to the to the end users so that we could generate more revenue and be more successful as an organization as a result okay I did not know that your company under its previous ownership structure went two years without sales off so that's that's a pretty pretty big gap there so I think I understand why that was your mandate all right so with that as a context you know so you're on the job let's say it's your first hundred days or so what have been your or in the hot first hundred days what were your biggest struggles well I think the first one was I really didn't know where to go to get information ironically you know been with the organization for 15 years but people really looked to to me and sales up as the information source and when you walk into a new role and you don't necessarily have all of the people from a sales ops standpoint in place with roles and responsibilities clearly defined just simple things of hey where do I get this report or this information was very difficult to track down and find the other thing that was probably the biggest challenge for me was the sheer volume of requests and information that needed to be improved upon you know I've been with the company for a long time so over 15 years you established some good relationships and those things are obviously key for me here moving forward but everybody and their brother was giving me a call and saying hey you need to fix this you need to fix that and pretty soon you've got a list of 500 things and you're just getting started and and trying to prioritize those and figure out where to begin it became very overwhelming very quickly and I recognized immediately that I was going to need to pair some things down and prioritize a few things or I was going to get swallowed up with all that with the sheer volume of requests and and then need for improvement that was coming in yeah it's a great lead into my next question which is that story that you just told us so you laying in the job and here comes 500 requests right I hear that all the time so how did you prioritize what to do first and why well it's really interesting I not you know I let I read your 2016 report around strategic alignment and I I think Greg that that really was the key I wouldn't say that I called it that but I think for me I strategically had to look at where were the biggest gaps and most importantly we're in in a very quick and short period of time what could I change that would give us the biggest bang for our buck as an organization and and really culturally either change the sales organization to where I needed it to go and then how do I get the field some wins so right because I think one of the things for me is when I came into the role I recognized that sales ops was a little bit had the perception of being adversarial to the field and with my 15 years in kind of I guess a little bit of my experience in the field I think people would tell you in the organization that I'm the questioned guy I challenged things a little bit and I stick my neck out there a little and always questions and things and I think that was a good thing for me coming into the role so what I settled on Greg was really really two key facts areas and the first one was the comp plan I needed to design a comp plan that aligned with our company goals and really moving our sales team from that farmer mentality to that hunter mentality and so that was a big key key piece and so the first really the first 100 days was strategically around how do i how do I make those changes and get that buy-in from the organization and all the disciplines involved so that we could we could move in the right direction yeah you know our second thing I did was really focus on our CRM so we use a Microsoft Dynamics CRM which is great but I wouldn't describe it as end user friendly basically the fields perception of that CRM is that it's a Big Brother thing and really more for frankly Commission verification and more for the company than it is for them so what we did was we sat down and we really said okay if we want to get buy-in and user adoption what are the things that we need to do in change that will enable folks to see value in the system and therefore improve compliance with the CRM and and those were the two big ones that we're focusing on and at least from a sales ops standpoint we're doing some other great things in the organization with them go to market strategy stuff that your group's helping us with but I was more peripheral involved with those while I really tackled these two big big big item yep so the advice of getting some quick wins I think that's great advice and tackling the things that are the biggest issues as a way to prioritize I think was also a great advice all right all very helpful things we need to take a quick break stick around after the break we're gonna dive into this detail even more with Todd regarding what to do as a new sales ops leader you're listening to the SBI podcast each day you receive hundreds of emails tons of text messages countless telephone calls and sit in too many meetings how do you find ideas to make the number with all this noise the SBI blog filters all this nonsense for you and presents only first-rate ideas to make the number simplify your life subscribe to one blog and read the best content go to salesbenchmarkindex.com and subscribe today welcome back this is Greg Alexander and I'm the CEO of SBI and my guest today is Todd Doolittle head of sales ops at healthcare provider concentra today we are discussing their critical success factors for new sales ops leaders and we're using SBI's revenue growth methodology to do it if you want to follow along its pages 186 to 192 if you still don't have a copy of this shame on you you can get one at salesbenchmarkindex.com forward slash 2016 a report before the break in segment 1 Todd shared with us why he took this job the mandate he was given his biggest struggles in the first 100 days and how he prioritized his work there in this segment we're gonna discuss getting things done with short timelines without much help in the 80 hour work week so Todd you are getting a lot done with almost no headcount and let's say a modest budget how the heck are you doing it well you get the nail in the head there's frankly not enough hours in the day to frankly do everything myself and I've learned that very quickly I think there are really three key things from my perspective the first one is I think you have to surround yourself with really good people you know I one of the things we did we brought good people into the organization we actually had some really good salespeople in the field who decided to who wanted to come on and try something different and I was able to encourage those folks to come in and help us and that is huge you roll up your sleeves you get after it and I think if you can rely on those good people to help carry you through and have trust and confidence in them that's key because there just isn't enough hours in the day - for me personally to be able to be involved with every intricate little detail and make sure that the eyes get dotted in the t's crossed the other piece the second piece for me is I think relationships are really a key at the end of the day what I need is I need to get things from people and generally I find that if you treat people the right way they'll help you so when I came into this role we candidly had some historical challenges with between our our is team and the previous sales ops ownership or like we talked about the lack of ownership over two years and so I really tackled this head-on and really approached the need for collaboration did a lot of lunches did a lot of face-to-face meetings asked for a lot of opinions and collaborated on a lot of decision-making and I think it really goes a long way it's amazing how far a thank you and I'm showing somebody appreciation for for the help and what they're doing will will will help you when you're up against a deadline but those things are obviously big keys okay fantastic those are great pieces of advice all right your boss John is the head of sales he expects everything to be done yesterday just like most sales leaders what advice can you offer to your peers on dealing with at times unrealistic deadlines well I would say they're they're an occupational hazard they're part of the job you're gonna get them all the time for me I think it's honesty that you know rules the day and I don't think he should be afraid to say no you know for John specifically I have a ton of respect for him and he's honestly one of the main reasons that I took this job I think he's brilliant but like all good leaders he has a new idea every day at a minimum one a day usually it's more and so he's always coming at me with these different ideas and you know for me I I just believe in being honest and candid and and trying to say ok hey this is a great idea we're still working on you know these these key pieces that we talked about you know 30 days ago that we're still working on how do these rank from a priority standpoint and what you know what do you think and we may move some things around a little bit on the priority scale but I think you have to be able to have the dialogue have to be able to have those discussions and you also have to be candid if you're not able to achieve those deadlines because there's nothing worse than telling somebody that you're going to get something done by X date and not having it delivered at that particular time yep you know before I started SBI 10 years ago I was the equivalent of John and I had I only had two jobs I had a job at EMC and my sales ops leader there was Mike Tripoli and I had a job at recall and my sales ops leader there was Aaron Bartel ISM when I started SBI those two guys are my co-founders and I convinced them to come join me because I'm like John I'm an idea guy I have more than one idea a day but ideas are worthless unless they get implemented and what you need are great what I call mind to market partners so guys like you that can work effectively with somebody like John and take his brilliance and drive it into the organization into something that's tangible so I can see you two guys working extremely well together and moving the needle all right let me go to my third question in this segment so you are in the field your entire life and now you're at HQ working very long hours and trying to keep everybody happy so when is it okay to say no to a request and not take a crushing political hit I you know I've been in this roll now for I'm on month five and you know I think the one thing that you have to have is you have to have a little bit of six again so part of that too is not getting too tied up into I can't even tell you if I've taken a crushing political hit yeah Greg because you know I pay attention you don't care right I in many in many cases in all honesty that's the truth I can I can tell you that you know ten years ago five years ago was really important for me to know what everybody thought and you know that everybody likes you and everything else and in all honesty you don't have enough time to think about that and as you go from thing to thing I think the key is you you you have to be open and honest with people and you don't want to be a jerk about things but if if something's out of scope or if something isn't where it needs to be you you take those things down and you put those and you are honest with people and say hey I will get to that but right now my priorities priorities or XY and Z and right now because I'm five months in I do think I have a little bit of the honeymoon period where I haven't had people know that the big-ticket items that I'm working on are more important I I can see though when you know six months from now when you know the dust is settled on some of this stuff and now you're doing strategic long-term planning that that can be you know how you prioritize something when nothing's on fire first day that that may be a challenge for me but but right now I think you just have to go make the best decisions you can try to stay true in art and our company we have what we call True North a True North document try to stay true to that and make sure that that's those are the key pieces you're focusing on and let the chips fall where they may yeah you know a friend of mine who works inside of our firm his name is Dan Perry and his practice is what we call the Talent practice and what this means is is that he helps CEOs sales leaders et cetera make key hiring decisions one of which is very often sales ops and he was just telling me last week that he was interviewing in reference checking three candidates and the lead candidate that everybody wanted to hire his references they had nothing but glowing things to say about him and yet Dan was unwilling to give his wreck and I said to him what are you holding up on the Ike I don't get it this guy on paper looks great he did great in the case study his interview was fantastic as references a phenomenal what's the problem and he said this job is somebody who needs to drive change and anybody who drives change is gonna break some glass and might not have a lot of political capital left over in the end that's their role and the the candidate B which is who he was putting forward got some tough references things like hey he's really smart and really capable but he did this and that was uncomfortable or but he did that and you know that was a shock to the system and that's exactly what we're looking for so why am i bothering the audience with this little story is you just heard a very senior sales ops leader Todd say they doesn't care about politics anymore earlier on in his career he probably did but now he doesn't because he's comfortable enough in his own skin so if you're a new sales ops leader which is what this show is about don't worry about that stuff your job is to get the job done buckle up and take some swings for the fences and if people are gonna throw darts at you that's a sign you're actually doing your job all right sales ops leaders these questions that I'm asking Todd if you don't know the answers to them you better figure them out pretty quick it is possible to be excellent at your job and still have a life so let's take a short break and we come back we're gonna talk about that how to have a life how to move from the field to HQ how to deal with unrealistic timelines and limited budgets and all of that and still have a life okay so stick around after the break this is the SBI podcast do you have too many things to do and not enough time to do them is finding time to learn best practices almost impossible the SBI podcast is your solution turn time spent exercising commuting and traveling into productive learning time with a subscription to the SBI podcast SBI podcast listeners get unique insight into real-world sales and marketing issues through interviews with your industry peers every week find us on iTunes by searching for sales benchmark index podcast and subscribe today welcome back this is Greg Alexander I'm the CEO of SBI my guest today is Todd Doolittle today we are discussing the critical success factors for new sales ops leaders we have had a rich authentic conversation today that spanned many topic areas let's try and summarize this into an action plan for our audience so Todd what are three actions an audience member can take immediately after listening to this with watching this to be successful as a newly appointed sales ops leader yep so I think number one is you need to surround yourself with good people and make sure that you treat people the right way obviously I need input buy-in and frankly some direction to help us make the best decisions we can I look at the people on my team they're my clients and they they are the key to helping me be able to achieve my goals so I think that's a big piece the second one I would say is you have to prioritize you have to evaluate you have to decide and most importantly Greg you got to go I am very I am guilty historically of the becoming that victim of analysis by paralysis and frankly when I came into this role I found myself going down that role that that hole very quickly and early on in the in the process you know we have a lot of different things in the hopper per se and I was found myself trying to find the perfect solution right for all of what ails me and the truth is when you get down into the details there just isn't time nor is there truly the right answer so I think you have to figure out where the gap is strategically how you get yourself most of the way there and then go and then tweak it as you go to help you be able to get there so the third thing Greg at least for me is the sense of humor this is a serious job I recognize that but I think you can take a little too seriously if you let it so for me I try to laugh a little and look at this as being fun I mean I feel very fortunate Concentra has put their confidence in me to help our company achieve a billion dollar revenue target in 2016 and I get to be the guy who's creating the strategy and the plans to help us get there and at the end of the day it's pretty cool so I think though that if you if you get consumed by that a little too much it can it can chew you up and spit you out so I do try to take it with a little bit of a grain of salt and and have a little sense of humor about things especially when I fall on my face a few times and just hope that not everybody sees it yeah you know your last point there about go I really want to emphasize that you gotta know when to stop studying and start doing and my belief is ship it and fix it progress over perfection start producing and get things out there make some changes and rapidly iterate progress over perfection okay excellent excellent takeaway from our friend Todd let me offer this audience my two cents for what it's worth so mr. or miss newly hired sales ops leader listen up you can't blow your honeymoon period this is your chance to set the tone of how sales offs will be viewed inside your company for years to come many of you have told me you want to elevate sales ops from a tactical contributor to a strategic differentiator the way to do that is to help the company accelerate its rate of revenue growth by partnering effectively with the Sales Leader and being a killer mind to market partner this is why you care about what we spoke about today so if you find yourself a new job learn from Todd's experience and make the most of your honeymoon period if you want to make sure you get this right consider having one of our experts help you with this for it's not as easy as you might think if this is of interest to you go to salesbenchmarkindex.com forward slash contact and I'll send somebody out to see Todd on behalf of the audience I really want to thank you for letting me interview interview you on the show and I appreciate the candor upon which you answered my questions I enjoyed it thank you okay and I need to take a moment to thank this amazing audience get this this show has become number one in its category thank you for all of your support to show our appreciation we've done something for you we've invested in the new SBI app we want to make it as easy as possible to consume all of our educational material so we've developed this app just for you this way our content doesn't get lost in a sea of email when something new comes out we simply send you a push notification and all you have to do is click check it out at the Apple Store until next time I wish you good luck as you try and make your number this has been the SBI podcast for more information on SBI services case studies the SBI team and how we work or to subscribe to our other offerings please visit us at salesbenchmarkindex.com