Sales Operations
Sales Operations (Sales Ops) is the function that supports sales teams by managing CRM systems, analyzing data, optimizing processes, and handling territory and quota planning. It removes friction so reps can focus on selling instead of administration.
Sales Ops is either a strategic function that drives revenue or an admin team buried in spreadsheets and data requests. The difference is scope and authority.
Reactive Sales Ops: "Can you pull this report?" "Can you add this field to Salesforce?" "Can you fix this duplicate record?" Strategic Sales Ops: "Here's why reps are losing deals at proposal stage and what to change." "Here's the territory model that maximizes coverage without burning out the team." "Here's the quota methodology backed by historical attainment."
The RevOps movement happened because Sales Ops was already doing this — but needed a seat at the table and alignment with Marketing Ops and CS Ops. Great Sales Ops doesn't just support sales; it makes sales better.
Define ItOther Definitions
“Sales operations is a set of business activities and processes that help a sales organization run effectively, efficiently, and in support of business strategies and objectives. Sales ops handles everything from lead management, sales strategy, and territory structuring to sales analytics.”
“Sales operations refers to the unit, role, activities, and processes within a sales organization that support, enable, and drive front-line sales teams to sell better, faster, and more efficiently.”
“Sales operations is the team responsible for implementing and managing the sales technology stack, developing and maintaining reporting and analytics, and optimizing the sales process.”
Sales Operations enables sales teams to sell more effectively through systems, data, and process optimization. Salesforce emphasizes the breadth — from lead management to analytics. Gartner focuses on the enabling role — helping reps sell better and faster. HubSpot highlights tech stack and reporting.
Core Sales Ops functions include: (1) CRM Administration — configuration, data quality, automation; (2) Analytics & Reporting — pipeline, performance, forecasting; (3) Territory Planning — account assignment, coverage models; (4) Quota & Compensation — target setting, incentive design; (5) Process Optimization — identifying bottlenecks, improving efficiency; (6) Sales Technology — tool selection, integration, adoption; (7) Enablement Support — training coordination, content management.
Sales Ops increasingly evolves into Revenue Operations (RevOps) when combined with Marketing Ops and Customer Success Ops.
MistakesCommon Mistakes
Treating Sales Ops as an admin function instead of strategic partner
Reactive report-pulling instead of proactive insight delivery
No ownership of data quality leading to untrusted analytics
Over-engineering CRM with too many fields and processes
Sales Ops siloed from Marketing Ops and CS Ops (solved by RevOps)
Is your Sales Ops strategic or just administrative?
We build the analytics, processes, and systems that turn Sales Ops from report-pullers into revenue drivers.
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