I recently hosted an episode of Xactly Innovation Station, Game-changing Sales Planning Tactics: The Ultimate Playbook for Success, where I dove into sales planning and the key role Revenue Operations play in the process. Read on for the takeaways from the session!
Are you more of a visual learner? Watch the episode on-demand here.
Embracing a Comprehensive Approach
There’s been a shift from a traditional focus on sales operations to the broader scope of revenue operations, which we have adopted here at Xactly. This transition has enhanced our business by promoting a more comprehensive operational approach and aligning multiple customer-facing functions toward shared objectives (throughout the entire customer lifecycle). The collaboration across departments is central to our success, and I’m proud to play a part in driving this alignment for our organization's growth.
The Super Bowl of Sales Planning
For me, sales planning involves meticulously orchestrating inputs and approvals from senior leadership while ensuring seamless adherence to key milestones and deadlines. When it comes to timing for sales planning, I call August - September our “Super Bowl” as this is our time as revenue professionals to shine (and it happens to directly align with the kickoff of the NFL season). During this time, I join forces with Finance to establish targets for the upcoming fiscal year, going over critical metrics such as bookings, churn rates, and professional services projections.
Initial Steps in Sales Planning
Sales planning isn’t just a task but an art — a delicate balance of strategy, collaboration, and foresight. By embracing these initial steps, the sales plan is not just a roadmap but a compass guiding the organization toward success.
Establishing foundations
The groundwork begins with a strategic partnership with Finance to set targets and effectively model capacity. Aligning financial goals with operational capabilities creates a path that balances ambition with practicality.
Iterative refinement
Sales planning is an iterative process, evolving in response to feedback and data gleaned from various sources. There’s value in refining the plan continuously, leveraging insights to optimize strategies and enhance performance outcomes.
Aligning vision
Central to the success of sales planning is the alignment with leadership on the ideal state of operations. By optimizing incentive design, you can chart a path that motivates teams to drive results, fostering a culture of performance excellence.
Cross-team collaboration
To ensure the plan's viability and achievability, collaboration with Legal and other departments is important in bringing together diverse perspectives and expertise to craft a sales plan that is realistic, compliant, and strategically sound.
Data and Incentive Design: A Profitable Pairing
The relationship between data and incentive design is fundamental to our success. Leveraging historical data, financial results, and planning tools allows us to model hypothetical scenarios, providing insights that guide our decision-making. Equally important is the understanding of seasonality and potential gaps within our organization, enabling us to address weaknesses and proactively capitalize on opportunities. When it comes to the incentive design process, our focus (and my favorite part of the process) is on aligning incentives with desired behaviors and new products, ensuring that our compensation structures drive the right actions and outcomes.
Overcoming Chaos in Sales Planning
Challenges often arise when we lack the capacity to conduct robust analysis, impacting the efficacy of our plans. It’s important to prioritize changes that will yield the most significant impact while managing expectations. Effective change management and clear communication are key to preventing adverse effects on morale within the team. I have learned firsthand the importance of proper communication when implementing new compensation plans; the lack of it resulted in mistrust and resistance from the team.
Steps to overcoming challenges:
- Clear Communication: Over-communicate and document the plan to drive alignment.
- Build Trust: Foster trust by being accessible for questions and maintaining open communication with the field organization.
- Data Integration: Address challenges by integrating data from various systems and providing contextual information.
- Collaboration is key: Collaborating to understand data sources and meanings is crucial for crafting a robust plan.
The Business Impact of Optimal Territory Design
When it comes to the intricate process of territory design, it can be challenging when there’s an emotional attachment to accounts. By including contextual information such as visual representations, you can facilitate collaboration with field leaders and ensure rationalization and alignment within territories. I enjoy the territory design process and its potential to motivate the Sales team, elevate our operations, and drive enhanced performance and success across our organization.
Strategic sales planning has a profound impact on organizational success, and Revenue Operations plays a key role in shaping and guiding the development of agile, data-driven sales processes. As the key architect of these initiatives, Revenue Operations remains at the forefront of driving innovation and ensuring the success and longevity of any organization.
Action Items:
Revisit the compensation plan T&Cs and incentive design to optimize for desired behaviors.
Prioritize and focus on the one or two most impactful changes to the sales planning process, rather than trying to do too many things at once.
Ensure proper communication, documentation, and change management when rolling out any changes to the sales planning process or compensation plans.
