Formalizing The Sales Support Function

Jesse Hopps

At the highest level, the Sales Support function is responsible for ensuring that the Sales & Marketing departments have the tools, resources, and systems they need to achieve current and future sales revenue targets. Use Demand Metric's downloadable Director of Sales Support job description to formalize the role of sales support in your organization.

Director of Sales Support Responsibilities:

  • Facilitate Deal Closing - manage multi-region opportunities by building and managing project specific sales teams, and provide support to facilitate opportunity conversion.
  • Direct and Manage - regional Sales Operations & Application Managers to efficiently support the sales and marketing departments.
  • Develop and Implement - comprehensive strategies, systems, tactics, metrics, budgets, resource requirements, and action plans to grow and support sales revenue targets and future growth targets within a specified geographic region.
  • Analyze Business Processes - and collaborate with Senior Account Managers, Sales & Marketing Directors, Technical Support, and Operations to identify opportunities to streamline processes, and measure results of activities.
  • Implement and Maintain - enterprise Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and provide support for sales, marketing, & customer service.
  • Develop Sales Support Metrics - track and report on performance and productivity of the technical sales support team.
  • Build - a collaborative environment by emphasizing teamwork.
  • Develop and Communicate - sales support strategy to management team.

Action Plan:

    1. Assess your Effectiveness - read our summary Measure your Sales Support Effectiveness, and download the accompanying Sales Support Effectiveness Survey to evaluate your current maturity in this area.
  1. Determine your Needs - not all organizations require a formal Sales Support function. If you have requirements in the areas of CRM, multi-region sales opportunities, collecting sales metrics & benchmarks, and reporting, there is a good chance that you would benefit from this function.
  2. Formalize Job Description - use Demand Metric's customizable Director of Sales Support job description to outline what you are looking for in a candidate, and the requirements of the position.
  3. Interview Candidates - you may wish to hire internally for this role, as deep knowledge of company processes, strategy, and methods are essential for success in this position. Complete a fair, open, hiring process, and select the candidate who is best for the job. Important skills include business analysis, sales & marketing operations, communication, and system support.
  4. Set Goals & Objectives - once you have selected your Director, complete an initial meeting to set and document the goals & objectives for this year. Be sure to discuss how efforts will be measured upon performance review.

Bottom-Line:

If you are serious about CRM or winning multi-region deals, you need a formalized Sales Support function. Assess your current level of effectiveness, and if necessary, hire an experienced Director of Sales Support who can optimize this process.

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