Gartner for Sales

State of Sales
Operations Report:
Key Findings
Introduction
Sales leaders are regularly expected to increase revenue while managing expenses.
This means they are constantly trying to find new ways to improve sales productivity
and scrutinize costs. More than ever, sales leaders are turning to sales operations
to help with these tasks. Sales operations can leverage the mountain of available data
to help sales leaders make data-based decisions that improve the effectiveness of
everything from sales force design and development to sales compensation, sales
process and systems, and sales analytics and intelligence.
Sales operations’ role in driving commercial excellence doesn’t stop at providing
analysis. The most effective sales operations departments also serve as “chiefs of staff,”
coordinating everything from sales strategy to execution — both within the sales
function and among stakeholders outside of sales. The organizations that succeed will
be those that can successfully leverage sales operations as a focal point for the key
decisions sales leaders need to make to succeed.
While some sales operations departments have successfully become such a focal
point, many others have struggled to evolve beyond a support function that provides
ad hoc reports. Gartner recently surveyed more than 250 sales leaders to look at the
current state of sales operations to help heads of sales and sales operations identify
emerging trends and opportunities in the sales operations function.

2 © 2020 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_I_840086
Here are the top 5 key findings from the survey:

01 Forty-two percent of respondents rate sales analytics ROI as

significantly higher than expected. This rating is consistent whether
sales analytics is housed in sales operations or outside of sales and
shared between multiple functions.

02 Sales operations’ support is increasingly scoped beyond sales.

Today, 57% of sales operations functions support marketing
departments, 38% support product and 35% support finance.

03 Forty-five percent of respondents say sales leaders in their

organizations have high confidence in forecasting accuracy.
This skepticism results in sales leaders acting on intuition instead
of evidence, often leading to reduced commercial outcomes.

04 Talent needs for sales operations are changing. Respondents

expect data and analytics skills to be much more important for
sales operations staff in the coming years than they are today.

05 Financial concerns are the top factors sales leaders consider

when determining sales force size. This focus on financial concerns
is consistent with sales organizations that are uncertain about the
future and looking to preemptively control costs.

3 © 2020 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_I_840086
 01
Key Finding No. 1
Forty-two percent of respondents rate sales analytics ROI as
significantly higher than expected. This rating is consistent
whether sales analytics is housed in sales operations or outside
of sales and shared among multiple functions.

Overall return on investment for sales analytics

Q: “How would you rate the return on your organization’s sales analytics investments?”
100%

16%

42% rate sales

analytics’ ROI
significantly higher
than expected.
26%
Percentage of respondents

50%

42%

12%

3% 3% 1%
0% 0.3%

n = 296
Source: 2019 Gartner State of Sales Operations Survey
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% because of rounding.

Recommendations
Sales leaders happy with their current analytics’ return on investment should not relocate
the capability in hopes of increasing its overall effectiveness. Instead sales leaders
should improve sales analytics’ ROI by focusing on improving data literacy throughout
the organization and creating a culture where “information is a second language.”

4 © 2020 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_I_840086
 02
Key Finding No. 2
Sales operations’ support is increasingly scoped beyond sales.
Today, 57% of sales operations functions support marketing
departments, 38% support product and 35% support finance.

Percentage of sales operations departments that support each function

Q: “What percentage of sales operations’ time is dedicated to supporting the
following functions?”
Sales 100%

Marketing 57%

Product 38%

Finance 35%

Customer service and technical support 34%

Enterprise analytics 25%

IT 24%

Human resources 19%

0% 50% 100%
n = 296
Source: 2019 Gartner State of Sales Operations Survey

Recommendations
The trend of sales operations supporting other functions will increase in the coming
years. A single revenue or commercial operations department is unlikely to become
the dominant organizational structure, but sales operations will need to continue
to collaborate with key players in the commercial funnel. This means sales operations
cannot expect to rely on sales data alone and must work with marketing, finance,
customer service and product to synthesize information from all functions and paint
an accurate picture that leaders can use to make high-stakes decisions.

5 © 2020 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_I_840086
 03
Key Finding No. 3
Forty-five percent of respondents say sales leaders in their
organizations have high confidence in forecasting accuracy. This
skepticism results in sales leaders acting on intuition instead of
evidence, which often leads to reduced commercial outcomes.

Percentage of respondents indicating high confidence in forecast accuracya

Sales leaders have high confidence in forecast accuracy

45%
Agree
55%
Disagree

n = 296
Source: 2019 Gartner State of Sales Operations Survey
a
High confidence is indicated by a rating of 6 or 7 on a seven-point scale.

Recommendations
Assuming forecasts are generally accurate, the solution to poor perception
is straightforward: Sales operations leaders must go beyond publishing regular
forecasts and track and communicate accuracy over time. This can usually
be accomplished monthly or quarterly by showing a roll-up of the forecasts
compared to their actual totals.

6 © 2020 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_I_840086
 04
Key Finding No. 4
Talent needs for sales operations are changing. Respondents
expect data and analytics skills to be much more important for sales
operations staff in the coming years than they are today.

Change in rank of importance for sales operations skills over five years

Ranking for hires in Importance Change

Common sales operations skills
12 months in 5 years in ranking
Data visualization 14 1 13 p
Quantitative skills 5 2 3p
Analytical problem solving 3 3 0
Forecasting and modeling 21 4 17 p
Data governance 19 5 14 p
Strategic planning 2 6 -4 q
Technical aptitude 15 7 8p
Experience with a specific CRM platform 11 8 3p
Application management 17 9 8p
CRM expertise 16 10 6p
Application development 13 11 2p
Statistical analysis 12 12 0
Project management 8 13 -5 q
Business acumen 9 14 -5 q
Effective oral communication 1 15 -14 q
Performance management 7 16 -9 q
Previous experience in sales 6 17 -11 q
Effective written communication 4 18 -14 q
Sales compensation design 20 19 1p
Stakeholder management 18 20 -2 q
Sales compensation administration 10 21 -11 q
Territory design 22 22 0

n = 296
Source: 2019 Gartner State of Sales Operations Survey

Recommendations
In the coming years, an increasing amount of data will pass through the sales function,
and sales operations will be relied on more than ever. As the volume of data and the
number of different sources continue to increase, sales functions will need operations
departments that have analysis skills as well as synthesis skills. Sales operations
will need to take a holistic view of all available data sources and combine them into
actionable insights.

7 © 2020 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_I_840086
 05
Key Finding No. 5
Financial concerns are the top factors sales leaders consider when
determining sales force size. This focus on financial concerns is
consistent with sales organizations that are uncertain about the
future and looking to preemptively control costs.

Percentage of respondents indicating a response is the “primary factor” in sales

force sizinga
Q: “When determining sales force size, how heavily are the following factors weighted?”

Financial constraints 21%

Financial outlook/economy 21%

Cost of sales 20%

ROI analysis 20%

Activity-based analysis 19%

Seller productivity 18%

Customer segmentation coverage/need 17%

Sales role design 17%

Geographic expansion 15%

0% 12% 24%
n = 296
Source: 2019 Gartner State of Sales Operations Survey
a
Primary factor is indicated by a rating of 7 on a seven-point scale.
Note: Numbers may not add to totals shown because of rounding.

Recommendations
Controlling costs — if not reducing them — in the face of market uncertainty is an
effective strategy. Sales operations leaders can play a key role in sales expense
mitigation by using metrics to drive better decision making and reveal hidden insights,
and taking a proactive approach to controlling costs by carefully examining emerging
financial constraints to avoid being forced into more drastic actions by external factors.

8 © 2020 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_I_840086
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© 2020 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_I_840086

9 © 2020 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_I_840086