The document discusses initiatives taken by a life sciences company to improve its commercial operations and sales performance. It outlines seven initiatives taken by the company's sales operations team, which included developing KPI dashboards, standardizing sales processes, optimizing order to revenue conversion, fostering data-driven discussions, implementing a CRM system, and monitoring sales performance. The achievements of these initiatives included a better understanding of the sales cycle, an optimized order to revenue cycle, establishment of a more metrics-driven and insights-based organization, and improved forecasting and strategy deployment.

1. Sales
opera*ons
in
the
Life
Sciences
industry:
driving
commercial
excellence
Xavier
Sanso.
Frankfurt,
March
2013

2. Context
• Industry
driven
by
large
capital
equipment
investment
decisions
of
over
EUR
250,000
on
average
amidst
the
2008/2009
financial
crisis
• Company
was
s*ll
too
much
science
focused,
not
commercially
focused
• Company
had
lost
market
share
since
2008
because
of
technology
shiQs
and
lack
of
investment.
• Not
enough
business
focus
following
two
very
large
M&A
deals
in
2008
and
2010
• Sales
organiza*on
was
stable,
but
enabling
func*ons
consisted
of
a
small,
entrepreneurial
team
newly
put
together.
No
formal
processes
• Owned
by
huge
US
corpora*on,
$
30Bn
turnover,
highly
focused
on
processes,
efficiency
and
lean
organiza*on

3. Sales
Ops
ini/a/ve
#1
• Development
of
KPI
dashboard
• Circula*on
with
commercial
team
• Iden*fying
customer
trends
and
leading
indicators
• Set
forth
performance
metrics

4. Sales
Ops
ini/a/ve
#2
• Work
with
senior
EMEA
leadership
to
design
and
disseminate
a
standardized
sales
process
• Put
metrics
and
performance
measures
towards
all
phases
in
the
process

5. Sales
Ops
ini/a/ve
#3
• Cross-­‐func*onal
leadership
of
Service,
Presales,
Customer
Service,
Logis*cs,
Compliance
and
Credit
Controlling
to
ensure
fric*onless
order
to
revenue
conversion
• Design
and
sustain
robust
process

6. Sales
Ops
ini/a/ve
#4
• Partner
with
sales,
marke*ng
and
commercial
opera*ons
at
an
EMEA
leadership
level
to
foster
a
data-­‐driven
discussion
on
key
KPIs.
Clear
ac*onable
items
when
variances
happen.

7. Sales
Ops
ini/a/ve
#5
• Deliver
salesforce.com
project
to
the
commercial
organiza*on,
lead
the
best
prac*ces
and
the
circula*on
of
cri*cal
commercial
informa*on
• Create
comprehensive
and
standardized
pipeline
repor*ng
process
to
op*mize
lead
to
order
conversion

8. Sales
Ops
ini/a/ve
#6
• Present
to
EMEA
leadership
the
sales
actuals
and
forecast
data,
plus
market
insights.
Proac*ve
use
of
data,
lead
indicators
• Create
a
learning
organiza*on
through
clear
and
concise
business
reports,
promote
horizontal
best
prac*ces.

9. Sales
Ops
ini/a/ve
#7
• Support
the
launch
and
monitoring
of
commercial
strategy,
ensure
deployment
• Monitor
individual
sales
representa*ves
quotas
and
performance
• Sales
enablement
tools:
pricing,
compe**on
analysis,
lost
orders
analysis

10. Achievements:
• Be`er
understanding
of
lead
to
order
cycle,
faster
and
more
accurate
reac*on
when
problems
• Fluid
order
to
revenue
cycle
• Organiza*on
works
with
smart
metrics
and
relevant
market
insights
• Op*miza*on
of
working
capital
through
less
redundant
inventory
and
less
customer
disputes
• Be`er
forecast
execu*on,
transparent
risk/
opportuni*es
view,
more
efficient
strategy
deployment