Any time I talk to other Sales Operations pros, there’s one common lament that seems to always come up, one recurring question.

“How the heck do I quantify my accomplishments and prove my role is beneficial to my boss and company?”

Quantifying the value of CRM, data management, processes, and reports can certainly be difficult, and that problem is further exacerbated by the fact that we work so closely with Sales, whose performance can easily be quantified by any number of metrics.

How many calls were made? Demos set? Deals won? Quota attained? Easy peasy.

For us, though, things aren’t so cut and dry. It can be incredibly frustrating, and we’re often left wondering, “How come it’s easy to quantify another person’s performance but so hard to do the same for my own?”

Unfortunately for us in Sales Operations, no one cares how many reports we ran or how many quotes we helped build. Sucks, but it’s the truth.

That means we need to go above and beyond in how we track what we’re working on. We have to make sure those reports are beneficial, the time spent cleaning data improved some other aspect of the business, and those quotes and contracts we built reduced the time to sale or helped close more deals.

Not to worry, fellow Sales Operators (can’t remember where I first saw it, but I like it), where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Luckily, it’s as easy as A-B-C-D, and I’ve laid it all out for you step by step. Follow the ABCD Technique at the beginning of each month to wrap up your previous month — it’s a great way to regularly capture your achievements and why they matter, while ensuring you’re working on the right things. And remember, it’s your job to communicate your contributions up the chain. This tool will help you do just that.

Here we go.

Grab a sheet of paper

Okay, this is old school and basic, but it’ll do for now. You can refine as you go (or grab a copy of my free template).

Section your sheet of paper off into four quadrants and then write “A” in the first quadrant, “B” in the second, “C” in the third, and “D” in the fourth. I go left-to-right, top-to-bottom, but whatever suits your fancy is fine. No need to overthink this.

A is for Accomplishments

In your “A” quadrant, write down all of your accomplishments over the past month. This can be anything you worked on, but I’d recommend keeping it pointed at your biggest projects and wins. In other words, skip the day-to-day tasks of running weekly reports and answering questions. That’s boring. Instead, think about the kind of impact you made. Give me the highlight reel!

It’s important to also be specific here. This is your chance to brag so don’t leave out any of the juicy details. They’re the most important part.

As you’re jotting down your big wins, it helps to quantify wherever you possibly can. If you can’t put a number on it, you can also point out whom you helped. The CEO? Your leadership team? Great! Write it down.

Get specific by asking yourself these questions:

• What?
• Who?
• How many?
• How much?

B is for Benefits

Ding! Ding! Ding!

You’ve reached the most important part of this whole exercise. Yes, I know we’re only in quadrant “B,” but this section is where you’ll outline how the work you did will benefit your company, your boss, your colleagues, etc.

This is hugely important so don’t skimp here. If you can’t figure out and express your contributions, then how can you expect your boss or company to understand?

To fill in this section, you’ll want to answer this one basic question: “So what?”

Go deep here. You may need to ask yourself “So what?” multiple times until you land on a solid answer. Did you save time? Save money? Improve a business process thus eliminating manual work? Demonstrate how your boss, team, and/or company will win because of the work you put in and what you’ve accomplished. Show them why they should care.

I’ll give you an example to chew on:

• Accomplishment: Completed a large data project, updating and cleaning 80,000 records in Salesforce.
• Benefit:
  • Bad example: Good data is important.
  • Good example: Salesforce cites data quality as the number one driver of user adoption. By keeping our database clean and up-to-date, we ensure that users continue using SFDC, trust our data and related reports, and can also provide leadership with the insights needed to make data-driven decisions. Overall, we’re optimizing our $xxx investment in the tool while improving our business and decision-making more broadly.

Bonus points if you can also quantify the benefits. It’s not always possible, but if you saved the team 5 hours per week or reduced the time-to-sale by 3 days, definitely include those stats!

C is for Challenges

Quadrant “C” offers a place to address concerns you may have about resources (or lack thereof), training needs, or trends you’ve noticed over time. Go beyond difficulties in your own day, and instead, point to big picture issues that need to be resolved. As you highlight a challenge, you should also show the steps you’ve taken to overcome the issue or at least offer potential solutions. “X is a pain point, but we’re doing Y and Z to minimize it’s impact on the broader organization.” Don’t be afraid to speak up, but always be sure you’re being constructive in the process.

“C” is also for careful, as in be careful with this quadrant.

I say this because people generally love to complain (I talk about why rockstars at work don’t complain here and here), so this could quickly become a laundry list of grievances. Notice here, though, that this is your opportunity to highlight challenges, not to complain. There’s a stark difference.

In summary, use quadrant “C” to identify and anticipate problems. Take action to solve those issues. Offer constructive solutions. Don’t whine or complain.

D is for Do Next

Here you’ll lay out your plans for the future. Think of quadrant “D” as your informal roadmap of to-dos over the next few months. Adding your next steps is a great way to ensure you’re on track when you refer back to this sheet in the future, and it will make for good conversation during your one-on-ones to be sure you and your boss are on the same page and have set the same priorities. What a shame it would be to work on a project for months only to find out it wasn’t actually a priority!

Not having regular one-on-ones? Take it upon yourself to schedule them.

Conclusion

That’s it. With the ABCD Technique, you can recap your month with 4 simple steps:

• Accomplishments
• Benefits
• Challenges
• Do Next

This exercise will take you anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to complete, and as mentioned above, should be done monthly so you’re actively keeping track of your various achievements.

Completing the ABCD Technique each month will help you threefold:

1. You’ll have more engaging conversations during your regular one-on-ones, and your boss will actually understand what it is that you do.
2. It’ll make your annual review process much quicker and more effective because you won’t be scrounging to remember what you did 7 or 9 or 11 months ago. You’ll have everything you need right at your fingertips.
3. You’ll start to think about the projects you take on differently. Rather than focusing on urgent, short-term requests, you’ll shift your focus to the most important projects that also have a bigger overall impact.

With this, your company wins, your boss wins, and of course, you win. And in the end, it all adds up to greater visibility for you and more responsibility and recognition along the way.

Drop me a note in the comments to let me know how your first one goes.

What other approaches have you taken to track and measure your performance in Sales Operations?

 

Photo by Daniel Y. Go on Foter.com / CC BY-NC