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Chief Sales Officer's key task: Operational sales leadership

Of the three roles of Chief Sales Officers, operational sales leadership is by far the most important for achieving operational excellence in sales.

To succeed, Chief Sales Officers must do five things right:

1. Set the right operational sales goal: one single type of goal for all sales units; decide dimension; set goals by unit. 
2. Design right operational sales plans: Decide which constraints must be resolved to consistently achieve the operational goal. Applying one page constraint focused plans in all units and levels results in a simple but powerful set of operational plans, where team members can easily learn from each other, execution is simple and focused. To cope with the high dynamics of the sales world it is key to plan for agile operational leadership from the start, by focusing sales plans on operational sprints.
3. Right execution: Much easier said than done. It takes special leadership effort to guide the members of the operational team to impeccably deliver their operational obligations. "Quick reviews" are the tool for that key task of operational leadership.
4. Right check: Operational sprint reviews to decide how to adjust/improve the operational sales plan.
5. Right operational leadership: Lead turning the Plan-Execute-Check cycle and the development or sustaining of a culture of operational excellence.

More information

More about the "Five right" principle of operational leadership in book SURF THE WAVES OF OPPORTUNITY, Chapter 2 "Five right". (Website, Look inside)