Senior Manager, Commercial Sales Operations

Company Description

At Palo Alto Networks everything starts and ends with our mission: Being the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life. We are a company built on the foundation of challenging and disrupting the way things are done, and we are looking for innovators who are as committed to shaping the future of cybersecurity as we are. 

We have the vision of a world where each day is safer and more secure than the one before. These aren’t easy goals to accomplish — but we’re not here for easy. We’re here for better. We are a company built on the foundation of challenging and disrupting the way things are done, and we’re looking for innovators who are as committed to shaping the future of cybersecurity as we are.

Job Description

We are looking for a Senior Sales Operations Manager to support the US Commercial leadership team in all aspects of the business. You will partner with Channel, Marketing, Finance, and HR while being an integral part of the North American Sales Operations organization. This role is a great fit for a self-starter who enjoys driving business impact and operational efficiency, can serve as an internal consultant (e.g., problem solver) and owner and will have the opportunity for significant exposure and visibility across the business.

The candidate in this role will provide leadership and advisory support in driving Sales Productivity, GTM Strategy, Sales Planning, Sales Forecasting, Segmentation, and Sales Analytics.

Your Impact

• Act as key business partner to US Senior VP and Regional Management Team interfacing cross-functionally in the organization

• Drive forecasting, deal structuring and participate in a month-end and quarter-end close process:

  • Set up cadences and inspection of quarterly targets and forecasts for the overall Commercial US Sales teams

  • Optimize forecast accuracy by driving discipline with pipeline hygiene and forecast management

  • Facilitate tracking of outstanding purchase orders, ensuring order compliance, bookings reports, etc

  • Manage compliance of the non-standard transactions process; track quarterly metrics on average discounts, non-standard exceptions and recommend action items to improve these metrics

• Drive Sales Operations Planning, Quarterly Business Review meetings and Territory Planning with Sales Management Team

  • Run data analytics and partner with the strategy to assess the total addressable commercial market, product propensity to buy and optimize territory coverage. Use this to develop Commercial bundles for SMB and Mid-Market, in collaboration with marketing, partners and the BDR team.

  • Work closely with functional and sales management on GTM segmentation and coverage strategy implementation

  • Provide analysis and reporting of compensation plan effectiveness and efficiency, including performance reporting at the individual, manager, and regional levels. Compile, assess and report on performance and earnings distributions.

  • Drive standards in territory planning with Commercial sales and partners. 

  • Develop a repeatable motion for account planning, lead generation and pipeline development, whereby sellers prioritize their top whitespace accounts, with sellers handing off other accounts to partners. 

• Manage all aspects of Operations, Tools, Dashboards and Reporting for the Commercial sector:

  • Support process enhancements, modifications and best practices development

  • Assist in driving field readiness for new sales hires and ongoing sales processes training

  • Track and manage pipe generation across the direct field, partner and support functions 

  • Set up and manage sales play programs to drive pipe generation and optimize deals across whitespace accounts, underpenetrated accounts and renewing customers.

  • Review and identify areas for improvement leading to operational efficiency, process optimization and field acceleration (sales enablement tools, process, and programs)

  • Coordinate activities and priorities of enablement functions to improve alignment to sales strategy

Qualifications

Your Experience 

• Strong organizational skills, self-starter, and can quickly identify and resolve inefficiencies across the business

• Deep experience working with Salesforce CRM, data analytics and annual planning tools

• A mission-driven, team player approach and a desire to make an impact and difference

• Must have hands-on experience in business analysis, data analytics, and statistical modeling

• Prior experience as business partner to sales and partner leadership (VP/GM level)

• Exceptional communication skills