RingCentral Focused on Sales Leadership Development

The big idea for RingCentral was to build a cohesive sales leadership culture that ensured predictable revenue growth. Improving ROSL (“return on sales leadership”) became a core focus of the program and led to every sales manager making the shift to more strategic thinking and fact-based judgment vs. gut instincts. Said another way, RingCentral sales managers began running their businesses and leading their sales teams like CEOs vs. “super reps”.

The big idea for RingCentral was to create a cohesive sales leadership culture that was driving predictable revenue. We needed this because the company was growing quickly, and everyone needed to be on the same page.

The outcome of the program for RingCentral was to think about a “return on sales leadership” (ROSL). ROSL can be calculated with a simple math equation. Take the output from the teams of each manager divided by the amount the manager gets paid, which includes salary, stock, and all those other fun pieces.

This calculation allowed us to think about how we can make consistent coaching repeatable across teams and how we could pull that coaching forward to impact the current month or quarter. The earlier that coaching happens in each cycle, the more likely results will occur within the timeframe in consideration.

Our insight also led to a team that is more metrics-based rather than based on a gut feeling. Evaluation is centered on fact-based judgment, strategic thinking, and planning for their business. Through this program, we empowered our managers and executives to be CEOs of the unit they run. This approach gave them the ability to drive forward like a CEO, where they make all the decisions, create a business case, and execute on it.