Three levels of B-side operations (Part 1): Contents and drawbacks of primary B-side operations

In the field of B-side operations, different realms represent different capabilities and levels. This article will explore the three realms of B-side operations, as well as the work content and possible drawbacks of primary B-side operations. Understanding these contents will help us better understand and improve the capabilities of B-side operations to cope with the ever-changing market demands. Let us explore the world of B-side operations in depth through this article.

How to demonstrate personal value in junior B-side operations positions!

After working for a period of time, many friends who work in operations find that their personal abilities have reached a bottleneck, or they encounter many troubles at work, and they also encounter bottlenecks in finding jobs. They feel that the threshold of 35 will soon arrive.

So, how to eliminate the drawbacks brought about by B-side operations.

Based on the work in recent years, I have divided the B-side operations into general rules. If we divide them according to the content of the work, we can divide them into marketing team, SDR, sales, pre-sales, and customer success. If we further subdivide the B-side operations, we can divide them into SEM, SEO, content operations, self-media operations, sales operations, private domain operations, after-sales operations, etc. There are many categories that can be divided according to the work content of each company. However, in real work, it is not possible to work perfectly according to a certain position, and comprehensive content will be required in the work.

If you want to maximize your value and personal abilities at work, you need to have the abilities that match what the company needs you to accomplish.

In the past few years, I have summarized some operations work content, which can be divided into three categories, depending on which operations category you belong to.

1. Operations only supports the R&D team, sales, and customer success

Here is a brief description of this picture.

According to the company's lead flow, we first obtain the customer's contact information through advertising, content operation, self-media channels, short videos and live broadcasts. The contact information will then be transferred to the SDR team to determine the customer's intention to purchase the product and obtain the customer's basic information, thereby transferring the lead to the sales team. After the sales follow up according to effective methods and strategies, the customer will enter the customer success team after purchasing the product.

So, in the process of customer turnover, product and R&D support is needed. However, most product managers of B-side enterprises do not have much time for internal and external support. At this time, a B-side product operation team will be built. What the operation team does is to support the internal team with the materials, tutorials and solve other customer problems.

I wonder if the job you are doing fits this description?

If you define the B-side position as this position, how should you carry out your work? And what are the problems with this positioning?

1. Be familiar with the product and common problems

Since this position needs to solve the problems encountered by SDR, sales and customer success on the client side, this position needs to be proficient in the functions of the product, be able to translate into simple solutions when they ask relevant questions, and be able to solve customer problems in combination with the functions of the product.

Customers will have many of the same questions, so this position needs to summarize customers' common questions and be able to give answers quickly. However, with the development of artificial intelligence, more and more intelligent customer service has taken on some of the work.

For end users, they prefer to communicate with humans rather than chat windows trained with scripts.

2. Brief solution capability

Many of the problems faced by customers are not simple usage issues, but may lead to more business problems. Therefore, solving business problems cannot be achieved by a simple single function. Colleagues in this position need to be able to output solutions.

Some people may say that outputting solutions is the ability of the pre-sales team. Many after-sales solutions are output by the customer success team. However, when other teams are not capable enough, all solution outputs will fall to the product operations team.

When customers encounter business problems, the product operations team needs to cooperate with the customer success team to analyze customer demands and solve product function output solutions so that customers can use the product proficiently.

3. Skilled in fighting

The biggest workload of this position is to provide internal support. When business indicators are moving forward, everyone can get along peacefully. If customers do not purchase products or ask for refunds due to product function problems and solution problems, the conflicts between sales, customer success team and product operation team will be exposed.

Regardless of the size of the company or team, there will be human nature exposed by the interests of the position and personal selfishness. As long as you participate in the project, you will get a lot of pot, even if you think the problem is not yours, you will be involved.

As long as you can master the use of the product, simple solution capabilities, and can hold your own in a competitive situation, you can easily take on this position.

In this position, you need to think about a question: how to reflect your personal value and job value. If you define value as problem solving, then as sales staff and customers successfully deepen their understanding of the product, they learn the product's functions and the output of the solution, then your job will soon be lost.

Secondly, if personal output is defined as sales and customer success evaluation, conflicts in business are inevitable due to the different interests of the two parties in the products, and they may also be subject to complaints from them, and the personal value will be questioned by the company. Unless your boss takes special care of you, it is difficult for such a position to survive in the workplace for a long time.

Finally, since this position is far from the company's business value, the company's business performance has a greater impact on the position. Unless you can integrate into the company's business scenario, you have no numerical evidence to prove your personal value. Then, when the business is good, this position can still gain benefits by following the market trend. If the business is down, this position is likely to be the first to be optimized and laid off.

Therefore, if you only provide internal support for B-side product operations, you will not be able to bring out your personal value, nor will you be able to gain better results in the workplace. It is recommended that you choose as little of this type of work as possible.

In my recent thinking, there is also a second B-side operation work scope and a B-side work scope of large operations. We will discuss these contents in the second and third articles.

Author: Zhang Mu

WeChat public account: Operations Officer Zhang Mu