The Indispensable Sales Operations Team: Insights from T-Mobile

When Janet Sutherland began her career as a consultant, she quickly noticed a troubling pattern.

“Every project had brilliant strategies and presentations,” she recalls. “But when I looked back at the business outcomes, the delivery wasn’t there.”

That gap between strategy and execution would define the focus of her career. Janet realized early on that a solid operating model that connects vision to delivery is what truly brings business goals to life.

“That’s what drew me into operations,” she says. “It sits right at the intersection of strategic vision and practical enablement.”

After her first operations role, Janet carried that philosophy into every position that followed. Now, as Senior Leader of Sales Enablement at T-Mobile, she’s redefining what it means for sales operations teams to be not just efficient but indispensable.

Sales operations evolves from a support function to a strategic partner

Ten years ago, sales operations was often viewed as a back-office role responsible for tracking metrics, managing systems, and responding to requests. Janet remembers that era clearly.

“Sales ops used to be the doer, the supporter, the tracker,” she says. “But through digitization and transformation, it’s become a strategic partner in the business—an enabler.”

With the explosion of digital tools and data, her team evolved from simply maintaining processes to shaping how T-Mobile executes its strategy.

“Execution is everything,” she adds. “Adoption of new technology is critical to truly drive success.”

That shift from support to strategy didn’t happen overnight. It required showing the organization that operations isn’t just about running systems; it’s also about accelerating business goals.

“Sales operations becomes truly valuable when it stops being invisible and starts being indispensable.”

Today, Janet sits in on strategic, marketing, and product committees across the company, helping connect insights from sales teams to decisions made in the boardroom.

How sales operations teams lead through change

Janet is quick to point out that transformation isn’t just technical—it’s human.

“With AI, automation, and new tools coming out every day, people get tired,” she says. “That transformation fatigue is real.”

Her approach to leading through constant change starts with empathy and early buy-in. “When features look amazing, it’s easy to forget how they’ll impact someone’s day-to-day work,” she explains. “Getting the right stakeholders, like sales, legal, and finance involved early makes all the difference.”

She also leans heavily on storytelling to create momentum.

“There are always metrics,” she says, “but you have to tell people the story of why this matters, what problem it solves, and how it makes their lives better.”

That people-first mindset is built into the framework she recently launched: PTR3E—Process, Tools, and Resources measured by Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Experience. It’s become a shared language across teams for evaluating any transformation initiative.

“You can have the most sophisticated tools,” she says, “but if the experience is terrible, people won’t use them. Every investment should connect directly to adoption and the business outcome.”

Turning data into decisions: transparency as a cultural value

At T-Mobile, Janet’s team led the rollout of Docusign CLM (Contract Lifecycle Management) to automate and streamline contract processes. The results were striking: the teams saw a 44% reduction in processing time and clearer accountability across teams.

But for Janet, the biggest win wasn’t just efficiency; it was trust.

“Transparency isn’t just operational—it’s cultural. It tells people we’re on the same side.”

Before CLM, tracking a contract through multiple teams was slow and often confusing. Now, every stakeholder can see exactly where a document is, who owns the next step, and when it will move forward. That visibility has reduced escalations and built confidence across the organization.

“Digital tools like Docusign give us real-time data,” she explains. “That means when someone asks what’s happening, I don’t guess—I know. That’s empowering not just for me, but for everyone involved.”

Transparency and data, she says, don’t just improve processes; they also strengthen culture. “When people trust the process, they engage more fully. And that changes how teams work together.”

Automation shifts sales operations teams from process followers to problem solvers

For Janet, operational success isn’t only about process. It’s about people. As automation and visibility have improved, her team has freed up valuable time to focus on higher-level strategy.

“That efficiency changed everything,” she says. “It allowed my team to think more, not just do more. The motion turned into momentum.”

Freed from repetitive tasks, team members are now working on strategic initiatives like improving end-to-end sales journeys and supporting new product rollouts.

Their development goals have shifted from task-based metrics to forward-looking strategy. “I’ve seen their mindset change,” Janet says proudly. “They’ve become problem solvers, not just process followers.”

She encourages her team to lead with initiative.

“A former boss once told me, ‘Operate as if you already have the next role.’ That advice taught me to lead with ownership, not permission. Confidence isn’t about the title—it’s about the mindset.”

AI and the future of sales operations

As T-Mobile expands its Docusign deployment enterprise-wide, Janet’s team is testing AI-driven capabilities.

“AI is helping us do in seconds what used to take hours,” she says. “But we’re careful. Data protection and governance are critical. We only innovate in ways that respect our customers’ trust.”

That trust-first approach mirrors T-Mobile’s customer-obsessed culture. “Every decision we make ultimately connects back to creating value for the customer,” she says. “We exist because of them.”

Connecting people through purpose

For Janet, operations isn’t about systems or checklists—it’s about connection. She still remembers a story shared by one of T-Mobile’s senior leaders, who began his career selling phones door-to-door. On September 11, 2001, he realized that his work wasn’t about selling plans—it was about connecting people when it mattered most.

“That story stays with me,” Janet says. “We’re not just enabling sales processes. We’re helping people stay connected to each other, to their customers, and to their purpose.”

It’s a fitting reflection of her own leadership journey from strategy to delivery, from motion to momentum.

“Transformation isn’t about technology,” she says. “It’s about people, trust, and momentum. When operations lead with transparency and data, we don’t just support the business, we move it forward.”

Read more about how T-Mobile is scaling its business with Docusign CLM.