Collaboration and contribution of sales and other functions play a vital role in winning the sale!

All we know, the sales department is directly responsible for bringing sales and revenue to the company but we need to understand the power of other functions which play an important role in bringing sales. As per me, even though the sales team puts the effort in, it's difficult to either retain existing or bring new business without functional support.

Many years ago, it was a seller's market and competition was less. Customers don’t look upon many attributions but now we are living in the buyer's market. They have many options to choose from and customers are intelligent to look into many checkpoints to make decisions so every department’s contribution is so important to win the sale.

Let’s see the other functions in the sales organisation

Marketing 📢:

I would say marketing is the foundation of any company. Building a brand, creating awareness, and building the courage in the buyer's mind that the brand exists. Easy approach if they want to reach out. Also, helps in generating potential leads

Customer Service 💬

The way customer service responds to customers' phone calls and mail. Understanding the situation, listening patiently to their queries and giving timely support all matters to build overall trust in front of customers.

R&D 🛠️:

Nowadays, customised solutions demand more to satisfy the customer's needs.

R&D support is required to develop the right product and ensure it fulfills the customer demand

Quality 🌟:

Another important criteria for business is quality of the product. After lots of effort put in for many years and cracked the big sales and later, if there is a failure in the product , the whole effort goes to waste.

Logistics 🚚:

Most important function in sales.. On-time delivery and shorter lead time.

The last needle to sign the contract, after we finalise price, product and final thing will place a role while placing an order is the lead time

According to me, quality and deliveries turn around the game. Nowadays, customers are ready to pay a little extra money if we are able to provide good quality and faster delivery.

Legal📜:

If you are signing a long term contract, it needs to be checked with the legal team.

If you are dealing with defence products, compliance plays an important role.

Finance💰:

Even though we do sales, if we don't get the money it's charity work. Also, the more delay in collecting the payment from customers, the more we are losing the money.

Business development🚀:

Developing the right product with positioning right, right position and for the right market is important.

Each country's style of business differs. Example : X country is a developing country and they do not need high-tech fully automatic technology but they expect better pricing according to the country specific product is better to build.

HR👩‍💼:

As per my understanding, the salary aspect is important for sales people more than that respect, attention, appreciation is also important so building the right MBO, good reward system and timely appreciation motivates salespeople to bring sales. Example : Key achievement awards, best salesperson award etc.,

Tips to collaborate and contribute between sales and each function🤝:

Build relationships with internal customers🤝:

If you want to win external customers, first learn to win internal customers. We are all human more than systems and relationships are important to get things done and each function.

Learn from the subject matter experts🧠:

Sometimes, salespeople could not understand the terminology when a customer rises and simply gives commitments without knowing the depth of it. Like legal terms, finance terms. There is nothing wrong approaching the experts and seeking help if you have limited knowledge in the subject from your logistic head, legal head.

“Always have the learning intention not complaining intension to grow in your career”

Communication🗣️:

Communication is very important between each function. Commitment of salesperson should be aligned with logistic, finance….and the customers

Coordination⚙️:

If a salesperson commits 6 weeks lead time before confirmation taken from the logistic team before confirming. Logistics should understand the importance of the project and help salespeople with a better lead time.

Update the situation time📊::

It would be better for the salesperson to update the situation from time to respective functions for the bigger projects so that they are well aware of the projects.

Performance review of each function 📈:

Most of the sales organizations focus on sales numbers and performance review of sales numbers.

It would be good if each function can present the performance monthly or quarterly which helps for the CEO to understand which functions the better focus needed to improve.

Sales reporting📆::

As I observed in many sales organizations the other functional teams are not aware of the sales target, budget, achievements, and profits. The more people know the overall picture, the better they get clarity and the better we get the support from each function.

Celebrate the wins together🎉::

If any big order is received, it is a good idea to celebrate with all the functions and they feel they are part of the contribution to make it happen

Use Brahmastra wisely🚀:

I also understood from my experience, that every time and every project is small/big if you keep asking for other functions they won’t support it. I understand with the customer pressure, we tend to ask for help from other functions but before asking we need to filter out what is a really important request and what is not.

Aligned with the Goal🎯::

Every function needs to understand the vision of the company, and the goals so that everyone is aligned with the company's goal and supports each other to achieve the company’s success.

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