Aligning Expectations
Marianne, the VP of Sales and Marketing and her counterpart Alex, the VP of Operations, were meeting for lunch with Rod, the CEO to discuss the increasing tension between the two departments. An old brass lamp was on the table. The VP of Sales quickly picked it up to examine it’s worth. Once disturbed, the lamp produced a genie.
“Greetings, all!”, exclaimed the genie. “I’ll grant each of you one of three customary wishes”.
“Since I was the first to act, you can grant mine first”, said Marianne. “Sales are up, send me to the Caymans”. Poof, she was gone.
“Since she’s in the Caymans, send me to Maui”, quipped Alex. He vanished in an instant.
“I want both of them in my office by the time I return from lunch”, grinned the CEO.
The tension between sales and ops can be sometimes avoided, but will have to be eventually addressed. One extreme is to ignore the tension. The other extreme is to try to alleviate the tension. A more realistic approach is to embrace the tension.
Without sales, there is no business. Without operations, products and services cannot be delivered. Which job is more important? Both of them!
Principle 1. Seek first to understand, then to be understood. Ask questions to gain perspective. If sales is promising what operations cannot deliver, ops need better understanding of the needs of clients, while sales needs a better understanding of timelines impacting logistics.
Principle 2. Revisit the mission, vision, and values of the company and align sales and operations together under them. Often times sales and operations have competing values. Alignment will not remove the tension. It will however, provide a basis for reducing tension and resolving conflict.
Principle 3. The customer is not always right; contrary to how I was raised, and perhaps you too. Two observations: first, when your clients’ purchasing and finance departments are not communicating well, last minute procurement decisions are made, putting unrealistic demands on suppliers. Second, this is exacerbated with the ever increasing cultural norm of instant gratification. “I want it now.”
When the problem is based on poor communication between sales and ops, it is incumbent upon leadership to bring the two departments together and find solutions. When operations travel with sales executives, they better understand client demands. When sales personnel spend time in operations they better understand processes, procedures, and time demands.
When the problem is seemingly unrealistic client demands, sales must work to understand how client needs and vendor supply chains can be aligned. Helping clients understand vendor realities can result in dialogue focused on solutions instead of blame.
Expectation management is at the heart of the supply chain tension. What is your organization doing to clarify expectations and align realities?
Tags: alignment, communication, leadership, operations, ops, sales, values