The Other Side Of The Sale
As a service based business owner working with clientele, hearing “yes” or “approved” during the sales process never gets old. The thrill and excitement from winning a sale is enough to make my day, week, or even month. And, if you really want to get me excited, winning multiple sales over a series of a few days or a week really stirs excitement and makes me feel like I can take a break or even go on vacation. Though I’ve noticed that after the excitement wears off, another set of feelings and emotions begin to creep in, “How in the world am I going to get all of this work done?”. It’s the morning after, the Monday morning, where all the thrill is gone and we’re left with the reality that our plate just got overloaded with more than we can fathom completing in our proposed timeframes. So the juggling begins, the organization ensues, prioritization and managing all the client expectations and team workflow is full steam ahead. For some, this is a strength, for others it becomes their downfall. What started as excitement begins to turn into fear and pressure to perform, meet deadlines, and manage multiple expectations. On the other side of the sale weaknesses are revealed, gaps are discovered, and the rubber meets the road. I receive emails almost daily from individuals trying to help me with sales, but never once have I received emails from someone wanting to help me with management and operations. Consider this writing your “email” with nuggets to help you with the management and operation of your business.
Understanding the Relationship Between Sales and Operations
Without sales there is no need for operations, and without operations, sales have no way of being processed and completed. Their relationship is symbiotic. One simply cannot exist without the other. When sales are weak, operations are slow. When sales are strong but operations are slow, everything is backed up, and the business reputation can be in jeopardy, and hurt future sales. Years back I heard a story about a new business that was forming. The owner was focused on sales too much, and overcommitted, but his operational capacity was not ready for all the work. Unable to fulfill orders in the time frame promised, it was an embarrassment as deals vanished due to the tarnished reputation. For a company to flow smoothly and grow, operational capacity must continue to meet sales volumes and output quality must be maintained. Sales and operations must talk with one another.
As a small marketing agency desiring to grow, we allow our sales and operational capacity to be stretched, and embrace the pressure that comes with it. When the pressure comes we have to decide how to spread out the work amongst our team in order to carry projects and work as a team instead of on the shoulders of one or two people. These decisions in our business occur every month as much of our team is made up of independent contractors with flexible work arrangements. It’s a constant juggle between work load, team capacity, budgets, and expectations.
Slippery Slope
Scaling is a big buzzword in our vertical and a part of the lingo driving so many individuals and businesses to grow, get more sales, and end up on a beach somewhere. Everyday we are bombarded with ads with the new system that is supposed to get us there. The ads show “successful” people with fancy cars & hotels, alluring travel experiences, big homes and more that supposedly come to those who crack the code and “scale”. However, so much of this is centered around the beginning stages of a business relationship, the sale. So, as the curve on the sales chart goes up it’s a thrilling feeling, but it can also become a slippery slope that you tumble down off of much faster than it took to climb up. Our system of growth revolves around a few core concepts that aren’t too terribly fancy or attractive:
- work hard
- value what others say about working with you
- care for people
