As a software engineer one of the first lessons I was “taught” by my peers after graduation was to despise the sales team as they would promise the customer anything they wanted with scant regard to what the team could actually deliver within the available timeframe and budget.

The reality I quickly learned was a little more complex. When selling bespoke software unless the sales staff have a deeply technical background or are well supported by the technical team they don’t understand the implications to the budget and schedule of what they have promised. As a result the sales people would often make promises that the project team couldn’t keep, resulting in a dissapointed customer and an angry and stressed project team.

While it’s easy to blame the sales people the reality is that both the salespeople and the project team are to blame, the team should be managing their relationship with thier sales force to ensure they have the right technical support and the once the project is up and running they should be managing their relationship with the customer making sure the customers expectations are being suitable managed and any unreasonable expectations are addressed. The sales person in turn should set about educating themselves and ensure that they request feedback from both the project team and the customer to ensure that any mistakes are not repeated on future projects.

So are your back and front office staff talking to each other? Are you making sure they work together to provide the best possible service to your businesses customers?

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