Big Business Rules No 6

Separate Sales from Delivery

There are a number of reasons why most big businesses separate the sales process from the delivery process- some are to do with skill sets, some are to do with pay structures and some are to do with tradition. However, for small businesses there is one big reason why you should seek to replicate this as far as possible- the power of the subconscious mind. If you are the person doing the selling, and the person who is going to be responsible for delivering all the work you run the risk of:

• only selling when you’ve already run out of work to deliver
• subconsciously not wanting to close a sale when you know you are already busy
• being very emotionally attached to your product and finding any rejection hard to take

If there is more than one person in your organisation have a serious think about whether you can split these functions between you. If there is only you, and outsourcing sales activity isn’t an option, just be very aware of the pitfalls, and put robust processes in place to protect yourself, from yourself.

This blog entry is part of a series, so check back for others, or if you want to read more about our approach to Big Business Thinking, click here: http://rubystarassociates.co.uk/2011/06/big-business-booster/