Keep Sales And IT Teams On The Same Page With These 15 Simple Strategies

Innovation Keep Sales And IT Teams On The Same Page With These 15 Simple Strategies Expert Panel® Forbes Councils Member Forbes Technology Council COUNCIL POST Expertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Opinions expressed are those of the author. | Membership (fee-based) Aug 24, 2022, 08:15am EDT | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Big problems can arise when a company’s sales and IT teams aren’t on the same page.

Sales may either oversell or undersell the company’s products or services, or the IT team may not get the full picture of what users really need. It’s a serious issue that can cause frustration for both teams—and for a company’s clients. When they’re working in harmony, a tech company’s sales and IT teams can collaborate to develop products and services that truly delight their customers.

Below, 15 members of Forbes Technology Council share simple strategies for keeping an organization’s IT and sales teams on the same page. Members of Forbes Technology Council discuss strategies to keep sales and IT teams on the same page. Photos courtesy of the individual members.

1. Assign Joint Product Owners From Business And IT Siloed departments simply aren’t efficient anymore. Our strategy is to foster fully integrated, interdisciplinary teams by assigning product owners on the business side and IT side.

These teams are governed by a transformation board, ensuring initiatives and priorities are aligned with business goals. – Sander Barens , Expereo 2. Set Up Monthly Meetings With Tech Leadership And Sales As CTO, I make sure I’m constantly broadcasting the work that my team is doing, taking particular care to keep the PR around my department up to date.

It is also my job to make sure I meet with the sales team each month to find out how I can help them close accounts that have major questions about what the tech can do. This way, we don’t oversell the capabilities when the deal gets tight. – Brandi Vandegriff , Alchemer Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives.

Do I qualify? MORE FOR YOU Google Issues Warning For 2 Billion Chrome Users Forget The MacBook Pro, Apple Has Bigger Plans Google Discounts Pixel 6, Nest & Pixel Buds In Limited-Time Sale Event 3. Involve The IT Team In Sales Alignment is a key in the whole company—especially when it comes to the sales and IT teams. These teams should work hand in hand to build solutions so they can always be sure that they are on the same page, they understand the same language and products are built according to a certain understanding.

Having IT involved in sales at all times is always a big win since customers need to understand the technicalities. – Rudy Shoushany , DxTalks 4. Agree On A Clear Product Definition Sales and IT must come to an agreement on a clear product definition.

Overselling can result in custom one-off work, while underselling can result in a short customer lifetime as the full value of the product is not realized. If the product team has clearly defined the solution, then sales will be able to prescribe to the prospects how the solution works, what’s required and any integration points. – Kevin Marcus , Versium 5.

Develop A ‘Pre-Sales’ Team When facing sales versus IT issues, companies often go with more thorough education for the sales team. We’ve selected a different approach: We don’t let them go in on their own. We have a “pre-sales” department comprising people who can not only assist with any type of sale but who also have hands-on experience in IT.

They can talk to CTOs and CIOs in “tech language,” discuss real-life risks and ask the right questions to build a custom proposal. – Nadya Knysh , a1qa 6. Take A ‘Team Of Teams’ Approach Take a “team of teams” approach to team integration that has IT members embedded within the sales team, and vice versa.

And keep rotating to keep the teams in sync. The only way for the teams to stay on the same page is for them never to get off it. A team of teams approach sees sales learning IT and IT learning sales.

– Cleve Gibbon , Wunderman Thompson 7. Include The IT Team In Development Discussions Include members of the IT team when the sales and product management teams discuss product/solutions development in order to create a common plan. Aligned goals usually lead to successful execution! – Arungalai Anbarasu , Waygate Technologies – a Baker Hughes Business 8.

Incentivize The Sales Team For Customer Success, Not Closing Deals Sales teams respond best to incentive structures. Over time, we have ensured that our sales team members are incentivized more for customer success than for deal closure. With this structure, the sales team works better with the solutions and engineering teams to ensure the best fit for the product, customer and value proposition.

They also “hand-hold” customers through successful orientation and value discovery. – Ashok Balasubramanian , Open Weaver Inc. 9.

Have The IT Team Collect Feedback From Sales And Assist With Demos We overcome this by having our IT team collaborate with the sales team through collecting feedback and insights. Additionally, our IT team often assists with demos for hands-on experience. If you make products or services, you must stay close to your prospects (what do they want to solve?) and customers (how are they really using it?).

Never miss an opportunity to collaborate with people who know more than you do. – Agur Jõgi , Pipedrive 10. Create A Steering Committee With Cross-Team Representation There is always a healthy tension between commercial teams pushing demands for new product requirements and the need to invest time and resources toward scaling, infrastructure and existing client requests.

Creating a steering committee with cross-leadership representation from various internal teams can help prioritize initiatives and create transparency, visibility and open communication. – Eric Rosow , Diameter Health 11. Have The Sales Team Role Play As End Users And The IT Team Review Customer Feedback Let the sales team members use the product.

Maybe even set a specific day—once a month or once every few months—when sales team members pretend to be the end users of the product. Similarly, let IT teams go through the email/phone logs to hear directly from the end users every once in a while. This way, the IT and sales teams won’t only be on the same page, but they will also be aligned with end users’ interests, too.

– Vikram Joshi , pulsd 12. Avoid Fixed-Fee Services Contract structure is crucial to help outline expectations. Unambiguous statements of work with signoff from the delivery team ensure that the customer is not oversold.

Avoid fixed-fee services, as they lead to surprise charges, cut corners and unhappy customers. Explain to the customer that fixed fees require insurance costs and extra time scoping and that they inhibit true partnership. – Ari Kahn , Bridgeline Digital 13.

Ensure There’s A Senior Manager Empowered To Break Deadlocks A company must have systems in place to ensure that the sales team does not oversell and that the product keeps up with accelerating customer demands. This is a two-step process. The first step is to ensure there’s a senior manager in place to break deadlocks.

The second is for the heads of the product, sales and IT teams to formally meet once per week and have ongoing informal discussions. – Blair Currie , Snibble Corp. 14.

Create A Shared Space For Tracking Projects One strategy for keeping the IT and sales teams on the same page is to have regular meetings where both sides can share their concerns and ideas. Another strategy is to create a shared document or kanban board where both teams can track progress and tasks. – Fabio Moioli , Microsoft 15.

Implement A ‘Product Council’ We have implemented the concept of a “product council. ” The executive team meets regularly (every other week) to discuss strategic product and sales topics to ensure alignment. Major roadmap changes/additions are discussed and agreed upon, and the sales leader updates the group on major accounts that may impact the tech team’s resources and priorities.

This has significantly helped us stay aligned. – Bruce Kornfeld , StorMagic Check out my website . Expert Panel® Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions.