Many companies – even small companies – have communications problems between their finance and sales departments. How to get the finance and sales departments to collaborate
Even if each “department” consists of only one person, they still have a hard time talking to each other. The problem can be even worse at smaller companies that don’t have sophisticated feedback or evaluation mechanisms and can’t afford expensive consultants to help them work through the problem.
Stereotypes
The finance guys see the salespeople as spendthrifts who are going to bankrupt the company if they aren’t reigned in. The salespeople see the finance team as biting the hand that feed them. It’s a difficult situation that cannot be ignored by business owners. I have seen it – on more than one occasion – lead to a complete lack of cooperation, threatening the existence of the business. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Here are simple and effective ways to improve communications between your finance and sales teams.
Have natural leaders set the tone
Sometimes the people that are most able to improve communications between finance and sales aren’t the department heads. The head of finance and the head of sales each have too much riding on the outcome of any disagreement. In their minds, an act of compromise could be interpreted as a sign of weakness. This hurts their position in future disputes. In some cases this is entirely imagined but in many companies it does work this way.
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Other members of each team – perhaps more junior members – have less at stake in this regard. They are usually more open to new ideas and to different types of collaboration. Having junior sales and finance employees team up can be an effective way to improve communications between teams and send a subtle but powerful message to department heads.
Go to article: Getting Finance and Sales to Collaborate
