Sales Vs Production: The eternal struggle

I am sure everyone of you would have heard about the traditional "Sales Vs Production" bitter-sweet relationship, which exists in every company, in every industry, and in every country. It is a subject of great interest among students of Sales Management and other similiar courses, which are part of the curriculum in B-Schools across the globe. Actually in the IT Services industry, there is another player involved: The Pre-Sales Folks Anyways, based on my personal experiences while working in Sales, Pre-Sales, and Project Delivery (Production), I would like to jot down a few points. Many of them could be a repeat of what you might have heard often. Still I would "pen" them down, as every blogger worth his/her salt, has this once-in-a-while urge to let out "preachy sounding ideas" on his/her blogs :-). So, kindly bear with me :-) *For the Sales Folks:- (i)You are supposed to be aggressive when it comes to going after and getting new business. Do not bring that aggressiveness (esp. when not called for), into your communications with people within your own company (ii)Since you are the person bringing in the money into the company, you are understandably vested with certain special "powers". Don't misuse those powers to harm others in the company (iii)Agreed that your job is highly stressful. However, even the others in the company could be facing lots of challenges at their jobs, even though they might be facing pressure which is a tardy bit lesser than what is being experienced by you. (iv)Remember that you are the one running after the commissions - It is a truth, and please face it. The folks who have to help you in the process (production etc) do not have the lure of a commission. So at least be nice to them, to get the required help from them. (v)Remember that you can do absolutely no selling without the help of Pre-Sales and Production. So by burning bridges with them - you are tearing off your own paycheck! (vi)No, maybe you really do not understand how it is in production and pre-sales! Folks who have spent all their lives only in sales - I do not think you can even come close to countering the above statement. For those who have "seen it all" - Maybe you "saw it all" in a different time, under different conditions. e.g. maybe you were lucky to run projects with more experienced resources at your disposal, while the current lot are having to do with greenhorns (vii)"Why are these folks asking me to go back to the customer and ask for data? Why can't they make the proposal without the data? Asking these questions of the customer would be so tough!!" ...Hmmm..Sorry buddy, what was that? I think you did not get it - You get paid to handle these "tough" scenarios. I can understand that some data cannot be got, but you cannot say that about everything involved. (viii)"Why do I need to build relationships with the Production folks? Anyways, they come in to the picture only once the deal is closed." Really??!! -->How many times have you setup customer meetings, solely with the help of the contacts that your production personnel had with his/her peers(that is the key word there) in the customer's organization? --> How many times were you able to trace the fat commission you gobbled up without even burping once :-), to the key inputs related to existing accounts that the production personnel gave you? --> What about the time when you learnt it the hard way that "you should talk to the production team before meeting an existing customer, to be well-prepared to handle any production related escalations which might be brought up by the customer"? --> Would you honestly have been able to win all those deals, without the help of the production team in churning out a technically robust business proposal? (ix)Do not overcommit to customer, and put the production team in unwarranted trouble. It would only cause more harm to your future business prospects. (x)I know that the data surrounding any new business opportunity is hazy, but you need to have some semblance of logic in the directions/guidance you give to the proposal making team, for them to be able to churn out a proposal in sync with what you are looking for :-) *Now, For the Production (and Pre-Sales) Folks:- (i)Firstly, the sales guy is not enjoying a cushy, long-term onsite stint-Period!! Trying to sell anything and meeting timebound sales targets is a truly challenging job. If you have never done it - Buddy, then you surely cannot even think about how tough direct sales can be! (ii)"What does the sales guy do? I make all the slides, and a lot of the business wins are due to the good work that my team does. Why do they even have a sales team?"- Hmmm...No one is trying to undermine the importance of your work on the slides, and the good work that your team has done. However, I guess you really do not get to see e.g. the pains that the direct sales guy has to undergo, to ensure that the Request for Proposal(RFP)/tender at least gets to your doorstep in the first place. (iii)"What tough customer meeting is this sales guy talking about? XYZ is always so nice to us." - My friend, don't tell me you do not know that most customers tend to be more forthright and blunt in giving feedback to the person who "sold the goods/services to them". Also remember the "you and the customer, are production/technical peers", concept that we covered earlier in this blog post. So, use the sales guy as a second channel to get timely and high quality feedback. (iv)"I want 200% perfect data related to customer's operations, competition etc. Only then can a decent proposal be made" - Come on, be a bit more realistic and understanding! (v)"This is a new domain, and we will not give an aggressive proposal-sorry!!. I don't care if there is a heavily entrenched competitor, and that to break-in we need to make a more-than-compelling proposition". My friend, even the domain you are working on currently was new once upon a time. Do you mean to say that you will do nothing else once this project ends? What will happen to your source of livelihood after that? I am sure you agree that the customer will change over to you as a company, only if you commit to providing him/her something different and compelling. (vi)"This person gets low quality (?) projects". My friend, the direct sales personnel's work is to get new business. What is this "low quality" stuff about, anyways? Do you really believe that there are "high quality" opportunities in sync with your specific tastes, waiting with folded arms for you??!! (vii)"Why is this person in direct sales? I am sure, I would have done a better job any day". Well, in most cases, companies put a lot of thought in putting a person in a direct sales position which is business critical. So in all probability you are really not "direct sales" material, and hence were not considered for the position (at least you need to consider this possibility). So, I invite readers of my blog, from both sides of the fence on this ever going (but quaint) fight, to have their "swords" sharpened and ready :-). Since I am more than confident that you would be civil, I offer this space to be the "battleground". Catch you later with another blog post on geopolitics (or maybe human psychology!)