Sales & Delivery

Sales and Delivery are two building blocks for any organization and a conflict between them is inherently natural. And this little conflict is actually not that bad. 

Sales is incentivized to close deals and book orders while Delivery is focused on quality delivery as promised and show profit. Sales tries to excite the customer with price point and faster delivery, while delivery tries to meet the promise of on-time delivery with high quality.  Sales is supposed to be risk-taker and on the other hand Delivery is risk-averse.

Ideally Delivery should be part of proposal preparation and estimation in discussion with Sales so that there is a buy-in from Delivery. Also organizations should look at commission structure where Sales and Delivery both are equally rewarded on metrics like closure, profitability, and customer satisfaction; rather than only Sales is rewarded with commission on deal closure.

In fact, a little discord between Sales and Delivery is healthy sign where both the units are striving together to bring in ‘profitable growth’ to the organization.