Get Buy-In from Supporting Divisions

May 27, 2021 • Features • management • BBA Consulting • field service management • Jim Baston • service strategies • Leadership and Strategy

In this sixth article from his blog series on “supercharging” revenue generation through the field service team, Jim Baston, President of BBA Consulting Group,discusses how to get buy-in from supporting divisions.

The third item in our list of steps to ensure our success is getting buy-in from supporting divisions. There are a lot of interdependencies associated in delivering a service. For example, in the process of recommending a product or service, we may rely on a sales team that reports to another division to follow up on the initial inquiry and provide the customer with detailed product information, payback evaluations and the final proposal. And, in delivering a product or service, we may depend on another group within our organization to provide a specific part of it.

This can work well if everyone is aligned, but, unfortunately, this is not always the case. Sometimes the other departments don’t have the same interest or excitement about the opportunity or the same relationship with the customer. When this is the case, they may not treat the customer or the opportunity with the level of care and urgency that you would expect. If this happens, the customer may become disappointed and the field team frustrated.

By recognizing this, we can take proactive steps to address any misalignment and prevent these types of problems from occurring. There are several things that we can do. For example, we can speak with the management of those groups to get their commitment and the commitment of their team to support our efforts in the manner required, and we can set up a system to address any problems relating to any misalignment quickly and efficiently. We can also take steps to personally address any problems early that cannot seem to be corrected in the normal way.

Next time we will consider how what we say and do as managers, can impact our success.

Reflection

Thinking about your service of making recommendations, what are some of the relationships that you depend upon to perform this at the highest levels? As you work through this exercise, consider any interdependencies in areas such as:

Completing the proposal
Presenting the recommendations
Delivering the service
Specific areas within the organization such as:
- Sales
- Projects
- H.R.
- I.T.

Under each identified interdependency, identify the specific proactive steps you can take to ensure complete and seamless alignment.