Tips for Improving Communications Between Your Sales and Fulfillment Teams

Sophia Belnap

A business operation has many moving parts. Each team has its responsibilities and contributes to the overall success of the company. Sometimes units have trouble communicating between themselves because they have competing goals. The sales team is responsible for selling the products and making sure the customers are happy. The fulfillment team has to get all the orders together for shipment. Here are some tips to help your sales team communicate better with the fulfillment team.

Provide Education on Each Team's Mission

When workers are entrenched in their functions, they may not realize what another department is doing or why they are doing it. There is software, like prometheus monitoring, that helps monitor data.It is also  helpful to provide training sessions to educate each team on what the other does and their metrics for success.

For example, the sales team can explain how they view a completed sale. This may include delivery of the product to the end-user and the customer's satisfaction with the quality and functionality. The fulfillment team can benefit from insights into what the customers are looking for and what results in the highest amount of joy.

Likewise, the fulfillment team can provide detailed information on how orders are assembled and made ready for delivery to the customer. The sales team may want to tour the facility and view the conveyor system to see how everything comes together. 

Establish Organizational Goals

While each team should have its own goals, the overall organizational goals are the metrics that bind the workers together. These standards should be clearly defined as what the company views as a successful accomplishment. Further information should be provided to each team to explain the role of that team in achieving the organizational goals. The better understanding the workers have of what binds them together, they are more likely to cooperate between groups.

Have Regular Status Meetings

An excellent way to improve cross-team communication is through status meetings. The management of each team should get together to report on a regular interval on where their team stands. Maybe certain parts of the fulfillment process are backed up, causing orders to be delayed. It is helpful for the sales team to know this to contact their customers to prepare them.

The sales team may be aware of market changes or changes with a buyer that might result in large orders in the future. This should be communicated to the fulfillment team so they can get prepared. 

Focus on Team Building

Management should encourage cross-team social functions so that workers get to know one another better. When employees are familiar with one another, communication is more accessible. Team members from the sales force can be paired up with members of the fulfillment unit to engage in some bonding activity, such as a weekly lunch. 

Encourage Suggestions and Feedback

Management should encourage suggestions from all teams regarding the overall mission and operations of the company. In addition, team members from different units should be able to give feedback to other groups. Employees should be encouraged to keep any feedback constructive. The company can set up a virtual suggestion box to allow anonymous comments so that no hard feelings result toward any particular worker.

Managers of each team should also consider having regular meetings with each team member to find out what they like best about working for the company. The team member should also be able to report anything that they do not like or would change. This can include discussing how well things are working with other teams in the organization. If someone is having a particular difficulty, it may extend to other workforce members. The more management knows about what employees are thinking; the more adaptive the company can be in making changes to improve operations.

Conclusion

Communication is crucial for the success of any company. When the lines of communication get bogged down between different teams, the company may be at risk of not fulfilling its mission.