Sales is Service, Service is Sales….

Unfortunately, in large enterprises we live in the land of Silos. They are created out of necessity and speed as organizations grow. Unfortunately, if not attended to, they fortify themselves and become institutional. Then they become the major barriers to innovation and growth inside of organizations.

 In my role at Salesforce I am getting to spend a lot of great time with customer service teams. I go into the contact center for a day and watch interactions and information flow through the people and the systems. You can learn so much with a fresh set of eyes. One trend I see more and more, is the disconnect between sales and service in enterprises.

One concept I like exposed is Sales is Service, and Service is Sales…

 If you think of most enterprise sales experience, there is a lot of servicing going on. A prospect needs references, configurations, pricing, education, time frames – and a sales team is to honor these requests. So – selling is really doing a great job of providing service to your prospects.

 Service is also doing just that – providing service to those clients when an issue arises. Customers can call, tweet, text, e-mail their concerns, and it is the support teams job to do the research and solve those problems.  

A huge missed opportunity for organizations has been the following; at the point the issue has been resolved provides a unique psychological step in the relationship. In the right situation, it can be a great time to ask “Now that we have solved that issue, what else can we do for you?”.  

Think of the times you have been frustrated trying to solve an issue and you finally resort to calling for help, the entire experience can be maddening. But when you get that special someone on the other end of the line that listens to your issue, takes the time to really understand, and then comes up with the solution, you are really happy! Even if the company's product or service frustrated you – at that point you are really happy. If handled the right way – it is a great time to suggest another product or service. If the client is open to it, it is a great time to create a hot lead and transfer it back to sales.

 Use skills based routing in service to route high value customers who would be great candidates for a new service, product, or upgrade. Route to agents who are great at taking care of issues, and when complete, making a high level offer. If the client is interested, create a hot lead and do a warm hand off back to sales.

 This will start to bridge the gap between sales and service, service now feels part of the revenue team, and sales appreciate service for the leads. By the way, it also increases sales and reduces churn. Two great things for a company!!

 So – Sales is Service, and Service is Sales....