Can Your Organization Deliver On Its Promises?

You Promised What?

Do the realities of delivering after the deal has been struck increase your excitement about the feat you just achieved or does the pain begin gnawing in the pit of your stomach? Do you believe in your sales support organization’s ability to deliver or are there indicators that promises are not always easy to keep?

Consider these potential situations:
• Backlogs in support units are the norm not the exception.
• Internal errors and delays due to “re-dos” are too frequent.
• Turnover is high and morale is low.
• Customers complain of missed expectations and less than accurate results.
• Support functions consistently ask for more time or challenge agreements with customers.
• Internal initiatives, programs, meetings, and issues are consuming sales support managers.

Sound too familiar?

Organizations tend to make assumptions that everyone involved with “making it happen” knows and understands:
• The organization’s overall mission, values, goals, and strategies.
• The business plan for getting to “the goal”.
• How to behave and collaborate cross functionally to produce results.
• How to link and leverage communications about customer service philosophy, empowerment, etc.
• How to make words like responsive, entrepreneurial, flexible, and decisive become real behaviors and actions.

To be successful in their job people must understand what the organization needs to achieve, by when, what success looks like, and most importantly what effective execution looks like. They need to know what they are being held accountable for and how to execute the actions that will drive the organization in the right direction.


Creating and sustaining world class sales support organizations is accomplished when:
• There is clarity in roles and accountabilities.
• Individuals are focused on the primary activities that will achieve success.
• The proven process for success (the sales/business process) is standardized.
• There are standard tools, knowledge and skills to support success.
• The “how-tos” are reinforced with uniformity and over time.
• The organization continuously evaluates and refines all of the above in order to meet changing demands.


Does having all these things in place mean there will be no bumps in the road to success? That is a nice thought! What it does mean is an increased ability for the organization to direct time and resources to the right things. There is a greater opportunity to take phrases like “committed and productive salespeople”, “focused and efficient sales support staff”, “a framework for managing changing demands and priorities”, “enthused and supportive stakeholders”, and “a delighted and loyal customer base” – and turn them into actual outcomes.