April 7th, 2010
It doesn’t matter what company, what industry, or who their customers are. There is often a disconnect between sales and delivery. We hear it all the time from the client delivery/service/production staff…”Sales is over-selling! Why would they promise that? How am I going to get that done?” And sales asks us, “Seriously, what do they do all day? I needed it yesterday!”
How does t
his disconnect affect the productivity of your company? What is it costing you to have these two departments battling it out?
For one thing it wastes time. For another, it creates additional tension in a work environment that has enough other stresses.
What can you do? A mutual understanding of each other’s departments would helpful, but how?
Recently we sat down with an entire team from a company with similar issues. When we broke down their processes, we found opportunities for simple, low-cost solutions. One of the areas for improvement was the sales meeting. If the salespeople used a simple process: a standardized form with questions (many added by the delivery team in our meetings), we could solve many of their issues. As long as the sales team remembered to bring the checklist to each sales meeting and used it to lead them through the meeting, details were not being missed. This is working so well that it is now the company standard for all salespeople to use the checklist in meetings.
The end result is less time being spent going back and forth to each other to get answers and waiting to hear back, as well as less complaints and frustrations. It moves the process along much more smoothly and saves the company time and money in the long run. Sitting down with both teams and seeing their role in the entire structure of the company gave each area a better understanding of how their roles contributed to the overall goals of the company. Only when you break down the details of a process together can a team identify areas where the process isn’t working and opportunities for improvements.
Do you have similar issues in your company? Try to estimate your team’s wasted time and use this calculator to see how it’s impacting your bottom line. If you find that your team is wasting valuable time, consider trying a process mapping session at your company. Be sure to find a place with a large whiteboard, get everyone that touches the process involved, and make sure you spend time on solutions - not complaints. Let me know how it goes!
Nicole
Tags: process mapping, sales
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November 6th, 2009
It’s that time of year, the weather is turning cooler, leaves are changing colors and we begin thinking about the holidays. As a small business owner, you also begin to think about goal setting for 2010. Most companies set sales goals, but do you consider how process and efficiency improvements can improve the bottom line?
You make think that your company is already efficient - but do you know if only one person knows how to run one of the machines in the plant? What would happen if that person left the company? Or if two customer service representatives have two different processes to enter an order into the system? Can you combine the two processes to save time?
Some of our clients have very successful businesses and they want to grow. They know that in order to do that they must have a better understanding of what their staff is doing. One of our clients is taking the time to sit down with us for 1-2 hour stretches to “download” information to us on the way they work. They perform many of the same tasks for their various clients and, through these meetings, are finding that they are doing these tasks in various different ways. They have also learned that had they been privy to some of the “best practices” their colleagues were using from the beginning, they would have been more successful in their roles more quickly. Sharing this information with each other and using us to facilitate, they are now mapping out new best practices and we are documenting them in their operations manual. This way new employees have immediate access to the information, and current employees can maximize their work time.
Improving the productivity of your people and processes can add up to big increases your bottom line. Click here to estimate how your business is doing: http://visionbridgeinc.com/html/cost_of_system_inefficiencies.html. As you set your 2010 goals, keep these thoughts in mind and contact us if you need help!
Tags: efficiency, goals, optimize process, process mapping, productivity
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June 23rd, 2009
This thing I do called process mapping is very structured. It has its boxes and straight lines all connecting to something else in a sequential order. Of course I find it a blast, but I realize that many of my clients actually dread it. I think it’s the creative companies that I work with that fear it the most however, when they get into it, they find that it actually is fun. You know why? Because it actually does use quite a bit of that right brain in the creative process!
I must admit that I was surprised to learn via a Facebook quiz that I was right brained. :) I have always been a super organized, logical flow type of person, but maybe I do use more of my right brain than I think I do. When I get together with clients to map out a process flow, my brain has to be a complete blank slate. From nothing, I must create something…a picture in my mind of how everything goes together. When I write this in the whiteboard and the company sees their process visually, that is where the fun begins. You can actually see areas for improvement and the endless possibilities included.
One of the marketing companies that I work with has found the process mapping practice to be one of their team building events. The endless possibilities facilitate a sense of involvement, excitement, and ownership amongst the staff. All the while improving internal and external processes. Sounds like a good reason for your company to give it a try. What do you think?
Tags: creative, process, process mapping, team building
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