It is important in any company to be sure goals in an organization are aligned and not conflicting. From a customer perception, retention and even from a job profitability standpoint, having alignment across the organization can have a dramatic impact. What organizations need to avoid are incompatible goals that drive division within a company and negatively affect customer satisfaction.

We have written a blog around the alignment of sales reps goals with organizational results. This blog focuses on the alignment of organization goals across departments and is based on a meeting I had for a client. During the meeting, the prospect told me a story that really resonated with me from a sales leadership and organizational behaviour perspective and I felt that you may enjoy reading it as well.

The Prospect

The prospect was discussing how he was managing a project for his firm – a large, multi-million dollar infrastructure project. All had been going well and construction milestones were being met until one day he got an urgent call from his site foreman saying there was no material left to complete the job. Our contact suggested the site foreman contact the supplier and have some shipped immediately to the project, at which point the foreman said he had already done so. The foreman then went onto explain that the supplier said they had not been paid in over 60 days and given that, were no longer shipping any product to the project.

The Problem

The big problem here is that a work stoppage at a project of this magnitude costs significant money in downtime and carrying costs as both men and large equipment sit idle. This also then affects the ongoing development of the project as all the subsequent trades are delayed. These large projects, especially in competitive markets, are run on a tight profitability percentage so delays can easily impact the bottom line. To top it off, the customer found out about the work stoppage and knowing how tight the timelines for the project were not happy at all.

When our contact looked into the matter, it turned out that his firms accounts payable department was being incented to extend payables (what was interesting here is that the prospect had plenty of cash to pay the bill). It doesn’t take much work to see the challenge here and how internal departmental goals are not in alignment.

The Plan

The situation was quickly resolved and the project continued. The matter was then discussed at the most senior level of the organization and changes were put in place to ensure project profitability and customer satisfaction were lead goals and departmental goals had to support both of these two main objectives. In this case, it is okay to have payables goals, but be sure to understand the impact of such goals and how they could affect customer service and delivery.

The Solution

The take home here from a sales and organizational leadership perspective is that goal setting, meeting customer needs and delivering on expectations must be a top priority in a company. All other goals need to be in alignment with that objective. Goals that help one department but hinder another’s ability to deliver do not make sense and can do harm to both the client relationship and the bottom line. Be sure at a senior level to look hard internally to ensure all aspects of the organization are working toward the same goal.

If we can help you with sales leadership and goal alignment, please don’t hesitate to contact me.