The most struggling B2B companies are often the ones that sell the most. Hyper-growth driven exclusively by motivated sales departments creates a pneumatic void in the back office, overwhelmed by promises made to clients that production (Delivery) physically cannot keep within budget or on time.
The "Promises" Short-circuit
If a salesperson's only KPI is closing the contract (Gross Revenue), they will alter the terms of the deal downward or promise impossible operational tolerances just to get the client's signature. The result is seen as a badge of honor for the salesperson, but becomes a bloodbath for operations.
- Man-hours burned in re-work to realign the service.
- Project margins zeroed out from the very first month of onboarding.
- Constant hostility among colleagues: on one side "Salespeople tell technical lies," on the other "Production is too slow."
"Aligning Sales and Operations is not a motivational teambuilding exercise in the mountains. It is surgical work in altering KPIs and inter-departmental hand-off protocols."
The Hand-off: Passing the Baton
At Sintelops we fix this discrepancy by mapping the Structured Hand-off. No contract is thrown to Delivery without an internal Service Level Agreement (SLA) being pre-validated by the Operations Manager. Through clear gatekeeping rules, the salesperson is incentivized to sell "Profitable companies" rather than "Desperate clients," harmonizing the work of the whole team.
📖 This article is part of our cluster on operational restructuring — the complete guide on how to eliminate bottlenecks and scale without losing control.