In many commercial cleaning firms, there’s a rift between the sales and operations departments. The sales department is charged with bringing in quality accounts and new revenue, but operations must fulfill all of the promises — and the two rarely communicate well enough to get either task accomplished without problems.

Without generating new accounts, growth is impossible. But if sales sells the account too low, the operational budget is too tight for cleaning staff to adequately service the account. The chief problem between the two departments is that salespeople tend to over-sell and over-promise, often leaving the operational staff to under- deliver and subsequently, to fail.

Resentment seems to lie underneath the veneer of cooperation, and while both departments have the common goal of total customer service, they approach the end result in different ways.

The most common problems between sales and operations include:

  • Sales doesn’t adequately research area wage rates and subsequently bids too low for the market, then operations can’t find labor willing to work for such low wages or suffers high turnover trying to do so. There are plenty of industry survey results available that offer ranges and even break wage scales into geographic regions. Internally, sales should have access to historical payroll reports.
  • Sales promises a turn-key start, up, but operations doesn’t have extra labor to staff the account on short notice. If pre-planning such staff considerations isn’t an option, keeping operations abreast of the situation as soon as possible at least helps buy time.
  • Sales offers ancillary services, such as window washing or carpet cleaning, at no or low charge; however, operations doesn’t have enough dollars in their budget to provide these services. Sales should have a list of what services employees typically can be trained to provide and which are considered specialties that require separate crews or additional resources. A list of qualified local subcontractors and what they typically charge also could be useful.
  • Operations uses different equipment from what sales promised. Every account supervisor should receive a copy of the bid for their customers to know what equipment or supplies were promised. Sales also needs notification if that list must change and why. Often a simple answer can offset major confusion and flared tempers.
  • Sales doesn’t fully disclose all the client’s cleaning specifications to operations, so the employees are not aware of the customer’s expectations. Along with a copy of the bid, supervisors should be made aware of any standards relayed to sales, perhaps doing their own survey after the bid, since customer expectations can shift.
  • Operations doesn’t relay quality problems or issues to the person that sold the account until it is too late to salvage the account. Instead, it would benefit both sides to be aware of common problems not just to keep current customers happy, but also in case it affects how sales bids in the future.
  • Operations consider the sales staff not adequately trained to independently determine account budgets. A simple in-house workshop for sales staff could provide insight into typical cost concerns, as would annual or quarterly “switch places” days where sales staff work in one of their accounts.


The missing link
Recently, a survey of building service contractors across the United States asked the following question:

Does your organization:

  • Involve operations with the final cost estimate?
    Routinely involve operations in pre-bid tours?
  • Encourage the salesperson to attend the first night start-up?
  • Encourage the salesperson to stay actively involved in the account?

The responses indicated that approximately 97 percent do not involve operations in the cost estimate decision, yet 81 percent of the same companies have an operations representative attend the pre-bid tour. Ninety-four percent of the respondents do not require the salesperson that sold the account to be a part of the start-up, but more than 99 percent said the salesperson stays actively involved in the account for the term of the contract.

It seems that mixed signals are being sent between the departments. If operations attends the pre-bid meeting, they should have the opportunity to provide their feedback during the pricing stages. Similarly, if the salesperson is expected to interface with the client after the sell, it would be beneficial to be at the start-up to become familiar with the building and cleaning systems put in place by operations.

Successful cooperation between sales and operations is a continuous process. With a commitment to team effort and good communication, these departments can successfully work together and achieve optimum results. The three key elements are to evaluate, communicate and commit.

Evaluate
Each customer has unique service requirements; therefore, the contractor must carefully evaluate the cleaning specifications necessary for each job site. An operations manager is a key element in providing sales the proper labor staffing. Unless the salesperson has an operational background or is highly skilled in the building services industry, he or she often doesn’t take into consideration the nuances of cleaning a building, such as set-up or travel time.

One benefit of allowing operations to set the hourly wages is that turnover may be reduced in the account if the wages are high enough to keep good workers.

When operations is a part of the initial tour of the site, they can help assess the correct production rate and evaluate the production based on the building’s traffic and population density. Labor wage rates are vital to providing a workable bid.

Key areas in which operations’ experience is vital also include estimating the proper type and quantity of equipment, chemicals and consumable supplies. It is more difficult for a salesperson to calculate the proportionate supplies and equipment required to maintain an account than for an operational person who lives it.

Before the final number is presented to the client, the bid worksheet should have the operations manager’s approval. Whether accomplished by a formal or informal meeting, all pricing proposals should be a joint effort by both departments.

Communicate
A successful service contract begins with an open line of communication between the salesperson, client and operational staff. The client’s expectations must be clearly defined and conveyed to each department so there is no guesswork.

Not only should communications between the customer and the company remain open, but also your own organization’s internal communications must be strong to avoid future conflict. For example, if the salesperson has allocated $20,000 for new equipment, but later discovers used equipment was substituted, there should be a discussion with the salesperson as to the reason this took place. It might be as simple as the dollars were needed to cover another unexpected expense and the sales person can pass that on to the customer and possible rework the contract to reflect where the money is flowing.

After the inception of the contract, sales should be kept abreast of quality service issues. All too frequently, sales doesn’t know of any service problems until a cancellation letter arrives. Often the salesperson can placate an angry customer by acting as a liaison between operations and the client, and thus may be able to offer resolutions and save a contract that’s going sour.

A large contractor in North Carolina has a joint Sales/Ops meeting each Monday morning, whereby the operations manager provides a brief about all their top service accounts. As a team, they review their problems and work on solutions together before its impossible to have a positive resolution. This is an excellent way to keep everyone in the loop, keep the communication lines open and not blindside any department.

Commit
All departments actively involved with the client must willingly commit to work together and — in advance — agree not to let personalities become involved in the process. By keeping in step with the evaluation and communication process, departmental cooperation and teamwork become routine.

The cycle does not stop once the contract begins, but is an on-going process of re-evaluating and re-tuning the budget, reviewing any deficiencies in service, continual communication between sales and operations, and a constant commitment to working together for the common good of the client and your organization.

Dannette Young is a veteran contract cleaning sales professional currently working with Corporate Care, a national specialty services organization based in Houston.




POSTED ON: 11/1/2001