Nothing happens until someone sells something

A good mate has been saying this to me for years. He runs a highly successful niche market research business. And, if I’m honest, for a long time I never fully understood what he meant.
 
I’m a civil engineer by training. I learned how to sell later.
 
And perhaps those two things have given me an interesting perspective on something I see increasingly with the leaders I coach: 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻.
 
Think about a cable-stayed bridge. It doesn’t stand because all the forces are working in the same direction. It stands because opposing forces are held in tension.
 
Businesses aren’t so different.
 
Sales pushes to get the deal done. They advocate for the customer. They want the organisation to move faster, be more flexible and say yes.
 
Delivery pushes back. Can we actually do this? Have we promised too much? Can we deliver it profitably?
 
Customer success thinks about what happens after the contract is signed.

Finance wants to know whether it’s good business, not just good revenue.
 
And sometimes each side looks at the other and wonders: 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝘁?
 
But perhaps that’s the wrong question.
 
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗮 𝗳𝗹𝗮𝘄 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺. 𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸.
 
We design sales incentive schemes to encourage salespeople to sell. Good salespeople want to win, be rewarded for winning, make their customers successful - and then move on to the next opportunity.
 
Take away too much of that individual incentive in pursuit of perfect organisational alignment, and you risk taking away some of the very behaviour you need.
 
Equally, an organisation where sales can sell anything, at any price, on any terms isn’t going to work for long.
 
𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗼𝗰𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗳𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝗶𝗻 𝗽𝘂𝗿𝘀𝘂𝗶𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗺𝗮𝘆 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝘃𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲.

The answer isn’t to eliminate the tension. 𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲.
 
That’s increasingly what I see as the leadership challenge when sales, marketing, delivery, customer success and finance come together.
 
Don’t expect perfect harmony. Build the structure that allows those competing forces to work together.
 
After all, a cable-stayed bridge doesn’t stand despite the tension. 𝗜𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝘁.