As a salesperson - How do I work with other departments?

How Do I Work With Other Departments?

Sales doesn’t operate in a vacuum. The best companies win because their departments work together—not against each other.

In today’s Question of the Day, I break this topic down from a salesperson’s perspective and focus on two critical areas:
 The Relationship and The Logistics.

In this episode, we cover:

The Relationship

•  Why trust and respect between departments matter 
•  How ride-alongs, conversations, and understanding each other’s roles create stronger teamwork 
•  Why people work harder for people they respect—not just because it’s their job 

The Logistics

•  How sales, service, and install teams can better align expectations 
•  What information each department truly needs to succeed 
•  How to avoid frustration, miscommunication, and unnecessary conflict 

If your departments feel disconnected or constantly frustrated with one another, this episode will help you create stronger collaboration, smoother handoffs, and a better customer experience.

Have a Question? - Submit your questions to chrish@nexstarnetwork.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome to the question of the day. Today's question is as a salesperson, how do you best coordinate with other departments? I love this question. This is this is a high-level advanced question. This isn't just digging into like what's the process or how do I get past this objection? This is thinking big picture. This is thinking long term. As a salesperson, how do you best coordinate with other departments? So I think I'm gonna boil this down to sales in the trades. And typically the other departments you're coordinating with would be like service. So if you have service that is flipping leads over to you, that would be a department that you have to coordinate and work closely with. And then definitely installation, right? So often what you're selling has to go to installation, and and there can be friction there as to what did you sell and what do we need to install. So I'm gonna really focus on those two departments and how they coordinate with sales. But I think really everything we talk about here is going to apply to any department. This would this would be fair to talk about with like marketing and how does that tie into sales and other departments as well. So as we think about this topic, I think about one of one of my favorite books is The Sales Boss by Jonathan Wisman. And it's a fantastic book. One of my uh, if not the Bible, when it comes to sales leadership. At the beginning of the book, he talks about sales leaders. And one common trait that successful CEOs have is that earlier in the careers, they were sales leaders and they had to figure out how do I work with other departments? Because as a sales leader, you don't manage these other departments, but yet you have to work with these departments so that they're successful, so that you're successful as well. And I think this is a very similar concept, but at the salesperson level. So, as a salesperson, my long-term success depends on how well I work with others and other departments. And so I think it's that same skill set here. So this is not just a logistical issue. I think often we think it's just a logistical issue, but but there's a lot that goes into this. There's communication, there's alignment, there's relationships, there's expectations. But really, I think there's two main key areas that you want to focus on, and that's what I'm gonna break this conversation into. The first is gonna be the relationship side. The second will be the logistical side. And I personally think the relationship side is the most important, but also the hardest to achieve. But you look at very successful salespeople, they've probably achieved this. They've probably achieved that relationship side with these other departments here. And it really comes down to this the relationship side, people work harder for people that they respect and like. That's just true. If I like you, I'm gonna work harder for you because I like you. I want you to succeed just because you're a good person and I like you and and and and we have a lot in common, right? Versus if if I don't know you or I don't like you, I don't really have much reason to to to want to help you as if I like you a lot and know and understand you. So with the the building the relationship, I think we have to go out of our way. And you don't get paid for this directly as a salesperson, and I think that's what stops a lot of salespeople is this is like additional time and effort that you're putting in that you're not getting paid for. But but the thing is, you're not getting paid for it up front. You are getting paid for this in the long term. So this is what this would look like. This would be finding opportunities. I want to get out and I want to ride along with these departments. I want to go visit these departments. I I want to genuinely understand these departments. And so that might mean that I'm I'm taking time out of my day to go ride along with service. I want to see what the day in a life of a technician looks like. What do they run into? What are the the challenges that they have? Like, what does their process look like? How does that fit into my process? What objections do they run into? And I want to do the same thing with the install side, right? Like I want to go right along with install. I want to see what a day in in their life looks like. What is their process? What's their relationship with customer? What kind of headaches do I create for them, right? Like if I do something poorly, how does that affect their role and their process? And I want to help as much as possible. And so I think if you enter it with that attitude of, I want to genuinely help. And I I'm genuinely curious, I think that goes a long way. So some things you could do as you're doing these ride-alongs, like come bearing gifts, right? Like nobody says no to gifts, and that could be lunch or drinks or energy drinks or snacks or donuts or whatever that is. Like get to know your team a little bit of like what's going to be the biggest flex there and what are they like. Offer to help. I think that always starts to bridge that gap. Just start with like, hey, I'm here to help, right? Especially on the install side. The install side, just let them know I'm here to help. I'm here to roll up my sleeves. I'm not here to like stand here in my fancy clothing, salesperson clothing, and just watch you and oversee this. No, I'm here to help. I'm gonna roll up my sleeves. I'm gonna be your gopher today. The gopher is the one that goes for this and goes for that. And like, I want to help. And so use me in that capacity. Give them the permission to use me in that capacity. I'm here to help today. I blocked off this many hours or this time. I'm here to help. I'm yours. In exchange, though, because I'm helping, I'm gonna ask a lot of questions. And I just want you to answer those questions, best of your ability, and then ask questions, right? Like, what do they like most about their jobs, or what sets them up for success, or really what what hurdles get in their way, or what what stinks about their job, right? Like, like all of these things are gonna give me more information to better do my job. Because now I'm walking in their shoes with them. And so, on the one hand, you can adjust to dovetail better into their processes, but on the other hand, it's creating that relationship. Because I'm willing to take time out of my day, and I genuinely care, and I genuinely want to understand them as individuals and their role and what they're trying to accomplish. Because I'm taking that time, they're gonna see me in a different light. I'm not just that salesperson. Because there is that stigma of the salesperson. We all know the other departments look at at sales as, well, I'm the slick talking salesperson that's only trying to do something that benefits me. I wear fancier clothes. I don't know anything about this industry. Like, I actually don't know anything about what I'm selling. And uh, just show up, I talk, and I make more money than anybody in the company. Like that, that's the persona. But when when I show up and I genuinely care and I genuinely want to understand, and I'm willing to roll up my sleeves and get dirty, climb under a house, climb in an attic, that goes a long way. I'll tell you, when I go visit a company and I'm willing to show up as a sales coach and I'm willing to climb into the crawl space where there's snakes and spiders and dust and dirt. Like when I'm willing to do that, that goes a long way with a company. They don't see me as some hoity-toity salesperson or sales coach that's that's out there to tell them what they do wrong. It it bridges a gap. And they see like I genuinely care. And you can do the same thing. Be willing to go out there and and serve them, and that'll go a long way in in building that relationship. Now, some things that when you're doing that, the fastest way to lose credibility is pretend like you know more than them. In fact, I would be very humble. I'd even downplay a little bit. I I would, you know, tell them tell them I don't know as much as you. Like you do this all day, every day. You of course you know more than me, right? And your job isn't your job is important. So don't don't show up with a slick attitude and think I know more than them, because that that's gonna be the quickest way to to just erode that credibility. But if you show up and you genuinely care, you genuinely want to know more, and you genuinely are there to help and and roll up your sleeves, that's gonna go a long way. And then bearing gifts, that that helps as well. So, but if you do that, and not just once, right? Like I'm I'm and I realize like we have sales calls to run, we can't do this every day, but find these opportunities. This is important. If you find these opportunities, these pockets of time where you can actually do this, this goes a long way. Because now they like you. Now they respect you. Now they align with what you're doing. And if if they're a service technician, they're the ones gonna be flipping me leads. They're gonna work harder to flip me good leads to build value because they they don't want to hand me a lead that's a free no obligation quote, something that I have no prayer of closing, right? They're they're gonna try to build value for me and tee it up for me because not because it's part of their job, but because they like me. They respect me. And same thing for install. They're gonna work harder to make sure that thing gets installed, installed on time, and installed without issues. Because they don't want to make me look like an idiot. I was the one that worked with the customer and told them this was gonna be a one-day install. And now, if I'm wrong, I look like an idiot. And I'm the one that has to go clean up. They're not gonna, they're not gonna want that to happen to me because they like me, right? We have this good relationship. And so relationships create trust. And that's what I'm trying to accomplish here. But you have to be a humble servant to accomplish that. So that's part one. That's the relationship side. Part two, the logistical side. So I I have to figure out logistically, like, what do we need to communicate between the two roles? Well, if I'm riding along, I understand what they're trying to accomplish, and I I can start accommodating. And I might even ask them questions of like, what could I do better? What can I do to make your job easier from my role as a salesperson? Right? They're gonna love that question and they're gonna tell us the truth, right? And then then make those adjustments. But let's let's break this up service and install, because I think there's two two very different things. But service side, if I have service technicians that are flipping me leads, there's a couple things that I want to coordinate with them, establish them. The first one is just the attitude of why replacements make sense. Like why is this important? And important from a couple different viewpoints. Why, why is it important to the company? Why is it important to us as employees? And why is it important to the customers? And really what I want there is I I want them to have the attitude of we're not just trying to sell stuff, we're not trying to get rich here just by selling every opportunity we have. We're actually serving the customer. And and there is a benefit in those replacements to the customer and to the company and to us as employees. That creates a win-win-win scenario. So I want them to see that not every scenario, but but in these scenarios where it makes sense, this is a win-win-win strategy. Everybody benefits from from this, right? The second thing is I I want them to know the triggers. Like when does it make sense to replace? When when does it because I don't I don't want them flipping everything? Not not everyone is a sales opportunity. I don't want to enter with a sales mindset or just a fix-it mindset. I want I want to serve mindset. And so, but what are those triggers that when I see these things, this probably makes sense as a replacement? It's kind of like if if you go in for surgery uh to a doctor, right? Like if you if you go in and they tell you you need surgery, the first question you're gonna ask is like, why? Why do I need surgery? But then when they tell you why, like, hey, you got this thing, we're gonna cut it out, you'll be fine, then you say, Oh, well, I guess I'm having surgery today. You know, like I'm gonna do this because it makes sense. They told me why, right? That's what that trigger is. So if this is like age or cost of repairs or repeated visits or common, like whatever those triggers are, because of this, that's where we're moving to a replacement or upgrade type scenario. So they they understand what those triggers are. And then the third piece, the third piece on the service side is I I want them to tie in urgency. So when they go over those triggers with the customer, when they say, like, hey, this HVAC system, really, we should be replacing it because it's 22 years old. I can get Chris out here today. That's an urgency piece. I can get Chris out here today. So tie it in so we can keep this thing moving right away. My odds of coming in and and having a sale are best if I can get there the same day. And so I want them bringing me in urgently. And I'm gonna move heaven and earth to get out there that day. So if we have this strong relationship, they understand the win-win-win, the triggers, and they're bringing me in today urgently. This creates a great winning relationship between me and service. Now let's flip to flip to install. On the install side, here's the common problem: the elephant in the room. Okay. People who install, which we need, we absolutely need people who install, they're very detail-oriented. They have to be, because there's a million things that have to get done. And so if even one of these things doesn't get done, it creates a catastrophe, an issue, loss of money, unhappy customers, etc. Right. So they are very detail oriented. Salespeople, on the other hand, are not detail-oriented and uh uh uh sometimes very not detail oriented. And it's because, like as a salesperson, we're trying to simplify things as much as possible. Complicated things are very difficult to sell, but if we can make it simple, it's easier to sell. But there has to be this balance, there has to be this balance of there's certain things I have to hit as a salesperson for the customer and for my install team. But as an install team, I can't expect every box checked off for me because that would make it too complicated to sell. We wouldn't make any sales then. And so there has to be this balance. And so what I would do is I would get the brains in a room, uh, you know, somebody from the install side that is very detail-oriented, and somebody from the sales side that knows the sales process real well, and just discuss what are the things that we absolutely need to install. And there's probably some tough conversations here, but out of that, we're gonna have a checklist of these are the things we absolutely need to get something installed. And there's gonna be situations, there's gonna be situations where install says, yeah, we need this, and sales is gonna go, do we really need that? And and figure that out. Do we actually need it? Do we actually need that to start the installation? Because there's gonna be things where we could start the installation, we could make the sales start the installation, and and we still need it by the end, but so maybe salesperson doesn't get paid until they get all that information in, but like it shouldn't slow down the install. But figure those things out. If you have been working on that relationship, you genuinely respect each other and you understand where each other are coming from, this conversation is gonna go a lot easier and there's gonna be uh compromises on both sides. But what what we're gonna be left with is that checklist of exactly what do we need. And then that has to be documented, documented either on a uh a folder or in your CRM or something like that. But but there's a place where these things have to be checked off and entered in before we'll we'll install it. But now that's that common ground that we've reached. So two big pieces. Number one, create that relationship, get out there, genuinely care, genuinely ask questions. And the second piece, logistically, understand what's gonna make each other successful. This is how you're gonna work best with any departments. So I focused on service and install today, but take this and apply this to any department, any department you're trying to create a relationship with. But if you can do this, if you can do this as a salesperson, this is gonna set you up long term to be successful in sales. Not because you're a good salesperson, not because you have a good process, but because people genuinely like you and respect you. And that feeling is mutual. Because when people genuinely like you and respect you, they're gonna step up for you because it's you, because they know you would do the same for them. So if you have that kind of relationship, this is not only gonna set you up as a salesperson, but this is gonna set up your company. That's today's question of the day. If you're enjoying questions of the day, follow, share, and give a rating. Question of the day is on major streaming platforms. If you have a question, reach out to me via email. It'll be listed below in the show description. Let's get your question answered. And if you're a next star member, schedule a call with me and let's get this addressed one-on-one and get very specific to your situation. I'm Coach Chris. We'll see you tomorrow.