Can We Talk?

Have you ever thought that in your company there were actually several totally separate divisions? Have you noticed that the sales team, warehouse and delivery staffs and the billing and reimbursement departments are functioning like a three-ring circus? While they may be playing in the same arena, they each may operate as separate entities.

The warehouse staff is often in the back of the operation, and sometimes even in a separate building, where there is little interaction with the front office or the retail customer. The billing and reimbursement staffs are always busy trying to make sure they have all the correct documentation and that what has been delivered and purchased is correctly billed.

And then there’s the sales team, usually (again I hope) spending little time in the office with a full schedule of sales calls and community meetings on their agenda. There may be little conversation among these divisions.

The success of any sales operation is based upon those in the entire organization working together. Success is dependent on people understanding each other’s roles. It is also based on understanding what is needed to bill for products sold and knowing how long it will take to deliver a product. A sale is not completed until the revenue is in the bank, and the revenue is not in the bank until the entire office team makes their contributions to the sales process.

I recall one billing manager who was upset with a sales team’s showing little interest in learning how to take or process an order. The billing manager described the sales manager as someone who: drives the nicest car; spends all his time deciding where to take people to lunch; wears some of the best clothes of anyone in the company; gets paid more than most who work here; and hasn’t been in the warehouse in years.

I realize this is not how all office staffs see each other, but it did give me a sad feeling that some people in that office were just not working together and might even resent each other.

How can you build a team that understands how everyone’s jobs interrelate? Here are some strategies that can help close the gap between your company’s departments:

• Send customer service reps out with your drivers to see what a delivery is all about.
• Make sure salespeople take time to learn about taking orders and handling the telephone.
• Let delivery technicians spend a day working with the sales team, meeting referral sources and calling on key accounts.

• Present in-service training and educational programs that everyone is required to attend. The more people in the organization who know about new equipment, new legislation and new billing guidelines, the more profitable and successful the company will be.
• Develop a flow chart of your operation from the time the telephone rings to the time the equipment is delivered. It will create a picture of where everyone fits into the organization. You will quickly realize that when one person fails to do his or her job correctly, the process begins to fall apart.

One company I worked with created multi-disciplinary teams to review and analyze a variety of operational challenges. A customer service rep, salesperson and billing manager met weekly to talk about how to educate referral sources better about documentation requirements for special pieces of medical equipment. This brought a variety of interesting ideas and perspectives to the table, and a long list of creative solutions.

People cannot function as a team unless the members of the team understand each other’s roles in the organization and how they impact the end result, that being creating a satisfied customer. No one can be successful alone.

Take a moment after you finish reading this article and look around your office. Do people get along as well as you think they should? Would more frequent interaction between departments make a difference at your company? When was the last time you were on the truck making a delivery?

If you see some of these problems in your company, then it might be time to turn to the person next to you and ask, “Can we talk?”

Louis Feuer is president of Dynamic Seminars & Consulting Inc. and the founder and director of the DSC Teleconference Series, a teleconference training program. You can reach him through www.DynamicSeminars.com or at 954/435-8182.