The heads of our sales and operations departments are in a constant state of friction, with sales accusing ops of breaking promises to clients and ops accusing sales of selling things we cannot deliver. This peer conflict is stalling our growth. How do we resolve this systemic battleground at the leadership level?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Conflict between sales and operations is as old as business itself, but when it festers at the leadership level, it paralyzes the entire organization. The rest of the staff will inevitably take sides, creating deep silos that ruin efficiency and damage your customer experience.

To resolve this friction, you must first look at your Accountability Chart. Often, this conflict is caused by overlapping or poorly defined roles. Ensure that the lines of responsibility are crystal clear. Sales must be accountable for bringing in profitable, on-profile clients. Operations must be accountable for delivering the service or product efficiently.

Once the roles are clear, use the IDS® process in your next Level 10 Meeting™ to get the real issues on the table. Do not allow them to argue about specific client complaints or swap personal insults. Force them to look at the underlying processes. Is sales selling custom packages because our standard offerings are not competitive? Or is operations failing to scale because they lack documented systems?

Finally, align their incentives and Rocks. If sales is measured solely on revenue and operations is measured solely on cost control, you have built-in conflict. Tie a portion of both of their quarterly goals to overall company profitability and customer retention. When they both win or lose based on the same metrics, they will stop fighting each other and start collaborating on solutions.