A recent company meeting revealed what management called a “handoff problem.” The sales team would close deals, then toss them over the wall to the service team, which would promptly fumble the relationship because they didn’t understand what had been promised or why the customer bought in the first place.

Sound familiar?

What’s most telling about this situation: The company had spent months reorganizing departments, creating new processes, and building elaborate handoff procedures. They were treating the symptoms while completely missing the disease.

The real problem? They were thinking about sales and service as completely separate functions when there’s far more overlap than most people realize. And more importantly, their customers don’t give a damn about their internal org chart.

The false division

Walk into most companies and you’ll find sales and service living in different worlds. Sales sits over here, service sits over there, and never the twain shall meet. Sales people think service folks don’t understand business development. Service people think sales folks make promises they can’t keep. Both sides are probably right.

But here’s what’s crazy: Companies have created this artificial division in their own minds, then acted as if it’s some law of nature.

Consider what most organizations think sales does:
• Prospecting and building relationships (usually at the decision-maker level)
• Diagnosing customer needs and issues
• Solving those needs and issues
• Proposing solutions and talking money
• Closing the sale
• Ongoing relationship building and upselling/cross-selling

Now, here’s what most organizations think service does:
• Product or service delivery
• Establishing and building relationships (usually at the operational level)
• Solving problems and addressing customer complaints
• Potentially upselling and cross-selling

Look at those lists for a minute. Really look at them.

See the overlap? Both functions build relationships. Both solve problems. Both potentially upsell and cross-sell. The main differences are timing and the level of contact within the customer organization.

That’s not two completely different jobs. That’s one customer experience that’s been artificially chopped into pieces.

Your customer’s reality check

Here’s the thing that should keep every manager awake at night: While sales and service might be separate and distinct in the company’s mind, they’re usually not distinct in the customer’s mind.

When a customer calls a company, they don’t care whether they’re talking to “sales” or “service.” They care about getting their problem solved by someone who understands their business and can help them succeed.

When the service person can’t answer a question about pricing or contract terms, the customer doesn’t think, “Oh, that’s not their department.” They think, “These people don’t know what they’re doing.”

When the sales person promises something that service can’t deliver, the customer doesn’t blame the handoff process. They blame the company.

Customers see one company, one relationship, one experience. The fact that responsibilities have been divided based on internal convenience is the company’s problem, not theirs.

The real cost of artificial division

This division costs companies in ways they don’t even realize.

First, there’s the obvious stuff—missed upsell opportunities, frustrated customers, and relationships that die during handoffs. Service people who could be identifying expansion opportunities don’t, because “that’s sales’ job.” Sales people who could be preventing churn by staying involved post-sale don’t, because “that’s service’s job.”

But the hidden costs are even worse. Companies are essentially training their people to think in silos. They’re rewarding them for staying in their lanes instead of thinking about the total customer experience. They’re creating a culture where passing the buck is standard operating procedure.

And here’s the kicker: Your competition might not be making the same mistake. While your company fumbles handoffs, competitors are providing seamless experiences that make you look like amateurs.

What good managers actually do

The best managers understand that the Venn diagram of sales and service isn’t a circle. But there’s way more intersection than most people think. And they manage accordingly.

They train their sales people on service delivery—not because sales people need to become service technicians, but because they need to understand what they’re promising and how it gets delivered.

They train their service people on business development—not because service people need to become closers, but because they need to recognize opportunities and understand how to have business-level conversations.

They create compensation plans that reward collaboration instead of territorial behavior. Service people get credit for identifying upsell opportunities. Sales people get credit for customer retention metrics.

Most importantly, both groups are trained to think like business consultants instead of order-takers or problem-fixers.

The skills that cross over

When you really think about it, the core skills of sales and service are remarkably similar.

Both require the ability to listen—really listen— to what customers are saying and what they’re not saying.

Both require problem-solving skills. Sales people diagnose business problems and propose solutions. Service people diagnose operational problems and fix them.

Both require relationship-building skills. The conversation might be different, but the fundamentals are the same.

Both require the ability to communicate value. Sales people communicate the value of making a purchase. Service people communicate the value of the ongoing relationship.

The main difference isn’t capability—it’s context and timing.

Building functional teams

Here’s what works: Instead of thinking about sales teams and service teams, organizations should start thinking about customer teams.

Create integrated teams where sales and service people work together on the same accounts. Let them sit together, plan together, and succeed or fail together.

Have service people participate in initial sales calls. Have sales people participate in implementation meetings. Cross-train ruthlessly.

Most importantly, measure and reward the things that matter to customers—total relationship value, customer satisfaction, retention, and growth—instead of the things that matter to the org chart.

The bottom line

Customers don’t care about internal divisions. They care about results. They want to work with people who understand their business, can solve their problems, and help them succeed.

The companies that figure this out—that blur the lines between sales and service and create seamless customer experiences—are going to win. The companies that cling to artificial divisions and continue fumbling handoffs are going to lose customers to competitors who get it.

The solution is clear: Stop thinking about sales and service as separate functions. Start thinking about them as different phases of the same customer relationship. Train people accordingly. Measure what matters. And watch what happens when customers start experiencing the company as one unified, competent team instead of a collection of separate departments.

Customers will notice the difference, and you’ll notice it in the bottom line.