Sales and Service Alignment – Hear from the Experts at SPI Research

We recently had the opportunity to sit down for a conversation with Jeanne Urich of SPI Research. SPI is best known for their annual “The 2010 Professional Services Maturity Model Benchmark” report which is used by over 4,000 service and project-oriented organizations to compare, diagnose and improve their performance. Jeanne has been working with services organizations of all sizes for over 25 years and is recognized as a thought-leader in the space.

We focused our time on a topic that seems to be on the minds of many in the professional services industry – how can we better align sales and service delivery?

We had a rich conversation with Jeanne and have split our Q&A up into three parts:

1. Common breakdowns in sales and service delivery alignment
2. Best practices and the impact of aligning sales and service delivery
3. The role of technology in enabling alignment

Could you tell us a little bit about SPI and what you do?

SPI Research (Service Performance Insight) is a management consulting and analyst firm that focuses exclusively on the global service industry. We are best known for our annual “The 2010 Professional Services Maturity Model Benchmark” report which is used by over 4,000 service and project-oriented organizations to compare, diagnose and improve their performance. We also provide comprehensive consulting support for professional service organizations; we help our clients ignite performance by objectively assessing strengths and weaknesses to develop a full-faceted improvement plan, with measurable time-bound objectives.

Based on your work with professional services organizations over the years, where do you see the biggest opportunities for improvement?

Running a people-based service business is very complex as highly-skilled and expensive consultants are the primary cost as well as the product. There are over 200 key performance measurements, all inter-related, which could be measured and improved. However the greatest area for miss-alignment and improvement is the relationship between service sales and service delivery. Based on our extensive research, the delta between the results of the best and average service firms is truly remarkable. The following chart shows the difference between average and superlative performance. The best firms have found a way to bridge the sales/service divide to improve both their sales effectiveness metrics as well as their service delivery metrics.


What are the main areas where sales and service processes need to be connected?

We see four primary areas where disconnects most often occur:

• Proposals – PSOs often demonstrate a lack of clarity around which opportunities to pursue, or how to create a winning proposal, or who ultimately is in charge. Ambiguity can lead to procrastination; excessive bid costs; acceptance of egregious terms and not enough time, tools or resources to bring all the pieces together into a compelling value-based proposal.

• Pricing and Scoping – in many cases who has authority for discounting and contract terms is unclear. Poorly defined or unknown requirements; weak estimating tools; unclear discounting limits and inadequate or no pricing or contractual reviews contribute to mediocre financial results and unacceptable levels of risk.

• Forecasting and Staffing – many PSOs are deficient in what it takes to move a suspect to a high probability deal, or how the sales forecast is translated into the resource plan. A lack of alignment and trust are exacerbated by non-congruent sales booking and service margin goals. Unreliable sales forecasts lead to disconnected sales and resource planning processes and a lack of functional interlock regarding opportunities and required staffing. The end result is a lack of integration between sales, staffing and recruiting and not enough or too much service delivery capacity.

• Service Execution – there is often inconsistent communication between service delivery and sales regarding project status. No project dashboards; improper planning and execution of scope changes and change orders lead to project overruns, nasty surprises and unhappy clients.