Unmasking The Real Cost of Your Sales & Finance Divide

In politics, we have Republicans vs Democratics.  

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In sports, we have the Lakers vs Celtics.  

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And in business, we often have sales vs finance.  

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Where rivalry makes for exhilarating sporting competition, and heated political debates, any feud between sales and finance needs to stop.  

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Typecasting could be to blame, what with the trite perception that sales are flashy, loud, and self-centred, whereas finance are rule following, goody two shoes, often blinded by their love of numbers.  

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If your teams follow such perspectives, they may have created unique tech stacks to ensure communication, task sharing, and general collaboration with their ‘rival’ department is kept to a bare minimum.  

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Stereotypes To Blame

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What Your Sales Team Thinks of Finance

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Roadblock, roadblocks, and yet more roadblocks – are they even aware that sales is a commission-based job, and not with the same luxurious ‘salary’ you get in finance!  

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In fact, do they even understand business? It’s a giant game, and unless we have free reign to drive revenue every single day, we’re falling well behind.  

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Maybe this ‘spreadsheet’ mentality has blighted their understanding of human interaction from a transactional sense.  

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They only think about numbers, but us, we are dealing with people, not data, and that means stretching well beyond a systematic approach to just making sure boxes are ticked.  

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What Your Finance Team Thinks of Sales

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Closing deals. That’s all that matters. No regard is given to anything else.  

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New prospects are promised the earth just so they’re converted, but what about actually delivering? It’s almost as if that’s a tomorrow problem, so it doesn’t really matter.  

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If they could just take a second to understand what this aggressive approach does to the rest of the business – maybe, just maybe, they might understand why finance are little more pragmatic.  

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Anyway! It’s almost certain another sales related mess will need cleaning soon. May as well accept my own work is being neglected over the coming days.  

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Doesn’t make for very good timing! We’re soon collaborating with our CFO to forecast our entire business finances for the next quarter.

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Let’s dive into the impact of sales and finance constantly working in their own ‘bubble’

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Pricey, Unnecessary Tech Stacks

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Now, we get it!  

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Sometimes there will be tools unique to each department.  

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NetSuite is often the ‘single source of truth’ for finance, and sales often rely on Salesforce for customer relations.  

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We recommend integrating these together, and later finding a conduit between the two, as this ensures both departments can see what’s happening across these modules without needing additional licences.  

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Money is slashed, and this futile sales vs finance bridge starts tumbling.  

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Did you know?  

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Tech sprawl is a common phenomenon and stretches well beyond just project management tools.  

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Silos of Information

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Whether they like it or not, fostering a strong collaboration between sales and finance is imperative to the wider business.  

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Forecasting is a prime example, where unless tech stacks are unified, crucial data may be locked away from relevant people, causing inaccurate budgeting.  

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There's also customer service to consider.  

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How frustrating for sales if finance had locked away a nugget of information which could have unlocked a more impactful approach to a forthcoming proposition.  

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This is where those tiresome stereotypes really spring to mind.  

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Keeping data locked away from each department could well serve their own interests, but if they only knew what impact this has on ‘big picture stuff’.  

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Consider changing the narrative around data, by explaining how this lays the seeds for growth - this serves both departments, as sales require continuous deals for their commission, and finance are heavily involved with the business’ bottom line.  

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Compliance

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Data protection is a wider business concern, but the fact both sales and finance are customer facing, makes this a particularly pressing issue.  

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Cyber-crime isn’t going away, but you can take massive strides towards a more robust software set-up between these departments, which breaks down the sales vs finance conflict, and by doing so, reduces the number of avenues for attack.  

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Use one internal communication app, not multiple, and if people still insist on email, just because ‘we’re used them’, find a solution which takes core data from your inbox, and places this inside end-to-end encrypted threads, sitting next to important data typically stored in NetSuite or Salesforce.

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Let's imagine your sales and finance team insist on working apart.  

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That's now two separate tech stacks with data circulating, rather than a centrally monitored set-up, which makes life a lot harder for the CISO when investigating how and what has been breached in the event of an attack.  

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Join our free tech sprawl webinar to start bridging the gap between these two departments.