The order form with half the answers
Sales close a deal for a thirty-user hosted system with new broadband and a leased line at head office. The deal is marked won in the CRM, the salesperson celebrates, and an order form lands with provisioning. It has the company name, the product list and a note: 'customer wants it live ASAP, numbers porting from their old provider'.
There is no list of the numbers, no latest bill from the old provider, no user names or extensions, no site contact for the install, and no mention of which handsets were agreed. Provisioning emails the salesperson, who is at another pitch. They email the customer directly, who wonders why they are being asked for the same things again. A week passes before the first supplier order is placed.
Then the customer rings to ask why nothing has happened, and sales say provisioning is slow.
Why orders arrive incomplete
- Salespeople are measured on signatures, not on complete orders.
- The CRM does not require the fields provisioning needs before a deal can close.
- What is needed differs by product: a port needs numbers and bills, a leased line needs site and access details, hosted voice needs users and call flows.
- Some details are only known by the customer's IT person or office manager, not the person who signed.
- Nothing checks the order before it lands on provisioning's desk.
The cost of the chase
| Missing item | Knock-on |
|---|---|
| Numbers and old provider bill | Port cannot be submitted |
| Site contact and access | Install booking delayed or aborted |
| User list and extensions | System built twice |
| Handset models | Wrong stock ordered |
| Promised go-live date | Customer expectations set without provisioning |
Every day spent chasing details is a day off the go-live date, and a day where the customer's first experience after signing is being asked for things twice.
It also damages the working relationship inside your own business. Provisioning start to treat every new order with suspicion, sales stop passing on the details they do have because 'provisioning will ask anyway', and new starters in either team learn the habit from day one.
A handover step we add between sales and provisioning
- For each product you sell, we define the details provisioning needs, as a checklist rather than a long form.
- When a deal moves to won in your CRM, the relevant checklists are combined into one onboarding request for that customer.
- The customer gets a short, friendly onboarding form (their numbers, a copy of the latest bill, users, site contacts, preferred dates), which they can share with their IT person or office manager.
- The system checks answers as they arrive: numbers in a valid format, bill attached, site address matching the order, handsets from the agreed list.
- The order is released to provisioning only when the checklist is complete, or when a manager overrides with a note. Provisioning sees a clear list of what is done and what is outstanding.
- The salesperson sees the status of their onboarding request in the CRM, so they know which customers to nudge.
A normal day afterwards
Provisioning starts work on orders that are ready to go. The chase for missing details happens automatically, to the right person at the customer, in a form they can fill in without a phone call. Sales know exactly what is holding their deals, and customers get a clear, single request for information right after signing.
Go-live dates promised by sales can be checked against what provisioning actually needs, which cuts down on promises nobody can keep.
Here is how a normal order runs. The deal is won on Tuesday afternoon. The customer receives the onboarding form within minutes, forwards the numbers section to their office manager, and uploads last month's bill that evening. The site contact is filled in on Wednesday, with a note that the comms cupboard key is held by the landlord. By Thursday morning the order is complete and released, and provisioning submit the port and the broadband order the same day, with the landlord detail already noted for the install booking.
Is this your handover?
- Provisioning spends more time chasing details than placing orders.
- Customers are asked for the same information twice.
- Orders arrive with 'details to follow'.
- Go-live dates are promised without checking with provisioning.
- Salespeople and provisioning blame each other for delays.