The deal is won and the questions start
Sales closes a deal and marks it won in the CRM. They send an email to operations: 'Signed! Details attached, shout if you need anything.' Operations opens the attachment, a proposal from three weeks ago, and starts building the job in their own system. Which site? Who is the contact on the day? Did we agree the extra item they asked about on the call? What are the access arrangements? Is the price in the proposal the final one?
The salesperson is already on the next deal and answers in fragments over several days. Meanwhile the customer, who has just said yes, hears nothing, or gets asked the same questions they answered during the sale.
Why details get lost at the handover
Sales and operations use different systems for good reasons, and each records what it needs. The CRM is built to track a deal to signature. The job, project or accounting system is built to deliver and bill it. Nothing defines what must pass from one to the other, so it passes as an email and whatever the salesperson remembers to include.
The details most likely to be lost are the ones agreed informally: a verbal promise on a call, a change to the scope in an email thread, a special delivery instruction. They matter a great deal to the customer and are nowhere in a structured field.
| Operations needs | Where it often is at handover |
|---|---|
| Final agreed scope and price | Spread between proposal and later emails |
| Delivery contacts and sites | In the salesperson's notes, if anywhere |
| Promises made during the sale | In someone's memory |
| Billing details and PO number | Asked for again after the job starts |
| Start date expectations | Implied, not recorded |
What a poor handover costs
The customer's first experience after buying is being asked for information they already gave. Work starts late while operations chases details. Promises made in the sale are missed, which damages the relationship early. Jobs get set up with wrong details and need correcting. And the friction between sales and operations grows, each side feeling the other is making their job harder.
How we automate the handover
- Agree the handover record: we sit with sales and operations and define exactly what operations needs to start a job, split into what is essential and what is useful.
- Build it into the CRM: the essential fields are added to the deal in HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive or Zoho, and the deal cannot move to won until they are complete.
- Capture the informal agreements: a model reads the deal's email thread and call notes and drafts a list of specific commitments made, which the salesperson confirms or edits.
- Create the job automatically: when the deal is marked won, a job or project is created in your operations system with all the handover details, and the customer and billing records are set up in Xero, QuickBooks or your ERP.
- Notify and assign: the operations lead is told a new job is ready, with a summary on one screen, and the customer receives a welcome message saying who will be in touch and what happens next.
- Close the loop: if operations still needs something, they request it through the job record, which notifies the salesperson and keeps the question and answer on file.
What changes for both teams
Operations starts each new job with what it needs. Sales stops being interrupted for details they recorded once. Customers hear promptly from the people delivering their work, who already know what was agreed. And because commitments made in the sale are written down and confirmed, they get honoured.
Over time, the handover record also shows where sales and operations disagree about what was sold, which is useful for improving proposals and pricing.
Billing benefits as well. Because the customer, billing contact and purchase order number are captured before the deal is marked won, the first invoice goes to the right person with the right reference, rather than bouncing back from a customer's accounts team with a request for a PO that nobody asked for.
Does your handover look like this?
- Won deals are passed to operations by email.
- Operations routinely has to ask sales for missing details.
- Customers are asked for information they already gave during the sale.
- Promises made during the sale are sometimes missed.
- Customer and job details are typed into several systems by hand.