Sales promises, delivery inherits, and the gap between them costs margin, customer trust, and eventually both teams' morale.
- ›Where the gap actually opens
- ›The four fixes
- ›What shared data changes
- ›Measuring alignment
Where the gap opens
At the proposal. Commitments made without delivery input: a timeline nobody validated, scope nobody sized, a capability nobody confirmed exists.
At the handoff. Context that lived in the salesperson's head and never reached the delivery lead. What the customer actually cares about, what was implied but not written, who the real decision-maker is.
During delivery. Scope changes agreed informally with the customer that never become change orders, and never reach the invoice.
At the renewal. Sales returns to a customer whose delivery experience they know nothing about.
The four fixes
1. Delivery input before commitment. Any proposal with a non-standard timeline, scope, or capability gets a delivery review before it goes out. This feels slow and prevents the expensive version of slow.
2. A structured handoff. Not a meeting; a record. What was sold, what was promised beyond the contract, who the stakeholders are, what the customer actually cares about, and known risks. Written by sales, acknowledged by delivery.
3. Change orders as events, not conversations. Any scope change gets recorded with its cost, whether or not you bill for it. Recording it makes absorbed scope visible, which is the only way it ever gets addressed.
4. Delivery status visible to sales. So the account manager walking into a renewal knows what the customer experienced. This one requires shared systems and is worth the most.
What shared data changes
The handoff problem is fundamentally an information problem. When sales and delivery write to separate systems, every one of the four fixes above requires deliberate human effort, which means it happens when people are not busy, which means it does not happen.
When they share a data layer, the deal carries into the project, the project's health is visible on the account, and the renewal conversation starts from what actually happened. See what an autonomous business operating system is.
Important: The single highest-return change is making delivery status visible on the account record. Most renewal surprises are things delivery already knew.
Measuring alignment
- ›Sold margin versus delivered margin, per project. The gap is the alignment cost. See project profitability tracking.
- ›Change orders recorded versus scope changes that happened. If these differ, absorbed scope is your leak.
- ›Escalations in the first 30 days of a project, which usually trace back to the proposal.
- ›Renewal rate against delivery health, which tells you whether delivery experience is driving churn.
FAQ
Should delivery have a veto on proposals?
A voice rather than a veto, on the specific items they own: timeline feasibility and capability claims. Commercial calls stay with sales.
How do we handle it when sales over-promises?
Structurally rather than personally: make the delivery review a required step for non-standard commitments. Individual conversations do not survive a busy quarter.
What about compensation?
If sales is compensated purely on signed revenue, over-promising is the rational behavior. Tying part of it to delivered margin or retention aligns the incentive with the outcome.
Brainis carries deals into projects with delivery health visible on the account, in one system. See it for agencies.
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