Leave No Sale Behind: Supercharge Growth By Integrating Sales With Service

Leave No Sale Behind: Supercharge Growth By Integrating Sales With Service

Hacksaw Ridge tells the true story of Desmond Doss who served as a combat medic in World War II at the Battle of Okinawa. He was the first and only conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor for actions above and beyond the call of duty during World War II. He brought belief, integrity, courage, and heroism together to deliver amazing results in saving lives as he charged into the hell of battle without a weapon.
 
Consistent with the US military code, he didn't want to leave anyone behind.

In business, customers seek one primary thing from salespeople: a solution to a problem or a challenge from someone who truly understands them. Every business should commit to not leaving any customer behind and therefore to empowering everyone in their team, from every facet of the business, to heroically deliver what customers expect and need... exceptional personal service.

The age of the empowered customer has kicked down those old cubicle walls that previously separated sales and service teams. Customers now expect personalized and unified information from the first person who answers their call, opens their email or reads their social message and it doesn’t matter to them which department they sit in. 

If a business can’t provide this experience, all it takes is a quick browse online for an eager competitor to pounce. It’s not only tech-savvy millennials who are voting with their feet -70% of consumers and 82% of business buyers surveyed in the recent State of Sales Report from Salesforce agreed that technology has made it easier than ever to switch suppliers or service providers.

So, is it as simple as rounding up your sales and service teams and throwing them in a room together? 

If only it were that easy.

Map the customer journey 

You would be surprised at the number of businesses, large and small, that have no idea what their individual customer’s journey looks like in real life. This is a critical first step in aligning your teams. 

Firstly, challenge each team member to play the role of a customer in your business. They need to see through the customer's eyes and walk in their shoes. During this exercise, they must process and predict every touch point, decision, barrier, question and pain point. Chances are, the sales and service employees will identify things they could do differently or how they could improve the way they work together to ensure that the customer can seamlessly purchase your product or service and become an advocate in the market.

"Place an empty chair in every meeting to represent the customer. They are the most important person there so consider them as you discuss strategy, manage issues and make decisions." [paraphrase] Jeff Bezos, Amazon Founder and CEO


Break down barriers

As I said earlier, if you have partitions in your office, pull them down. Collaboration and communication between sales and service people are paramount to providing the ultimate customer experience (CX). Recent Accenture research revealed that legacy business structures and siloed management practices are putting constraints on employees. In fact, 73% of executives surveyed in the Technology Vision 2017 report said that corporate bureaucracies are stifling innovation and productivity.

The only difference between sales and service roles in my view is when they’re in front of the customer: sales do the deal and set expectations, and service seeks to meet or exceed those expectations after they’ve signed the dotted line. 

It’s important to realize that one couldn't survive without the other, so it's up to business leaders to encourage a culture of sharing data, collaborating, integrating and talking to each other. The result: you have fewer silos, more internal touch points, better lines of communication, and better processes, which all lead to better customer experiences. 

Customers want a personal consultant, not a sales or service rep

Customers today expect a highly personalized online shopping experience, so why wouldn't they expect the same in a store, office or showroom? 

By connecting the two customer-facing departments and empowering them with a complete 360-degree view of the customer, they can enhance the customer experience, drive growth, loyalty, and advocacy. We all know what it’s like to be greeted by name at your local restaurant, this should be the case in any business regardless of who they speak to or how they engage at any given moment.

For instance, real estate website, Domain, integrated their Homepass app with their CRM to replace the old pen and paper open home check-in process with a seamless mobile experience. Each customer’s buying journey was recorded, analyzed and integrated to the agent’s CRM. The technology ensured real estate salespeople and the service call centers had the right data and information to have personalized conversations with the right customer at the right time. 


Sell smarter, not harder

I hate to hark on about the end of the old sales or service model, but change is happening right now. By 2020, 51% of consumers and 75% of business buyers expect companies to anticipate their needs and make relevant suggestions before customer contact. 


This can only be achieved if:
  • Your business and employees know their customer journeys like clockwork.
  • Leaders encourage and set an example for a culture of collaboration and data sharing. Leadership is behavior, not posters or slogans.
  • Barriers between customer facing roles are abolished
  • Salespeople sell smarter, not harder. This means leveraging the power of technology to make sense of masses of disparate sales and service data we have at our fingertips to provide meaningful insights, predictions, and actions.
     
     
Author Bio: Tony Hughes is a bestselling author, award-winning blogger and the most read LinkedIn Author globally on the topic of B2B sales leadership. Tony’s first book is a business bestseller with his second book, COMBO Prospecting, is available on Amazon here. He can be found on LinkedIn and at TonyHughes.com.au and RSVPselling.com




      • Sticky Posts

      • As Sales Person, Here are my New Year Resolutions. What are Yours?

        Being a salesperson, I keep learning from my mistakes and have noted a few changes that I need to make in my approach. I take these resolutions going into 2021, hoping to keep it going for as long as possible :) 1. I will not say "Yes, our product has

      • Once Upon a Sales Meeting!

        It was an awkward silence in the meeting room "Uproar." John Kowalski, the new sales manager, was not happy with the team's performance. After scribbling something in the notepad, he decided to break the silence, John: I cannot believe you guys have been working like this. No reports, delusional forecasting, random targets, and no eye on the ball. Kevin: We followed Richard's orders. John: Well, Richard is not here anymore, is he? John walked up to the whiteboard, and wrote in big bold letters: "TARGET

        • Recent Topics

        • Enhancements to finance suite integrations

          Update: Based on your feedback, we’ve updated the capabilities for integration users. In addition to the Estimates module, they can now create, view, and edit records in all the finance modules including Sales Order, Invoices, Purchase Order. We're also

        • Meeting impossible to use when sharing screen

          he Meeting tool in Brazil is practically unusable when sharing anything, whether it’s a presentation or simple navigation. When accessed via Cliq, the situation gets even worse: even basic calls fail to work properly, constantly freezing. And as you are

        • Connecting two modules - phone number

          Hi, I’d like some guidance on setting up an automation in Zoho CRM that links records between the Leads module and a custom module called Customer_Records whenever the phone numbers match. Here’s what I’m trying to achieve: When a new Lead is created

        • Resume Harvester: New Enhancements for Faster Sourcing

          We’re excited to share a set of enhancements to Resume Harvester that make sourcing faster and more flexible. These updates help you cut down on repetitive steps, manage auto searches more efficiently, and review candidate profiles with ease. Why we built

        • Incorrect “correct” password on email client apple mail

          I have troubleshot this account several times. I have deleted and re added account. It keeps saying incorrect password. Can you check that it is not locked on your end?

        • Is it possible to lock editing subform rows?

          Ideally editing would only be locked after the form has been updated but I still want them to be able to add new subform records at any time and they should be able to delete rows from the subform. It is a named subform if that's relevant however the

        • "Spreadsheet Mode" for Fast Bulk Edits

          One of the challenges with using Zoho Inventory is when bulk edits need to be done via the UI, and each value that needs to be changed is different. A very common use case here is price changes. Often, a price increase will need to be implemented, and

        • What is the maximum file size of a video upload in Zoho chat?

          Can I upload a 20 mb video file and share it with my colleagues? 

        • The Social Wall: September 2025

          Hello everyone, As we step into the fall season, some major updates are on the horizon. Meanwhile, here are the exciting updates we rolled out this September. Approvals in iOS Managing approvals just got more seamless on mobile. With this update, the

        • Update a field in ALL all calls under a contact

          HI guys! I have written some deluge code to update a field in my calls after i have comepleted the call, i need this field to update in all my scheduled calls as well that are comeing up. I just cant seem to get it to work, i have put teh code below,

        • MS Teams Meeting to Zoho CRM

          Has anyone figured out a good way to push MS Teams meeting info on a trigger of "meeting end" to Zoho CRM? We're looking for a way to take attendees of a meeting and meeting duration and push it into Zoho CRM after the meeting has ended. If I can just

        • In place field editing for candidates

          Wondering about any insight/best practices for efficiently updating candidate records while reviewing them in a Job Opening pipeline. We can do in-field editing (e.g. update job title or City) only when we have the full candidate record open, however

        • Automatic Matching from Bank Statements / Feeds

          Is it possible to have transactions from a feed or bank statement automatically match when certain criteria are met? My use case, which is pretty broadly applicable, is e-commerce transactions for merchant services accounts (clearing accounts). In these

        • Verifying Zoho Mail Functionality After Switching DNS from Cloudflare to Hosting Provider

          I initially configured my domain's (https://roblaxmod.com/) email with Zoho Mail while using Cloudflare to manage my DNS records (MX, SPF, etc.). All services were working correctly. Recently, I have removed my site from Cloudflare and switched my domain's

        • Fat Download of Ulaa Browser

          I just observed that Ulaa Browser is offering an one-capsule big download. These days it is a custom to offer a small bootstrap downloader and based on user customization options an appropriate download completes. And this is particularly common with

        • Cancelled Transfer order problem

          Hello, We've canceled a transfer order, and we can't add the related items to a new Transfer Order. The system tells us that the bin doesn't have the required quantity, but when we check the item, it indicates that there are 2 units in the bin. It also

        • Zoho Creator customer portal limitation | Zoho One

          I'm asking you all for any feedback as to the logic or reasoning behind drastically limiting portal users when Zoho already meters based on number of records. I'm a single-seat, Zoho One Enterprise license holder. If my portal users are going to add records, wouldn't that increase revenue for Zoho as that is how Creator is monetized? Why limit my customer portal to only THREE external users when more users would equate to more records being entered into the database?!? (See help ticket reply below.)

        • Changing the Default Search Criteria for Finding Duplicates

          Hey everyone, is it possible to adjust the default search criteria for finding and merging duplicate records? Right now, CRM uses some (in my opinion nonsensical) fields as search criteria for duplicate records which do nothing except dilute the results.

        • Billing Management: #8 Usage Billing in Logistics & Delivery Services

          The logistics and delivery industry thrives on movement and precision. Every delivery completed, every kilometre driven, and every ton transported is a measurable activity. However, billing often lags behind. Many logistics companies still rely on fixed-rate

        • Create custom rollup summary fields in Zoho CRM

          Hello everyone, In Zoho CRM, rollup summary fields have been essential tools for summarizing data across related records and enabling users to gain quick insights without having to jump across modules. Previously, only predefined summary functions were

        • Zoho sheet for desktop

          Hi is zoho sheets available for desktop version for windows

        • Tags for New Tickets

          Hi there, When creating a new ticket, there is currently no way to choose a tag you would like to associate with the new ticket. Being able to associate a tag while creating a new ticket will be very beneficial as it will save time and flow well with

        • Default Sorting on Related Lists

          Is it possible to set the default sorting options on the related lists. For example on the Contact Details view I have related lists for activities, emails, products cases, notes etc... currently: Activities 'created date' newest first Emails - 'created

        • Experience effortless record management in CRM For Everyone with the all-new Grid View!

          Hello Everyone, Hope you are well! As part of our ongoing series of feature announcements for Zoho CRM For Everyone, we’re excited to bring you another type of module view : Grid View. In addition to Kanban view, List view, Canvas view, Chart view and

        • Zoho Desk: No Incoming email

          Is Zoho Desk services down? No incoming email reflect to desk tickets.

        • Mapping a new Ticket in Zoho Desk to an Account or Deal in Zoho CRM manually

          Is there any way for me to map an existing ticket in Zoho desk to an account or Deal within Zoho CRM? Sometimes people use different email to put in a ticket than the one that we have in the CRM, but it's still the same person. We would like to be able

        • Zoho CRM - Widgets | Update #3 : Introducing SDK V1.5 along with new ZDK Methods and ZRC Support

          Hello everyone! Widgets in Zoho CRM just got a big upgrade! With the release of SDK v1.5, developers can now create more immersive widget experiences. This update elevates Widget development with new ZDK methods for easier interactivity and ZRC support

        • How to update "Lead Status" to more than 100 records

          Hello Zoho CRM, How do I update "Lead Status" to more than 100 records at once? To give you a background, these leads were uploaded or Imported at once but the lead status record was incorrectly chosen. So since there was a way to quickly add records in the system no matter how many they are, we are also wondering if there is a quicker way to update these records to the correct "Lead Status". I hope our concern makes sense and that there will be a fix for it. All the best, Jonathan

        • Unusual activity detected, account blocked

          I am unable to send emails and am getting the error "Outgoing blocked: Unusual activity detected. To unblock your account, please and submit a request. Learn more.". I am unsure as to why this is happening since all my activity is legitimate, mainly confirmation

        • Unlock agreement intelligence with Zoho Sign's latest AI updates

          Hello! If you've been struggling with long, complex agreements and spending way too much time on them, here's exactly what you'll want to hear: Zoho Sign now integrates with OpenAI's ChatGPT to make agreement management smarter and simpler. Acting like

        • Unable to Send Emails – Outgoing Mail Blocked (Error 554 5.1.8)

          Description: Hello Zoho Support Team, I am facing an issue with my Zoho Mail account ( admin@osamarahmani.tech ). Whenever I try to send an email, I get the following error: 554 5.1.8 Email Outgoing Blocked I would like to clarify that I have not done

        • Issue connecting Zoho Mail to Thunderbird (IMAP/SMTP authentication error)

          Dear Zoho Support, I am trying to configure my Zoho Mail account on Thunderbird, but I keep getting authentication errors. Account: info@baktradingtn.com Domain: baktradingtn.com Settings used: IMAP: imap.zoho.com, Port 993, SSL/TLS, Normal Password SMTP:

        • Payment issue with Mail Lite plan – personal NIF not accepted as payment info

          Hello, I have already contacted Zoho Support by email regarding this, but since I haven’t received any reply yet, I’m sharing it here as well to see if the community can help. I’m facing a payment issue for my Mail Lite plan. I have a personal account

        • Customer payment alerts in Zoho Cliq

          For businesses that depend on cash flow, payment updates are essential for operational decision-making and go beyond simple accounting entries. The sales team needs to be notified when invoices are cleared so that upcoming orders can be released. In contrast,

        • {"code":1038,"message":"JSON is not well formed"}

          Today this began failing: sales_order_data = zoho.books.createRecord("salesorders",books_organization_ID,order_data); with this error message. {"code":1038,"message":"JSON is not well formed"} This code has been running for two years. Here is the input

        • In arattai received message can't be deleted

          The issue has been noticed in following: arattai app (Android) arattai app (Window) arattai web While the message posted by me may be deleted, the ones received from others can't be. The item <Delete> change to <Report> when the message is a received

        • Zoho Editor

          Zoho PDf Editor is not working I am clicking on EDIT PDf then it again bringing me back to the same page. again and again.

        • Figma in Zoho Creator

          Hi Team, I’m creating a form using Figma and would like to know how to add workflows like scheduling, custom validation, and other logic to it. Can anyone help me understand how to set this up for a Figma-based Creator UI form?

        • How to Delete Personal Account Linked with My Mobile Number in past or by someone else

          How to Delete Account Created with My Mobile Number in past or by someone else This is creating issues in making or sync with my credentials mobile and email address..

        • Enable / show scroll bar when Mega Menu is opened

          Hey there I am using the mega menu add-on and experience a "flicker" whenever the mega menu opens. The reason is, that the scrollbar, which has a width of a few pixels, stops showing when the mega menu opens. As the scrollbar disappears the whole page

        • Next Page