How do you deal with a Customer who refuses to sign change orders and a Sales team that allows this behavior to occur?

Anonymous

Fit to be tied. Need to know if anyone else has had to deal with Sales Teams that allow customers to go out of scope/budget and not sign change orders? It might just be our company culture, but in this environment sales has the power to accept internal change orders and allow the customer to go off the rails. I have documented and have escalated but it continues to occur.

Posted: Feb 14, 2020 1:48 PM

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Eileen Stickline Denver, Co, United States

Feb 14, 2020 6:10 PM

Replying to Kiron Bondale

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This is fairly common in organizations where there isn't alignment between sales teams and delivery teams. The only solution is to escalate this behavior to a high enough level that sales teams start to have their incentives tied to successful delivery outcomes and post-delivery customer satisfaction.

Kiron

Thank you Kiron for your response. I agree that the issue is best addressed by management. In the discussion, it is important to include the potential negative impact to the project and the strain that is placed on your relationship with the client.
The additional communication channel between the sales team and the customer, may be temporarily appeasing to the customer, but often leads to scope, time, and cost misinformation. You will be spending additional time managing that channel of communication.

Posted: Feb 18, 2020 9:05 AM

Peter Rapin Subject Matter Expect; Project Delivery| Independent Consultant Ontario, Canada

Treat your sales department as your "client" as this is how they consider themselves. Implement procedures with this internal client as you would with an external. That process allows them to deal with the "Owner" as they wish and you get your authorizations on any changes from Sales. Ultimately they will have to answer for the cost and time impacts.
This can be achieved through an internal Project Charter.

Posted: Feb 18, 2020 10:43 AM

Gurpreet Singh Kapoor New Delhi, Delhi, India

Feb 15, 2020 3:59 PM

Replying to Stéphane Parent

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ROFL! It reminds me of the salesman, the engineer and the programmer driving to a company conference. They get a flat tire on the highway. As the three of them stand on the side of the road, staring at the flat, the salesman sighs "we need a new car!" The engineer says "we could take some air from the remaining tires and put it in this one..." The programmer looks to the right, then to the left, and exclaims "why don't we just drive on, maybe nobody will notice?"

LOL guys.

Posted: Feb 20, 2020 7:35 AM

Manuel Perez Project Management Coordinator| Las Vegas Valley Water District North Las Vegas, Nv, United States

Typically, both the owner and the contractor, will identify the point of contact that is authorized to direct or accept changes to the scope, specifications, or costs. Requests coming from anyone but those identified at the beginning of the contract (in writing!) should not be followed.
Sometimes, the need for a change is time critical and a quick notice to proceed should be sufficient to effect the changes. A written notice from the designated team member mentioned in the previous paragraph is enough to establish that the change is authorized and a Change Order (CO) will follow. Without a notice to proceed or official CO, never start the new/changed work! As a Project Manager, if your company force you to start work without written approval, then it is time to move elsewhere. In the end, you will be blamed for all.

Posted: Feb 20, 2020 12:58 PM

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How do you deal with a Customer who refuses to sign change orders and a Sales team that allows this behavior to occur?

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