Don’t forget your non-customer facing teams!

It’s easy to spend most of our time communicating with our front-line, customer-facing teams, after all, it is vital that these teams present your company to your customers in the best light possible. And this is of course essential; demotivated sales teams are not good at winning business! But it is essential you don’t forget your non customer-facing teams too.

But why? How do the non customer-facing people help sales or the success of my company?

Consider how they leave your sales team feeling when they speak to them. Do they leave the sales team fed up and frustrated?

Or perhaps some of your backroom teams do talk to customers? Finance, despatch, logistics, all of these and more will sometimes talk to your customers.

You need to ensure they know about the company, its values, vision, and what the company does. And ensure they are motivated and want to work for your company.

How do we do that? Sometimes you need to look at it from a different angle. Let’s look at an example.

A Finance Department

A few years ago I was asked by a Financial Director to talk to her team.  She was struggling with their engagement and didn’t know how to resolve it. They had had the same training as everyone else on the values, vision and mission of the company. But they were still indifferent.

After talking to them we realised that the problem was that they had no feeling of belonging to the company as they had no idea what the company did.  The problem is that the company made engineering components, these components went into machines, the machines went into factories and the factories made products that you and I use.  For non-technical people to follow this trail and relate the products to things they know about is hard on their own. 

I was asked if I could break this down so that the team could really engage in what the company did and hopefully change the way they viewed their employer. 

I ran an informal workshop, not going through the products the company made, but going through the applications they were used in, ensuring that I spoke about the end products.  So for instance instead of saying the company made a cylinder, I described the cylinder being used on a conveyor belt to move a box of chocolates.  Or a piece of tubing being used to supply a vacuum to put a windscreen into a car.  I then asked them to name a product that they used and I described which of our products would be used to manufacture the product. 

As a previous Product Manager I had seen all of the products they named in production, they ranged from face cream to contact lenses and garden products!  It was a challenge of my knowledge too!

We also discussed some of the largest customers they spoke to and what they did.  And talked through what end products the machines they made may be used for. 

What was the reaction?

The reaction was instant! Your non customer-facing team’s motivation was now through the roof!

The FD reported that many of the team said it was the best training they had been on as they now understood what the company did and crucially now felt that they were part of the company. After all, they used the products that the company made so they were now engaged.  

From an indifferent team, she now had a team eager to meet with colleagues and show off their newfound knowledge!  She heard conversations afterwards where the team were quizzing the sales team about their clients, now having the confidence to ask questions where they hadn’t before. 

There was a huge change to the motivation of the team, meaning that the FD now had an engaged and enthusiastic team, who were ready to ‘sell’ the company to others, increasing retention and helping in recruitment.  They helped to motivate the sales team, what we traditionally call the front-line staff. No longer did the sales team leave conversations with them frustrated, now the finance team made suggestions and helped the sales team sort out issues.

And of course, conversations with the customers’ finance teams were now more positive, and this was noticed by the sales team in their conversations with customers.

So don’t forget your non customer-facing teams!

They can have a huge influence on the general company environment and, sometimes on your customers too! Let’s ensure we motivate your non customer-facing teams too.

Jacqui Hanbury is the Managing Director of The Pathway Communication Company Limited and is a specialist in helping you find the thing that is stopping your business from achieving as much as it could be. Follow her on LinkedIn to find out more.

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