Drive working capital impact with credit and sales collaboration

Sales and credit teams have always been on the same page when it comes to acquiring new business opportunities.

The main attention of the sales team goes into closing a deal quickly without considering the risk factors related to a customer’s credit exposures. As a result, the sales team becomes disappointed when the credit team puts an order on hold while evaluating customer credit health. However, from a different perspective, the credit team is concerned with extending credit in accordance with the company’s credit policy and lowering risks so that any chances of loss or bad debts are eliminated.

Quite naturally due to this mismatch of responsibilities and the existing communication gap, customer relationships are often negatively impacted and a lot of effort put in from either of the teams is wasted.

Need for Common Ground- The Peacemaker

In spite of the different roles of sales and credit teams, they aim to achieve the same target, which is increased revenue and reduced risk. The biggest question arising here is: Will the sales and credit team coexist side-by-side?

It is important for both teams to understand that their efforts are of immense benefit when they work collaboratively. The first step to achieve this is to establish clear communication between the two teams. If each team has a good understanding of the various roles that the counterpart plays, then inter-team collaboration becomes a lot easier, which eventually leads to a win-win situation for both teams. This will improve the customer relationship and help both teams to onboard new as well as the existing customers faster.

On the whole, an alliance between the two teams can be considered as a necessary factor for achieving their common goal of revenue increment and risk reduction.