Sales closed the deal - and operations paid the price

by: Jacqui Shemilt, 12 March 2026

A client came to us frustrated.

Orders were being assembled incorrectly.

Deliveries were delayed.

Customers were asking questions - and confidence was slipping.

At first glance, it looked like an operations issue.

But when we traced the problem back, the root cause was upstream.

Sales were handing over deals with:

• Missing specifications

• Unclear product configurations

• Assumptions instead of confirmed details

• Critical information living in emails or people’s heads

Operations weren’t failing.

They were guessing.

Without a clear handover:

• The wrong product was assembled

• Rework became normal

• Teams blamed each other

• Customers felt the impact

This wasn’t a sales problem.

And it wasn’t an operations problem.

It was a handover design problem.

Once the business defined:

• What must be captured before a deal is handed over

• A single owner for confirming completeness

• A clear, non-negotiable handover output

Errors reduced.

Delivery stabilised.

And trust between teams improved.

💡 Lesson:

If sales can ‘close’ without enabling delivery, the process is broken - and leadership owns that design.

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