Story line 1:

The company sets up some rules that should be followed for invoicing. The computer people implement those rules in the invoicing software. The bookkeeping applies the rules when making the invoices and checks if the customer is paying.

Story Line 2:

The sales department wants to sell a product or a service to a customer. Since this is their goal, they often are prepared to do almost anything to get something sold. So they are flexible and tend to bent the rules when this seems to suit the customer.

Story Line 3:

The customer buys a product from the company. He negotiates with the sales department. He gets an arrangement that involves bending some rules. He accepts, the product is delivered and then comes the invoice… Guess what? It doesn't correspond to the deal he made with the sales department??

Sounds familiar? So what's the cause behind the symptom?

Those that made up the rules often ignored the position of the customer and of sales.

Those of sales ignored the position of the customer.

What's the solution?

5 years ago, every businessman would have answered: "re-engineer the system". But now engineering is out and emotional intelligence is in… One thing remains clear: the pattern needs to be interrupted.

Typical answers to the question include:

• Have sales follow the rules, but provide a way to handle exceptions.
  e.g. if you want your invoice paid in 2 months, but sales want to do a concession for a 3 month payment period, calculate the value of this concession, and propose a discount in stead.

Comment: sounds logical, but from a point of view of emotional intelligence, I'm afraid that I have to say I'm not sure it will work…

• Have the invoicing done by the person handling the customer contacts
  e.g. this person knows the specifics of the way the customer is dealt with, and will find way to work with the invoicing system so that the problem gets solved.

Comment: much better from EQ point, just make sure the person getting this added responsibility has time for this and gets training to do it (otherwise it will result in added stress)

• Have the accounting department focus on a "control" function
  e.g. take out all contracts, invoices, payments made by a customer over a certain period, and calculate the "real" profit margin on that contract.

Warning: there might be some disagreement on how to calculate the cost side as well…)

Whatever happens: recognize the pattern, acknowledge its pro's and con's, and have all parties involved sit at a table to discuss this together.