Zucchini Flower Connection Part 3 Conclusion

 

Now you will eat Zucchini Flowers.

And you can be simply connected to each department in your company.

Connecting Your Departments

 

The problem facing Everardo and Mary B seems to be the problem that faces so many organizations. The Sales Department is not fully connected to the Production / Service Department is not fully connected to the Accounting Department. And each of these departments is not linked back to Sales.  

Smaller companies can get away with this non-connectivity. The salesperson usually is the owner who sells the services and performs the service in Production, and his nights are filled with invoices for the client. Easy! 

But when companies get more extensive and more salespeople and/or the production/service is a separate department, the information packet and flow can become a big problem and a cluster F.  

Everardo wants to do his work using the systems in his department. He also wants more information about the wall. What type of wall, what is the material to use, where does the wall go, do they include drawings and timetables from the Sales Department.  

Mary B thought by making a simple work order and assuming attaching the contract, Production would be able to do the work, and the client would get what they paid for, the time they wanted it, etc.  

And she also thought by giving the contract to the Accounting Department, the same would happen: the client would be invoiced the right amount at the right time.  

The communication becomes disjointed. We miss so much information and have to take the time and look for so much more information. 

It creates chaos, making our systems not work until we go backward to do the work of another department. 

A lot of mind reading going on or, as in Everardo'sEverardo's case, a lot of running around finding information was going on. 

 

Many companies and owners are the sales and sometimes (I think all the time) they believe that Sales is king. BUT

Sales department and salespeople do sell their asses off, that's what they do, and that's what they love. It'sIt's the hunt and the kill!

After long and tedious negation and estimating, they close on a contract.

After the client signs the proposal, what do they do with the information?

For companies that want this departmental connection, a simple way is to have a packet with all the department's information.  

 

A Contract Packet is one way to connect all the departments in an organization.  

This Contract Packet is created by the Sales Department, and the information is then shared with both the Production and Accounting Departments. 

The Sales Department creates the Contract Packet from all the information gathered during the sales process. The packet starts from the moment the client requests, to the correspondences, to the estimate phase, to the proposal work, to the tracking, right down to accepting a signed contract.

 

 

How do they connect the contract to the whole company that needs what they need?

Each department needs just a little bit different information in their packet.

The Sales Department needs the following types of information:

• To be prepared to discuss any issues between the client and the contract,
• To help the service/production and the work to be performed,
• Sales need the information to be used as a future reference for any client that similar work.

Production / Service needs the following types of information:

• Description of the work,
• Time and materials needs,
• Timetable to start
• Who to talk for contract details.

Accounting needs information to do it's magic with payroll, vendor payments, and invoicing:

• Description of the work, 
• How much, who, and how to invoice,
• Was there a deposit
• Who to talk to with invoice/statement/collection

 

 

Wow, that was a lot of information to show you how to connect the departments. That is a lot of information to digest. And speaking of digesting… 

Tom and I would like to first show you the results of handsome men creating breakfast for our loves with Fiori di Zucca Fritti, but the last step needs to happen:

We always need a Quality Control Department, and Meg and Rose are perfect for the job. They tell us we need some Parmesan cheese.  

Ok, the second to the last step is grating the cheese over the lightly fried squash flowers. 

In life, in this big beautiful world of connecting friends, family, and food, we conclude the story and the joining of the company.

Eating the flowers for breakfast and, of course, cappuccinos to wash them down brings delight to the morning. It connects food to cooking to heritage to family and friends.  

It gives our moms memories and their love for family and how they showed us with that love and connection through cooking. Doing hard work with simple ingredients to make this connection happen.

 

The work, with the aim of connections in life, never ends. It flows and flows and flows.

 

This leads us to an excellent method to fix the communication flows in our business world: The Contract Packet.

My company's problem was a problem with an employee that needed more employee development with the department system and being vigilant to keep the interdepartmental communication issue flowing. In this case, what the Sales Department was sent to the Production Department. 

This packet has helped us know what, where, how, and the when of a contract. As a result, this contract packet has improved our internal communication processes and eliminate many of the problems we were always facing. It now means that each of us in the company (Mary B in Sales, Everardo in Production, and me as a leader) can do our work and depend on others in the system flow to do theirs.

 

Oh! One more thing, the night before our delicious breakfast of Fiori di Zucca Fritti and cappuccinos, we enjoyed a band that has been sharing their art with the world for close to 60 years. And this show happened right after Mick Jagger had heart value surgery 4 months earlier.

Click to watch the video

 

Thank you for joining us on this journey at The Art of Life Consortium. I hope you enjoyed this series as much as I did create it.  

What do I believe these series do? I think that by creating a mastermind-like consortium, we can move each of us, business owners, like you, forward in your life and in your business.

This is a perfect time to do things in a new way. COVID-19 has taken out so many companies and has destroyed two much of our profits.  

An excellent way to start some of the work to create more opportunities in your business. Join our free once of month Zoom session on this topic: Zucchini Flower Connection

Are you building your business, are you creating more sales, and are you making more profits from these sales? More sales without more time and profit is a waste of your time and energy.

If you're moving forward, this is the program that will help you get there.

Click to join the discussion with other business owners in our New Zoom Session: Zucchini Flower Connection Wednesday 2 pm ET October 7, 2020. Click the link.

Any questions or ideas you would like to share, don't hesitate to email me: [email protected].

 

Avere un buon appetito (Have a good appetite).

 

From Rose, Tom, Meg, Doug, Mick, and myself, Ciao Ciao Belli…