How Back Office Support Helps Sales

Back office is a common term that we often encounter in the business world. So what exactly is meant by back office support? Back office is essentially anything that is non-client facing like Accounting, IT functions, Logistics, HR, Admin etc. The term back office encompasses everything that helps in the successful running of an organization. 

Front office staff are those who deal with clients and are involved in sales. They are responsible for selling/marketing a product or service to clients but have you ever thought about all the activities carried out and all the resources involved in producing and actually reaching the goods to the consumer. Behind the attractive exterior of the organization is the well-functioning back office team that supports the solid foundation on which the business rests. It would be an understatement to say that back office support is crucial for an organization. In fact it is the lifeblood of any organization.

Back Office Functions

Back office support functions include:-

• Finance & Accounting – Manages all of the company's bookkeeping, ledgers, account payable and receivable, payroll, profits, costs etc. 

• Administrative Function – Manage everything from daily operations, office maintenance to implementing policies and procedures to ensure smooth functioning of the organization.

• HR Function - Ever wondered where do the sales wizards of the organization that set sales soaring come from? That’s right it’s the effort of the HR team’s careful screening and recruitment.

• Logistics and Supply Chain – The entire chain of activity that is responsible from procurement, production to successful delivery to customer’s warehouse is also a part of back office functions.

• IT – Effective data management, security of confidential data like turnover, salary, profits, Candidate details, ERP for streamlining process and operations across organization.

Impact of back office support on Sales

1. Data/Information Management – An important part of the job of sales and marketing staff is to review existing sales strategies and create new ones in order to keep up with dynamic and ever-changing market. Data is the basis on which organizations make important business decisions. Where do the sales team get the data from? They rely on the back office team to supply them with data related to previous sales, price change, market study etc.

2. Managing Accounts – Imagine a scenario where due to some slip in the accounts department, your vendors are not paid on time. What happens? They will not deliver goods/services which are important for successful execution of a sales order. The result? A disgruntled, unhappy customer, delayed order and maybe cancellation of future orders. The end result is ultimately a negative impact on the company's sales figures. Therefore a robust back office support team is essential to ensure smooth management of accounting and operations.

3. Logistics – Logistics, another important back office function is crucial for effective sales management. An effectively organized logistics team will help you keep pace with customer demands and outperform competitors. Effective logistics and supply chain helps in moving goods from one point to another in by saving money, time and resources. 

4. Customer Service – We are living in a digital world where more and more customers choose to interact with the business through a digital medium mainly because communication is quick and easy. In order to keep up with this trend, businesses today are moving to digital channels to serve customers. For instance, gone are the days when customers would make a phone call to lodge a complaint and wait weeks for resolution. Enter Chat-bots for resolving customer queries and resolutions. A strong back office team is essential for managing this at the back-end so as to deliver seamless customer experience.

With the advent of technology, changing customer behavior and increasing competition, the way we do business is also changing. Traditional business models are being disrupted to change the way we interact with customers and serve them. With digital revolution sweeping the business world, interaction with front-end staff is decreasing thus paving the way for transformation of back office support functions. A brilliant example would be the E-commerce industry where the entire show is managed by the back office team.