When deals close but customer delivery starts late, track the handoff as a set of owned work items with acceptance criteria. Connect the commercial commitment to technical review, customer inputs and delivery readiness. This helps distinguish an incomplete handoff from a genuine delivery-capacity shortage.
Define what delivery needs before accepting the handoff#
Agree the promised scope, customer milestone, required inputs, commercial exceptions and named owners. Delivery should be able to state what is missing before the work enters its ready queue.
Record the customer commitment separately from an internal target date. Changing an internal date does not change what the customer was promised.
Track three different waits#
- Customer wait: required information or approval has not arrived.
- Internal readiness wait: scope, technical review or a commercial exception is unresolved.
- Capacity wait: complete, accepted work is ready but a qualified team cannot start it.
Keep these states distinct in the review notes. They point to customer coordination, an internal decision or capacity management respectively.
Worked example: a signed deal cannot enter onboarding#
In a hypothetical handoff, Sales marks the deal won and expects onboarding to begin. Delivery finds that a nonstandard data requirement needs technical approval. The request has no owner and was never included in the delivery plan.
Create the approval task, name the decision owner and confirm the customer consequence. The first response is to settle the exception, then update the onboarding commitment. Adding another onboarding specialist would not resolve an unapproved requirement.
Measure the handoff without inventing revenue certainty#
Track elapsed time from complete handoff to acceptance, then from acceptance to the agreed delivery milestone. Review rejected handoffs and rework as well as speed. Confirm actual revenue or billing effects with the authoritative commercial records.
Deal value attached to delayed work expresses exposure, not guaranteed loss or recoverable revenue. Avoid presenting the entire deal amount as the financial benefit of an action.
Connect the records in Commandix#
The Sales module supports deal records and linked tasks. Project and task views hold the work needed for delivery. Use those connections to investigate the delayed handoff and assign the next action. Validate any external CRM data path before expecting automatic synchronization.
Related guide: Find internal sales approval delays.
Frequently asked questions#
Who owns the sales-to-delivery handoff?#
Name an accountable handoff owner and identify who accepts the work on the delivery side. The owner coordinates missing inputs and exceptions rather than simply forwarding a message.
Is a won deal ready for delivery?#
Not necessarily. Delivery may still need complete scope, customer inputs, technical approval or available qualified capacity.