Inbound Organization

Chapter 26Inbound Back Office

The great irony of this information age is that, in many ways, we actually know less about the sources of value in the economy than we did fifty years ago. In fact, much of the change has been invisible for a long time simply because we did not know what to look for. There's a huge layer of the economy unseen in the official data and, for that matter, unaccounted for on the income statements and balance sheets of most companies.

—Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee¹

The back office, typically defined as the non-customer-facing departments that manage business operations, is rarely thought of as being responsible for customer success. But in the new age of buyer control, all employees should be familiar with the ideal customer profile, understand the buyer personas, and be aware of their impact on the buyer journey.

The inbound back office creates enterprise value by helping to improve the buyer's journey and adding value to the customer success journey.

The back-office business operation departments typically include finance, accounting, IT, and legal. An inbound organization runs business operations with the same values as the front-office departments: putting people first, emphasizing the culture, recruiting effectively for employees with the right values, and reinforcing the mission, vision, strategies, and plays. Back-office employees should go through the same onboarding experience as sales, marketing, and services employees.

Do Finance ...