One of the biggest changes in business organizations over the last 20 years is the shift from independence to interdependence, from individual efforts to teaming. And teamwork has had a profound impact on selling. Many companies leverage the synergy of a team approach by sending two or three sales team members to sell an account. This team approach is often used when single accounts represent significant revenue or when the team will be cross-selling various products or product lines to the same account.

When assembling a new sales team or bringing in additional sales team members, it’s important to address:
• The blend of skills and styles of the team
• Leadership development vs. “star” creation
• Ground rules

Blending skills and styles
In joint sales calls the value of a sales team is, regardless of the questions asked, the problems posed or the situations encountered, someone on the team can handle it. It’s good to select team members for special talents or rapport with particular buyers.

Many companies have added to their sales teams players with technical experts they call sales engineers or technical sales managers who can speak on the same technical level as a sophisticated buyer in a technical field. Often team members are chosen for their firsthand knowledge of the industry that the company is attempting to sell into so they better understand the needs of their customers. Or it may benefit a sales team to have someone with financial, tax or accounting expertise, once again so the selling company is able to more deeply understand the pain of a buyer.

The individual team member’s aptitudes and developed skills should also be considered when blending a team. For example, if a team is formed with no members having a developed skill at prospecting, the team will suffer for the lack of prospects. Similarly, if a team has no one with developed skills in questioning or qualifying prospects, time and energy will be wasted by the team pursuing accounts that never turn into customers. Every sales team should have individuals who are effective at prospecting, questioning, qualifying, presenting, closing and maintaining healthy account relationships.

From team leader to management
For the team approach to work, you need to assemble a group of team players. Unyielding egotists who aren’t prone to give their best effort for the sake of a team will only hurt a team effort. And management needs to be especially careful not to appoint self-serving individualists as team leaders, even though they’ll usually be the first ones to volunteer for leader positions. And while equality is an admirable pursuit in society, there’s no place for it in a team sales effort because the priority isn’t the team but the prospect, so selecting leaders need not be a democratic process.

The team leader slot can be an excellent training ground for management, so companies may choose to appoint leaders, allow the team to elect the leader, or to select several nominees from which the team may elect their leader. Leaders and leader nominees should have the aptitude to not only lead the team in debriefing, planning and strategy, but also to coordinate the efforts of the team in controlling the qualification and closing processes on sales calls.

Everyone must follow ground rules
Everyone on a team must agree or at least concede to following some appropriate rules for engagement for the team approach to be effective. It’s important that there is only one leader designated to manage the sales call, and there is prior agreement as to each team member’s assigned role. The call and roles for the call should be practiced prior to the call to avoid confusing the prospective customer with alternating leaders on the visiting team. It is also helpful to predetermine a subtle “high sign” cue for the leader to use to gracefully stop another team member from proceeding when the leader detects the conversation is going in a counterproductive direction. 

In addition to ground rules for the call, another area that is a challenge for team selling is the area of team performance bonuses or commission. “Pooled” commission plans that reward team members in equal proportions are only motivational for all, if everyone on the team believes the team can achieve the commission targets. An unintended consequence of a conversion from individual to team commission plans is the de-motivation of the salespeople who are most motivated by recognition and the distinction that only comes from individual sales performance.

What makes teaming effective
Some companies have experienced greater success with the shift from mostly individual efforts to teaming, while others have found that creating and managing selling teams is an exercise in chaos management.

For a teaming approach to be effective and create real synergy, sales management must actively develop the blend of skills, team leadership culture and appropriate rules for engagement between and among sales team members. Companies that shift to a team sales approach by simply altering the organizational chart find teaming to be a less effective approach than the traditional individual sales model, and lose a lot of momentum in the process.

©Copyright 2010 Marr Professional Development Corporation

Joe Marr is a public speaker, sales and management consultant and trainer, and runs the Sandler Sales Institute at 501 Avis Drive in Ann Arbor. To reach him call 734-821-4830 or visit his website at: www.sandlerannarbor.com