If you’re looking to implement team based selling in your business, check out these five tips for success. With the right strategy and execution, you can boost sales and create a more cohesive work environment. I remember when I first started working in sales.
It was very much an individualistic role – it was all about hitting my targets and bringing in new business. But then I joined a team based selling organization, and everything changed. Suddenly, I had colleagues who were working towards the same goal as me, and we were able to support each other to close deals more effectively.
It was a great experience that really boosted my career, so if you’re thinking of implementing team-based selling in your own company, here are some tips for success:
Team Based Selling
Team-based selling is a sales strategy where a company’s sales force is organized into teams. Each team is responsible for a specific territory or market. The team members work together to generate and close sales.
This type of selling is effective because it allows each team to focus on a specific market and develop a deep understanding of the customer needs in that market.
What is team selling and when to use it?
When multiple people are needed to provide the right information to close a sale, team sales can be an effective way to accelerate the buying process.
The analogy of workers removing a large rock from a road can help us understand the concept of sales teamwork.
While one employee might be able to clear the road on their own, it might take them a long time to do so. It’s the same with boats—if four people row together, they can get to their destination faster than if only one person rows.
For Impact has created an awesome framework that outlines the different responsibilities of team members involved in sales.
Team selling is a process that sales teams can use to increase their efficiency and close more deals. In team selling, various members of the sales team work together to complete the sale. This allows for greater coordination between team members and makes it easier to close deals.
Using team sales can help you to:
Team selling is an effective way to accelerate your sales processes, improve cross-functional collaboration, enhance customer experience, and build trust. By working together as a team, you can maximize your ROI and reach your sales goals more quickly.
Team Selling is a great way to break into larger, more lucrative clients. By leveraging the expertise of your partners, advisors, or board members, you can better position yourself against competitors.
Team Selling is an effective way for salespeople to get in front of decision-makers in larger companies. Leverage your partners, advisors, or company experts to help you break into these higher-revenue opportunities.
Your network is one of your most valuable resources. Leverage it to increase your odds of success.
In today’s world of software as a service, it’s almost impossible to sell alone. It takes an entire team, from marketing to customer success, to help close a deal.
This is why more and more organizations use formal sales teams to sell their products and services.
On some occasions, you might need to bring in an expert from your team or a manager to help answer a question from your customer. Or, if the customer is being particularly difficult, you may want to talk to your manager for advice on how to handle the situation.
Sometimes, you might need to ask existing customers to refer you to their contacts in different departments (in case you want to expand your client base) or to potential new customers. This will help you build new relationships, which will eventually lead to more business.
Team Selling is all about having a support team. Having someone you can rely on can make you more successful.
How to Implement Team Selling Effectively
When team selling is implemented correctly, it can yield huge results.
When implementing sales, consider how to best leverage your most important clients, who should be on the sales team, who should be leading each conversation, and what resources are needed from upper management. By considering these key factors, you can ensure the effective implementation of your sales process.
Your sales team will consist of both internal team members and external partners.
The internal and external team members will be comprised of account executives, sales development representatives, marketing professionals, product managers, and support staff. The outside members will be made up of customer and user reviews, as well as integrations with other products.
Here are a few ways to implement successful team selling when prospecting for new business.
When implementing sales enablement, it’s important to be selective when picking your team. Make sure each person has clearly defined roles, and that everyone knows the rules. Also, make sure everyone works together, and that there’s no siloing of data.
Lastly, review your progress often, and make sure your customers are receiving value.
6 Ways to Master the Art of Team Selling to Close Deals 5X Faster
#1 Pick Team Members for Team Selling
When building your team for selling, it is important to pick individuals with the right skillsets and experience. Furthermore, having a strategy in place is also key. By doing so, this will help ensure that your team is best equipped to succeed.
Sales reps, marketers, and product managers can all add their expertise at different points in the sales process.
When it comes to team selling, it’s important to pick members with complementary skills and personalities. This way, each member can make a big impact and support the sale.
#2 Establish Clear Roles With Team Members
Team Selling is a strategy that’s used to simplify complex sales. However, if team members aren’t clear on their role, they can end up making the deal more complicated.
Before making the actual call to a client, practice with your team. Have someone act as the “sales caller” and prompt others when to chime in.
Make sure you know your product and demo script inside and out.
As a sales team, it is crucial that we share product knowledge between ourselves and our clients. By doing so, we increase the chances of making a successful sale.
#3 Leverage Account Roadmaps
With a number of different moving parts to the demo and several people on the conference line, it’s often hard to keep track of everything.
While many people find the idea of using teams to sell to be too chaotic, it can be a very effective way to increase your closing rate.
By understanding your prospect’s product, you can better position your solution and avoid any redundancies. This will lead to a more seamless sales process.
#4 Set Up a Reward System
In a team environment, it can be difficult to recognize and reward individual members that go above and beyond. This challenge becomes even more difficult when multiple members are performing at a high level.
In a team environment, it can be difficult to set clear compensation for team members who show great salesmanship.
If you want your team to be motivated to close sales deals efficiently, you need to set up the right award system. By doing this, you can avoid any potential issues that may arise from a lack of motivation.
When team-selling, it’s most effective when each team member explains why the prospect should choose you.
With various stakeholders, decision-makers, and complexities, it is easy to lose sight of your ultimate goal.
The secret sauce?
Use technology to your advantage.
Your CRM can be your secret weapon to staying on top of your game. Leverage your sales team as the pivot point to leveraging your customer relationship management system.
Salesken’s call tracking metrics can help you analyze a client’s emotions and assist you with the right data for follow-ups, making it easier to close large enterprise accounts.
Large enterprises require coordination, and leveraging the right kinds of technologies can help make selling to them much easier.
#6 Choose and Filter Quality Leads
Team Selling can be exciting, but it’s important to choose the right kind of accounts for your reps. This will determine the value of the strategy.
According to studies, teams sell more deals with 5-10 times the average size of a deal.
When dealing with larger companies, it’s often best to split up the sales process amongst multiple employees. This can help to get new perspectives from different people, ultimately making sales teams more effective.
Ways to Improve Sales Calls
Don’t let a lack of product knowledge get in the way of a sale. Be prepared to answer any questions your client may have about your product.
Monitor your sales team’s performance in the sales process to ensure that they’re delivering on expectations.
Don’t go into the sales meeting unprepared. Listen to the pitch the salesperson gives you.
Sales calls can be improved by preparing in advance and letting the sales leader spearhead the pitch. This can be done by practicing sales calls, analyzing the sales pipeline, reviewing client profiles, and setting goals for team members. Doing these things will help to close sales deals faster.
Help your sales team set big, but realistic, goals for themselves and their team. This can help them improve their own skills, as well as help the team as a whole close more deal.
Pitfalls to Avoid When Team Selling
Team Selling can be risky, but here are five things you need to watch out for.
Team Selling – It’s a Group, Not a Team
If you put together a group just based on who you think would be good, you’re likely to waste time, annoy members and lose potential sales.
When it comes to team selling, simply putting together a group that looks good on paper is not enough. You want to create teams that consist of complementary roles and people who share a common goal. This way, you can avoid wasting resources, frustrating members, and losing prospects.
Salespeople Communicate Differently
As a salesperson, it’s important to be aware of how your communication style may differ from colleagues who don’t work with customers as often. This difference can create communication challenges within the team and with customers.
To avoid this, establish clear guidelines for how and when you will communicate with teammates, as well as what tone to use both within the group and when speaking with buyers.
So, you need to figure out how and when to communicate with your team members. Also, you’ll need to establish a tone and style that your team will use when communicating with potential buyers.
Team Members Don’t Communicate Enough
Some salespeople make the mistake of not communicating with their team. This can cause the team to fail.
They don’t think about sharing what they’ve learned with their colleagues, or they don’t share their knowledge about the buyer with other departments.
You want to establish a schedule, as well as a pre-and post-meeting plan, for updating your team on progress.
Team Members Aren’t Accountable
Just like any working team, some sales teams fail to reach their goals because team members aren’t held accountable for their actions. For example, if Bob thinks his coworker, Lisa, will do a task, but she doesn’t, then he’s at fault.
After the meeting, no one followed up with me.
The best way to create accountability is to establish who does what, and by when, every time the group meets, plans or executes. This will ensure that everyone is aware of their responsibilities and knows when they are expected to complete them.
A common goal and reward weren’t established
All members of your team should know the goal and reward for closing the deal. Smaller, short-term rewards should be set to help achieve the larger, long-term goal. Everyone on the team should be compensated and recognized appropriately.
All parties involved in a team-selling process need to be incentivized. Each company will have different compensation and recognition systems, so there’s no one-size-fits-all approach.
Conclusion
If you’re looking to implement team based selling in your business, following these five tips will help you set your team up for success. With the right strategy and execution, you can boost sales and create a more cohesive work environment.
Remember, when it comes to team-based selling, communication and collaboration are key!
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