Achieving Success With Sales Teams

By Barbara K. Mednick, Star Tribune Sales and Marketing

Last update: January 31, 2006 - 7:49 AM

The right salespeople with the right attitude -that's one of the critical success factors needed for team selling. This increasingly common sales approach offers numerous benefits to customers, salespeople and the companies they work for in a variety of industries, according to local sales experts.

"You can't rely on salesmanship and personality to get business today," says Paul Esch, president, Breakthrough Business Success, Inc., a Twin Cities business development-consulting firm that works with leaders to improve internal and external communications. "You've got to be more strategic and differentiate yourself from the competition 'team selling is a good way to do that,'" he observes.

What Is Team Selling?

So what is team selling?

"Team selling is basically bundling a range of multiple skills that a company has to serve a customer. It is having multiple people with different skills who are cross-trained to seamlessly serve the customer," says Steve Coleman, partner, Platinum Group, an interim management and business-consulting firm in the Twin Cities. "Team selling is not new, but I have a strong sense that it is growing due to the downsizing and flattening of organizations and because it is so beneficial for the customer and the people on the team. Good team selling doesn't require a manager because it is self-managed."

Different Team- Selling Scenarios

Coleman believes team selling is most effective when team members are from the same company. Esch, however, thinks that team selling with strategic partners can produce great results.

"Sales teams can help to build buyer confidence and communicate value. In short, four ears are better than two," says Esch.

But, can this approach really work well with competitive, high - producing salespeople who may have difficulty being good team players?

"To make team selling work, you need salespeople who are willing to make sacrifices for worthwhile team goals," advises Esch.

Building Trust

What's the best way to build trust among team members?

"Get to know your team members as people. When you take the time and make the effort to reveal your humanity, and to get to know others as more than a worker, you build trust. When you do that, it also has a wonderful leveling effect," says Coleman.

Critical Success Factors

"The top five critical success factors for team selling are clearly defined performance and activity goals, accepted roles, ground rules, trust and good communication and conflict resolution skills," says Esch.

The top five critical success factors for team selling according to Coleman are as follows:

1. The right people with the right attitude who have a desire to serve customers.

2. Salespeople who are trained to engage in healthy conflict, which is inevitable with teams, that leads to a resolution.

3. A willingness to hold team members accountable to do what they say they will do.

4. A strong sense of trust in the other team members.

5. Good communication tools, processes and systems that can be used easily by all team members (i.e., Outlook, Access, ACT, Gold Mine and other software).

Barbara K. Mednick is a Twin Cities marketing communications consultant and freelance writer.

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