It's All About the Team!

Solving customer problems is what good sales people do. In today’s world, often the problems that we identify with our clients involve people, products, and processes. World class sales professionals understand the importance of building effective sales teams in order to meet the customer’s needs. A good team seller will always be thinking about the needs of the customer and what he or she can do to ensure the customer will be as successful as possible.

Today, purchasing decisions are made at all levels of our customers. From executives, managers, to users, effective sales people need to build relationships, add value, and prove their capabilities with many individuals within our customers. The key to managing customer teams is to build and manage an effective sales team.

The first key to selling in a team is to create the team by assembling the best people possible to meet the objectives. Once that team is assembled, you must set clear, attainable and measurable goals and communicate them to the team members in order to maximize success. The complexity of team selling is increased as you are often faced with directing people resources in the absence of authority. Therefore, alignment of goals and objectives is critical. When successful, you will not only enhance the value you bring to your customers but you will also acquire and keep more business for your company.

To get your team off to a successful start and on the road to delivering sales results, apply the following principles to your team selling efforts.

Principle #1:

Think of yourself as a movie director – An award-winning movie director’s role is to not only bring together the best actors for the on-screen roles but to also assemble a winning team of writers, cinematographers, wardrobe designers, film editors, sound editors, etc. As you can see, it takes an army to bring a movie to a local cinemaplex near you. The same is true for the best business deals. In order to win, the team leader needs to carefully think about the customer’s needs and how best to meet them. This may require a sales team with expertise in technology, finance, design and even communications or marketing. Just as a movie director is assembling a winning cast, the team leader is assembling a winning team. The best teams include varied and complimentary experience. Assemble teammates that compliment each other. If two people only have the same experience and can only contribute in the same way, one of them may be a redundant resource in for this purpose.

Principle #2:

Identify the customer’s need – Before the team is selected, the needs of the customer must be identified through in-depth communication such as phone conversations or in-person meetings. Once the specific needs of the customer have been identified, the team members can then be chosen to best fit the components of the sale. You’ll want to consider not only the skill sets and expertise of your colleagues but also who may have met the customer. When choosing your team it is important to remember to reach beyond your institution to appropriate partners and vendors to ensure the appropriate talent is available to you during the sales process.

Principle #3:

Select the most appropriate team members – To select the winning team, the team leader must look at every aspect of the sale including the pitch, the product components, the challenges within the customer company, the deadlines and the implementation, and then choose the people who will help make it happen. Remember, these people may not come from your own institution; they might be a vendor or partner. It’s important to think strategically when deciding the skills necessary to put together the proposal, convince the customer, close the deal and finally retain the customer. The most critical part of choosing the team is to be sure the backgrounds, experience, personalities and even expertise are aligned with your customer and your customer’s situation.

Principle #4:

Create a common vision for the team – A team leader can put together the best team in the world but, without a clearly defined mission and goals the team will fail. Once the team is in place, the team leader must, in a clear and concise way, convey the desired outcome and any smaller goals and milestones along the way. In addition to the common vision, each person on the team needs to know their individual responsibilities and specific deadlines associated with those responsibilities. Once the vision and goals have been defined, the team leader must remember to communicate them to the team using established, and if possible, scheduled methods. Equally important is to evaluate progress made on individual responsibilities and deadlines to be sure all aspects of the selling process are still in alignment with the mission and goals. As team leader, often your role will be to communicate and test for understanding and agreement throughout the sales cycle.

Learn more about Team Selling and more by attending the ValueSelling Associates one-hour complimentary Webinar on Wednesday, April 9, 2008 at 9:00 a.m. PST. To enroll in the Webinar, visit http://www.valueselling.com/webcast.htm.

To learn more about how to create a winning sales strategy through the dynamics of team selling, take advantage of the new e-learning class from ValueSelling Associates. The ValueSelling Essentials: Team Selling course is now available for the introductory price of $89.00. To take advantage of this introductory offer by April 15, 2008, click here.