Got a question from one of the readers who asked “Are There Different Types of Team Selling Teams?
Well, good question, and yes there are basically four types of team selling teams. They are the Account Teams, Regional or Territory Teams, Cross Functional Teams and the Specialist-supported team.
Let me explain how each team type works. Four Types of Selling Teams
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Account Teams
This the most common type of sales or selling team as it is designed to handle one account or a small number of industry specific accounts. These teams are designed to maximize the account penetration and servicing requirements for the account. There can a combination of outside sales person, a possible backup outside sales person, an inside sales team for taking orders and executing orders and delivers, and their can be others involved with the sales team – finance people, supply chain coordinator, etc.
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Regional or Territorial Teams –
I find this team dynamic with two primary examples. The first is a branch operation provides a team or group from the branch to assist in the execution of sales within their branch territory. The second is with distribution companies that have independent regional offices (and headquarters in some cases) and there are teams set up to handle “National or Corporate” Accounts. While this large accounts usually need several regional based operations to meet the distribution needs of the customer, good team work between the Corporate Group and the Regional Group are necessary for maintaining and growing National Accounts.
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Cross-Functional Teams –
Depending upon the complexity of what you sell, a cross functional sales team is usually created to handle the highly complex situations. This requires sales people to become sales coordinators for the multitude of people and departments involved in the account. Here your skill base becomes one of Team Leader rather than being a Lone Wolf sales person. People skills become extremely important and move to the front of the competencies list.
You will also find some cross channel teams who are working to maintain a unified front with multiple sales channels – such as retail, wholesale, VAR and e-commerce channels. This type of team usually requires a higher level authority to make the tough decisions related directly to the current and future strategy of the organization. -
Specialist Supported Teams
Here we usually find sales people who are generalist relative to knowing how to sell, yet, do not possess the knowledge, experience or expertise needed to make customers satisfied. Included in this group of specialist are Research and Development types, Technical types, Scientist types, Financial types and Product specific managers. These people are included in the sales process due to the expertise and knowledge they bring to the situation.
If you are aware of any other Team Selling Team types, please let me know or write about it in the comment section below. I really enjoy hearing from you, so make a comment or let me know what other topics you want me to write about.
Voss Graham
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