Team Selling

How to Get a Team to Sell

5 Reasons Team Selling Fails

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Team selling is still a hot topic in the world of B2B Sales. One of the most important reasons is higher performance due to larger account buyers feeling more confident in the selling company.

The bigger the company you are selling, the more important it becomes to be seen as the “safe choice” or “low risk” provider. These big companies have a track record of firing people who make mistakes – either immediately for impact or during the next round of cost cutting.

Therefore, team selling allows your company to be seen as stable and having multiple “faces” in contact with them. Throw in an extra variable such as a complexity relative to what you are selling, and team selling becomes a necessity.

While many organizations are very successful with Team Selling, there are a larger number failing at the Team Selling effort. Why do Teams fail in the world of selling? Here are the five common reasons for Team Selling Failure…

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Six Signals You’re Not a Selling Team Player

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Selling Teams are usually much more effective and efficient in the long run than a lone wolf sales person. However, the truth is not everyone – and especially sales people – can be a good to excellent selling team members.

I realize this sounds like I am profiling sales people as bad team players. However, after years of working with all types of sales people and selling teams, I know certain types of individuals are not comfortable in the team environment. The exact traits making a sales people effective as a territory developer can work against them in a team environment.

There are about six signals of a mismatch between sales people and being effective in a team selling environment. Those six signals are…

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Magic Bullet for Successful Team Selling

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Seems the idea and practice of team selling in b2b sales is growing fast these days. And, due to this increase in interest for team selling and especially how to improve the results of team selling.

Thus, the need to discuss the critical element for successful b2b team selling. No, it has nothing to do with “rocket science,” yet, the solution is treated with difficulty for many.

So, what is this critical element I’m referencing? It is…

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Team Selling is the Natural Way to B2B Sales Success

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Got to thinking about the natural way of winning the hunt – or winning the new customer account. Since my partner is going to South Africa this week, I began to realize nature’s method for thriving and surviving in the wild.

Since the world of b2b sales has been described by many sales people as a jungle, I realized they were using the wrong traits for winning.

In the wilds of South Africa, the lions are the big winners. Why? Because they use the natural advantage of the pride. Yes, lions hunt as a team rather than alone. They make a group effort to hunt down their targets. These animals are smart and cunning – and they excel as a team.

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Team up with a Customer Support Person

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One of the fastest ways to improve relationships with a large corporate customer is to have other people involved in servicing their account.

Outside b2b sales people who have learned it is difficult to service a large account all by themselves have discovered by teaming up with an inside sales person or a customer support person have increased their overall sales volume.

A key component to this success lies in the need for corporate account people to feel safe and secure. Therefore, by having multiple contacts – who know their business – gives them an added sense of safety and security – in other words, when stuff happens they can get in touch with a human being quickly to get answers or suggestions.

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Who Belongs on a Team Selling Team?

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I’ve been getting several questions about who should be on a Team Selling Team and How Many people can be on a Team Selling Team?

The answer is truthfully – It depends. Yes, it depends upon factors present in the b2b sales opportunity.

That answer usually gets a few eye rolls, yet, it is the true. It depends upon such things as the size of the sale, the complexity of the offer, the impact upon the buyer organization in terms of people, processes, systems and budget, and the number of functional units during implementation. And, then there are all the detail specifications to be discussed, dialogued, debated and explained before anyone will sign off on the contract.

Okay, next is the question of how do you select the players for Team Selling Team and who do they work with in the Buying Organization? To assist in this explanation it is best to have a diagram of the structure for your Team Selling Team and who they would be called upon to meet in the Buying Organization. So here is a table for you…

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Three Essentials for Partnering

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Seems to be a number of partnering or joint venture opportunities these days, and there are right and wrong ways to deal with these possible growth strategies.

The one thing I hear from some of the sales executives involved in forming partnerships or joint ventures that is a sign of failure is the thought process these are just easy ways to gain a foothold in customer accounts.

Let me tell you – as a consultant and business adviser for over 29 years – there is no such thing as an easy partnership or joint venture. It takes effort on the part of everyone involved.

Let me share with you the three essentials necessary for a partnership or joint venture to operate smoothly. The people and companies who understand these essential elements or truths, no have more success in the long run due to the comfort level of customers knowing they are working with multiple suppliers.

So, here are the three essential elements or truths of partnering…

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Three Characteristics for High-Performance Team Selling

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When working with Selling Teams- those teams designed to sell as a unit usually to satisfy larger accounts – I have noticed three common characteristics with the high performing selling teams. These characteristics or traits are limited or missing in the team selling environments that are unsuccessful or under-performing relative to their peers.

Assuming you are looking into team selling or are currently engaged with team selling, this information will be highly beneficial to your and your team, Share this information with the team and discuss ways to make it even better to ensure your continued high performance status.

Here are the three characteristics of high performance team selling…

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Six Trouble Issues for Team Selling

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Keeping on the Team Selling theme for another day, what are the most troublesome issues for team selling? Good question. And quite frankly, there are reasons many companies have not invested the time into creating team selling in the organizations.

This is a problem – or should I say, challenge (earlier tip on word usage, I must walk my talk :-)), that companies and sales people need to address. Why? Because in B2B Sales team selling wins more often than the lone wolf approach.

Okay, enough chatter, let’s get to the good stuff. What are the Six Primary Trouble spots keeping Team Selling from being truly outstanding? Here they are…

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