Should a Sales Team be a Part of Your Sales Strategy?
Posted on 10/01/2008 in Key Account Management"None of us is as smart as all of us.” - Ken Blanchard, author of One Minute Manager
Many sales organizations have found that a sales team is an integral part of a sales strategy. For example, consider how a sales team could help you:
- Multiple team members can be used to broaden and strengthen relationships with the various decision makers.
- A team can do a more thorough job of analyzing opportunities and threats, based on their knowledge of different competitors and their exposure to different divisions and departments within the key account.
- To the extent that value selling and negotiating are necessary to win a key account sale, a team can do a better job than a solo salesperson. Teams generally are better at presenting better solutions when planning for a complex sales presentation or negotiation.
If you decide that a team approach is warranted, your sales strategy must then consider these additional elements:
- Who should be on the sales team? There are some obvious considerations, such as adding functional specialties such as technical service, marketing, and production/operations. However, there are also less obvious factors such as knowing which team roles and personalities are likely to generate and sustain a productive team atmosphere.
- Who should lead the sales team? It shouldn’t necessarily be the salesperson.Dual leadership is a good way to balance the workload. For example, let the salesperson lead the team during the client meetings, but let someone else lead the internal strategy and planning sessions.
- How can we assure that we are aligned on goals and roles? Lack of alignment on goals and roles will cause the team to flounder and potentially fail.
If you or your sales team are interested in developing a sales strategy, STAR’s Key Account Management workshop and Team Selling workshop workshop teach the skills and concepts to do so.