Team Selling is not for every business, but there are certain sectors where a team approach to selling would enhance selling, customer satisfaction, and growth.
Review this with an open mind. You may be surprised how effective a Team Selling approach may work for your business.
Two Reason to Consider Team Selling
- If you have a Sales Team that spends more time in their day, week, and month preparing Quotes and Estimates then prospecting, making other sales calls, and growing their base business.
- If your Sales Team has a Quote or Estimate ratio to Close or Awarded Business of 15% of less.
These are not the only two metrics you should review as you consider a Team Selling approach. However, in the hierarchy of qualifying if Team Selling should be considered they are definitely the top two.
Take some time to gather this data. Even if you do not have Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, you can gather this data by simple observation and calculation.
The simplest form of data gathering would be to ask the sales team to provide you the number of Quotes or Estimates from the last three months and also the number of face to face sales calls they made during this same time. Have them then provide you a list of all the closed or won sales over the same period. This is not very scientific, but it will provide a baseline due diligence and the numbers will help you decide if this opportunity needs further review.
Three Ways to Implement Team Selling
If your due diligence has produced numbers that clearly indicate an opportunity for Team Selling and you have conducted a deeper analysis, then the following three steps need to be implemented.
- Develop a Sales Map that clearly shows every step of the Quote and Estimating Process.
- Take colored pens or markers and outline the Sales Map to show the various functions of today’s Quote and Estimate Process and use the colors to distinguish who performs each step through the close or win of the Quote or Estimate
- Now take this Sales Map and with different colored pens or markers begin to create a NEW Sales Map that has other team members sharing in the responsibility of the Quotes and Estimates.
This process will provide you with a visual of the NEW Sales Map, that is the beginning of the Team Selling Process. Now, the hard work begins.
Take each step of the Sales Map (broken down by your color code) and begin to write clear roles and responsibilities for each team member. Have others on your team review this new process and the roles and responsibilities.
This is a proven method and may I encourage you to engage your team with this new approach as early as possible, but only after you have done your initial due diligence.
Before the Team Selling Process can be implemented you must have buy in from the team and also come along side of your Sales Professionals and detail their metrics and cadence for their New Sales Process. Working with them to develop clear metrics and cadence is most rewarding. Make sure to include consistent coaching to further drive the success of the Sales Team Process.
A Cadence of weekly meetings must be put in place to review both the metrics and process. These weekly meetings should include everyone that has a role in the NEW Sales Map Process for the Quotes and Estimates.
Finally, you need to establish a Weekly Cadence meeting with your Sales Professionals to ensure they are achieving the metrics for Sales Calls, Prospecting, and growing existing customers.
The Team Selling Process can drive new business and grow your base accounts.