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Covering All the Bases with Team Sales

No longer a solo sport, selling in the 21st century requires teamwork.

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Traditionally, selling has been an individual endeavor, but recent shifts in products and organizations are causing it to become a team sport. Consider:

• Products and services have become more complex, especially in the technology arena.
• Decentralization of buying power has caused more people and departments to have a say in purchasing.

No longer lone rangers, salespeople are enlisting the aid of other departments to woo customers. For example, at Elytics, a software company in Cambridge, Mass., salespeople take engineers along on calls. "Our clients are primarily Fortune 2000 companies, and though the typical end user is their marketing department, we have to walk through the sales process with other business units," explains Jon Christensen, founder of Elytics. "So even though marketing may be interested, if we don't get the nod from IT, which often has veto power, the deal may not work."

Team selling helps knit companies together at different levels, which remains a long-term benefit: If a salesperson leaves your company, you don't necessarily lose rapport with the client.

What's more, team selling can give you an edge at the beginning because it's a window into your company; people can see how your staff works together. "Most of the time, when we go into a sales meeting, the prospective client already knows the value we offer, but by showing them who we are, it really previews the relationship," says Frank Aloi, founder of Ath Power Consulting Corp., a $2.75 million market-research and training firm based in Andover, Mass. "We're very team-based internally, and our group presentation is an extension of that — what you see is what you get."

Healthy tension

Yet team selling can be challenging. For one thing, salespeople are used to being a solo act rather than part of an ensemble. Another drawback: Other team members may lack selling finesse and listening skills. Technicians, for example, often get bogged down in details and go off on tangents, talking at customers instead of addressing their needs.

Still, differences can also be complementary, points out Jeff Behrens, founder of The Telluride Group Inc., an IT consulting firm in Newton, Mass., with about $3 million in revenues.

Behrens founded the company in 1989 and, as is the case in many service organizations, he was the primary salesperson for many years, aided by senior account managers. Yet in 2000 Behrens hired three sales specialists to help grow revenues.

Although salespeople make the initial contact call to qualify a potential customer, consultants then accompany salespeople on all other calls, and the salesperson and consultant write and deliver the final proposal together. Since implementing this team approach, sales have doubled for Telluride Group.

"Team selling creates a healthy tension," says Behrens. "If only salespeople were involved, they would be selling to anyone at any price. And if we just had account managers trying to sell like we did before, it would continue to be a much slower process because the account managers are distracted by trying to keep current customers happy."

Coordination is crucial

The key to successful team selling is coordination. It takes more than extra bodies. If your team presentation isn't well orchestrated, you can end up looking like the Keystone Cops.

Define clear roles. This is particularly important if you're partnering with another company on a presentation. Agree on how you'll handle difficult questions or situations that may arise. Make sure you have a common strategy; if you have several people who are all stressing different points, you'll confuse the customer.

Appoint a leader. Someone, usually the salesperson, needs to moderate the presentation so everyone stays focused and on track.

Research. Research helps determine if, indeed, you are the right supplier and which of your products or services are most appropriate. It may be helpful to arrange conversations between your technical people and prospective customers before a sales meeting to better grasp their needs.

Rehearse. That means more than a five-minute huddle before the presentation. Rehearsing will ensure that you don't have any inconsistencies in your presentation. Make sure each person complements other team members, so the client realizes that this is, indeed, a real team.

Don't upstage one another. Know what each person brings to the team so that you can sell each other's expertise. Learn to add information gracefully without discrediting teammates.

Have a clear agenda. Agree on a time length for the presentation beforehand, and then clarify it with the potential client at the beginning of your presentation. Also tell the customer what each person will talk about. Make sure you finish on time.

Have a clear objective. What are you trying to accomplish? Are you going to do a product demonstration? Is there a possibility that you can close the sale at this meeting?

Debrief as a team afterward. Ask each other, "What impressions did we get? What could we have done better?"

Team selling is a two-way street, says Aloi: "You're giving data, but you're also gathering information — not just what the potential customer says, but also their body language. The more sets of ears and eyes you have, the better information you come away with."

Selling with another team

More preparation is required when a presentation involves partnering with an outside company. DistribuTech Inc., a $7 million Brantford, Ontario, firm that outsources marketing fulfillment for other companies, teamed up with Central Graphics, a Canadian manufacturer of display units, to sell a total solution to consumer-goods companies. The alliance resulted in a contract with Colgate-Palmolive. "Neither our company or our partner would have been able to get the business on our own," says David Reeve, DistribuTech's founder.

"Yet when two organizations are selling together, you must present a unified front to the client, and that's challenging due to different marketing approaches and cultures," says Reeve. "We decided to co-brand the presentation and were very clear in defining what the partnership was, what it wasn't and how we would work with the client if we won the job."

Overcommunicate with your partner, even on trivial issues, adds Reeve: "The client needs to look at the two partners as one. Anytime the client senses some degree of confusion, he will lose confidence in your partnership."

Writer: TJ Becker.

Other Sources:

This article was originally published in the April 2002 issue of The Edward Lowe Report.

Checks and balances

Jon Christensen
Elytics Inc.

"Team selling is mandatory in our industry," says Jon Christensen, founder of Elytics Inc. "Because we have a highly technical product, both sales and technology skills are absolutely essential to the selling process—and it's rare to find a single person with expertise in both areas." Read more...

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