Thoughts on Team Selling

Collaboration is a core skill for the modern salesperson

Traditionally, sales has been depicted as an individual or “lone wolf ”profession. Years ago, salespeople spent a large portion of their time alone visiting clients and prospects and disseminating information about their products and services live and in person. By knocking on doors or making phone calls in an attempt to speak to people about their products and services, salespeople would be the main source of information about their specific product and service offering.

Over time and with the proliferation of the internet, the medium of communication has changed. Customers and prospects are no longer reliant on salespeople to deliver information to them about their products and services because a simple search on the internet will enable anyone to find information about the product or service in which they are interested. Websites, such as TripAdvisor and Yelp, have been developed to enable all of us to become more informed consumers for our personal and professional lives. Similarly, in fields that historically were heavily dependent on in-person meetings (e.g., financial advising), there is now far more information online.

The main point is that information is everywhere, and the internet has changed the medium of communication for how we take in information. As a result, the lone-wolf mindset of being able to influence and sell to every single customer is long gone.

Salespeople who get this realize that they need to do things to differentiate themselves, namely:

1. Having knowledge and perspective to help their customer make the best, informed decision for their business. They become “trusted advisors.”

2. Developing collaborative relationships with clients.

3. Working in a coordinated fashion with your colleagues. You have to think about sales that come to fruition in team-based environments. Sales is no longer one-to-one. It’s one-to-many, and in many situations, it’s collaborative internally with coworkers.

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If you or other sales team members are looking to become better at the craft of sales, please let me know.

Here are a few ways that I may be able to help:

1) Grab a copy of the book or audiobook, Carry That Quota. You can order it here on Amazon or Audible.

2) Take a look at the Carry That Quota Digital Workshop Series. Here is a link to all of the online workshops.

Each workshop is less than 40 minutes and has been designed to help salespeople get better at the craft of sales by focusing on the fundamentals of the sales profession. Salespeople and sales leaders can access these workshops on their phone, their computer, or tablet.