What is working together in sales?
Teams work together to strategize, plan, and carry out activities that lead to significant sales outcomes (i.e., closed-won deals). This is called sales collaboration.
To work together in sales, everyone needs to know what the customer wants and needs. Then, through study, data analysis, and communication, they work together to find the best way to reach those goals.
Some of the things that happen in collaborative sales attempts are:
- Creating customer profiles and target areas together
- Sharing information and ideas about customers
- Working together on sales pitches and plans
- Getting sales, marketing, and other areas to work together
- Doing research after the sale and constant improvement
Because of changes in how we work, companies must change how they handle sales to accommodate flexible work arrangements. HubSpot recently did a study that shows that 46% of sales organizations use a hybrid model, 18% are fully remote, and just over one-third work only in the office.
No matter how they work, the goal of a collaborative culture is for everyone on the team to know the customer, their job, and the best way to work together. Everyone can work together to find the best answers for customers if sales reps, marketers, and support staff don’t work in separate silos.
Like words
Collaborative selling is a way of selling that involves working as a team to understand better and meet the needs of each customer, making the sales experience more personalized.
When more than one salesperson works together on the same deal or chance, this is called cooperative selling.
Online teamwork for sales teams means using online tools to share information and data about customers, talk to customers, make sales presentations, and work together as one remote or hybrid sales force.
Collaboration on the sales team means developing, planning, and implementing sales strategies that help reps close deals and make more money.
Why creating a collaborative sales culture is a good idea
There are more benefits to creating a mindset of collaboration than just working together.
Promoting open communication, trust, and unity between sales leaders, team members, and each other opens up a world of huge benefits that help the whole company succeed and grow.
Better customer happiness and loyalty. When salespeople use the team’s knowledge and skills, they can give customers more value and better solutions, which makes them happier and more loyal in the long run.
- Learning and growth across functions. When sales teams work together, salespeople with different skills can learn from each other, gain more knowledge, and improve their sales methods. A constantly learning company is more skilled, flexible, and successful.
- They are getting access to tools and information. When sellers work with coworkers and subject matter experts (SMEs) from across the company, they have access to essential data and tools that help them answer customers’ questions, sell products, and close deals more quickly by seeing the whole sales funnel.
- They are using everyone’s knowledge to make better decisions. Collaborative sellers use their shared knowledge as a single source of truth to make better choices about company culture, product information, and target audiences.
- They are getting and keeping the best employees. A sales culture that is positive and collaborative makes workers feel valued, supported, and in charge. A better selling experience brings in good buyers and motivates current ones to stay involved and dedicated to their jobs.
- They are making the sales process run more smoothly. When sales teams work together, they can easily find inefficiencies and unnecessary steps in their sales processes. This makes routines more efficient and boosts sales.
Problems with Working Together in Sales
Even though working together has a lot of benefits, sales teams still have trouble creating a mindset of working together.
Different backgrounds and ways of working
Team members may have different thoughts about sharing information, setting task priorities, or dealing with customers. This gap can cause stress and low morale among peers.
For example, some buyers work better in startup settings because they are more proactive, willing to take risks, and at ease with uncertainty.
Others do well in large organizations where processes are well-defined and standards are clear. They feel more at ease when they are told what to do and when they follow set rules.
It can be challenging for sales managers to get these two types of sellers to work together because they need to find the right mix between flexibility and structure while building their team and, by extension, their culture.
Selling from afar
Virtual selling makes the process easy for both sales reps and potential buyers. It’s not the same for the whole group.
Managing remote sales teams has become the most common problem companies face since almost two-thirds of buyers do some of their work from home.
People who sell from home need the same tools as those who work in an office, but they can’t get them the same way.
It’s up to sales managers to devise ways for their remote teams to stay busy and make the most sales possible.
Siloed departments and not being able to get to them
More than half of businesses still handle their customer ties in separate silos, even though more and more sales are being made online.
The marketing and customer success teams don’t talk to the sales teams, which causes them to be out of sync, miss sales chances, and give customers a bad experience.
Salespeople can’t even get the information they need to get buyers interested without sharing data and working together across departments.
Technology is not connected.
A cross-functional study from the McKinsey Global Institute shows that about one-third of all sales tasks can be done automatically.
A tech stack that works together perfectly is the key to making sales go faster. Teams can’t access all of the same resources when companies use different, separate tools to keep track of customer interactions, handle customer data, and store sales data.
When some of their technology doesn’t work with the rest, it’s hard for reps to provide a combined omnichannel experience.
Too much technology
It’s not always a problem with having the wrong gear. It has too much.
Too much technology can cause many issues for sales teams, including:
Newer or younger reps may be better at using the newest technologies, but older team members may not know how to use them or how to get along with newer sales communication tools.
Team members have trouble setting up and learning how to use new sales tools, which can slow down sales activities, make the team less productive, and lower confidence.
Reps won’t be able to make sales processes that get things done if the software provider doesn’t train them.
Companies must think about all these problems when they choose a sales stack to pick tools that fit their needs and improve their current processes.
Sharing the Commission Fairly
“I did more to make the sale happen, so I should get more from it.”
Sales managers split the commission evenly when more than one rep works together to close a deal. At first glance, this seems fair. But team members will be unhappy (or even angry) if they think they aren’t getting paid fairly for what they do. Claims like the ones above cause disagreement and hurt the spirit of working together.
To keep a positive sales environment, consider other ways to recognize and praise teamwork. Give credit for great work, give spot bonuses, or set up a modified deferred-compensation plan that considers the work of a two- or three-person closing team.
For example, each person who helped close the deal could get 75% of the commission one agent would have made. It’s better for everyone when everyone works together and everyone’s services are recognized more.
Tips for Working Together in Sales
Sales teams that do well use various methods to help their members work together and get things done. These are just a few:
Synchronization of Data
Teams may have trouble getting helpful information from the data they access in places that haven’t fully adopted a data-driven mindset. It’s a big reason why only 25% of employees think they can use data to their advantage when it’s not stored in sync.
To get your organization’s data to match up better, you might want to use your current data to do the following:
- ₷Store information in one place
- Make sure the information is consistent.
- Set up regular updates to your information.
- Encourage the data to be open and transparent.
- Teach team members how to use software and workflows to handle data.
- Allow selling from home.
More than two-thirds of Americans say they would like to work from home full-time, and a lot more would at least like a hybrid plan. This large majority shows that flexible work plans are becoming more popular.
Businesses that are good at remote selling are those that:
Work in fields where customers are spread out geographically, so sales reps can talk to customers without driving a lot.
Want to find more talented people and aren’t concerned about the different advantages of meeting in person?
Ensure your teams know how to use digital tools for communication and can effectively connect with potential customers online.
Accept the digital change and use technologies like CRM systems, video conferencing platforms, and sales enablement tools to help team members who work from home communicate and work together efficiently.
They value flexibility and an excellent work-life balance for their workers because they know it leads to higher job satisfaction, employee retention, and overall productivity.
Know how important it is to communicate regularly and do virtual team-building activities to keep the team together and give everyone a sense of a common goal.
Of course, not all companies should allow their employees to work from home. Some companies choose to keep their own sales teams because they want to promote a particular company culture or because they like talking to clients in person.
Bring in team players.
When putting together a sales team that works well together, hiring people who are good at working with others is essential.
Please pay close attention to the words people you might hire use when they’re being interviewed. Do they say things like “I exceeded my quota” a lot to talk about their accomplishments?
Do they often talk about what their past teams did well by saying things like “We achieved X” or “We reached X goal”?
Candidates with a “we mentality” will do well in sales in a collaborative setting.
Take these two options as an example:
1. The candidate brags about their accomplishments, focusing on how well they did compared to their peers. They rarely talk about their old team’s success or what they did to help the bigger picture.
2. Candidate B talks about how their former sales team worked excellently together and shared resources. They tell stories about how they helped the team succeed, like how they helped come up with new plans or how they helped teach younger team members how to do things.
Candidate B is a better team player who will help make the sales setting more collaborative.
Add tools for working together in sales
84% of workers believe leaders should switch to more modern tech stacks, which include using a sales engagement platform to communicate with clients, a CRM to keep track of customer data and interactions, and other sales-specific tools to find new leads.
For businesses of all kinds and types, sales collaboration tools look different.
You might need to buy a company sales tool suite like Salesforce for bigger businesses. You can choose a smaller set of unified tools for small and medium-sized businesses.
Sales enablement solutions that give access to product information, case studies, and customer testimonials are helpful for businesses with field reps or complicated goods.
Companies that work in established markets need software that can be changed to fit their needs and handle large amounts of data quickly and correctly.
New tools for working together should ideally be able to connect to existing systems right away. If not, automation and connections based on APIs can help get different systems to work together.
Sales Tools for Working Together
Members can work together better and make quicker decisions with the right sales collaboration tools. These are good places to begin:
CRM stands for customer relationship management.
CRM software is essential for any sales team that wants to be successful. There is a place to store customer information, keep track of sales, and automate follow-up jobs.
Modern CRMs have advanced analytics tools to find valuable patterns in customer encounters, data-rich dashboards, process automation, and reporting tools.
Set up, price, and quote (CPQ)
One of the best things about CPQ software is that it can make the sales process easier and faster.
CPQ options give you a single place to make quotes and contracts, approve customer orders, and track discounts. This is especially helpful for sales processes that depend on inputs like business-to-business deals and telecom contracts.
The DealRoom
DealRoom, a “digital sales room,” is an online tool that helps close deals more quickly. In real-time, it lets sales teams see what’s going on and lets them see contracts and customer information all in one place.
DealRoom helps departments work together by letting everyone interested in the deal work on the same documents. This includes operations, legal, finance, and more.
The prospect benefits from this teamwork, as buyers are more interested when they can get feedback immediately and see how things are going in real time.
Tools for Sales Engagement
There are many sales engagement tools, but they all have the same goal: to move sales talks forward.
Engagement tools range from simple ones like logging calls and emails to more complex ones with automated processes and suggestions based on AI.
These apps help sales reps find the best chances, set up meetings, make personalized pitches, and keep track of the whole customer lifecycle.
How to Choose the Right Tools for Sales Collaboration
Adopting software will only work if your chosen tools are right for you. To help you pick the best sales teamwork software, here are seven tips:
- Determine what features and functions your sales team needs to work together effectively by looking at their individual needs.
- Pick a tool with an easy-to-use layout to make it easier for everyone on the team to learn how to use it.
- Choose a solution that works well with your existing tools, like marketing and CRM platforms.
- Ensure the program can be expanded to handle a growing team and more work.
- Customization is helpful if you need to make software work with how your team works and their methods.
- Give more weight to options with robust security features to keep private customer and sales information safe (most already do this).
- Ensure there is onboarding and continuing customer support to help with any problems that may arise during implementation or use.
