Teamwork in selling
Published September 2007
Tennis Grand Slams, Golf Majors, Cricket Test Match series, Rugby World Cup, F1 Grand Prix – what a sporting summer it's been. And what can we in the world of Living Sales® learn from the parallel arena of sporting achievement?
Well, one clear lesson is the need for teamwork. This might be rather obvious in the world of Formula 1 motor racing, but these days the stars of individual sports have a coordinated team behind them too. A PGA Tour golf professional will have a caddy, a manager, a coach, a fitness instructor and perhaps even a psychologist helping him. They are all there to allow the player to concentrate on what he does best, hitting the shots and sinking the putts, and to maximise the chances of him doing that better than his competitors.
It's the same in major account selling. Front-line salespeople might be those who win the business in the face of competition, but they don't operate alone. They need others in their organisation to be supporting them.
Probably the most vital support has to come from their colleagues in Marketing. There might be a traditional healthy rivalry between Sales and Marketing but, sadly, what we see too often is a complete disconnect between the two. This is why we advocate a holistic Living Sales® approach to any sales performance improvement project, which involves the inclusion of Marketing staff in it.
Marketing initiatives and materials that are aligned with the sales methodology have a critical role to play. They can become a key enabler in the Integration stage of the Huthwaite Approach, the stage that reinforces whatever classroom intervention we deliver.
After all, the classroom might be helping salespeople to change their behaviour so that they explore customer problems, develop needs and make Benefit statements. But what if all their marketing material simply pushes the Features and technical specifications of their product or service? They might be learning the skills of preparing a customer-focused proposal or presentation. However, there's not much point if their Marketing colleagues supply them with standard 'boilerplate' resources peppered with inappropriate generic references. Far from reassuring customers, these can often fuel their anxieties and implementation concerns.
Our SPIN® Marketing Workshop introduces the SPIN® methodology to Marketeers - not to enable them to sell, but to align them with their sales colleagues' efforts as they apply it in the field. It looks at what Marketing departments can do through the different phases of the Buying Cycle in lead generation, campaign management, promotional resources, product launches and bid responses. It even has some thoughts on how to use corporate entertainment effectively as a sales tool.
Click on the appropriate link if you want to know more about:
- Living Sales®, our philosophy on the 'aligned' organisation
- The Huthwaite Approach to changing behaviour to change results
- SPIN® Marketing Workshop and its objectives and content.
We are not saying that they will turn you into a championship sales team overnight, but they might be an important step on the way!
