Teams that work together accomplish more than individual minds. With a diverse set of ideas and perspectives put forth by different minds, you will have a lot more hands to lighten the workload.
Too many cooks do spoil the broth. But with the right number of cooks who know the right ingredients to use, collaboration can be a breeze. You will also have better accountability for the work done and everybody will know their role and how it adds to the larger goal.
The dish in question is sales and how do you get your sales ninjas to collaborate for an effective project? They need to know the power of coordination and effective communication that is open and concise. Here are some ways you can bring your sales team to collaborate.
#1 Create territories for different teams
Remember back in school when we were divided into four houses and had to participate in sports to win prizes? If you won the high jump, it wasn’t your parents alone who were cheering for you. It was your entire Blue House celebrating the win.
The same goes for your sales team. Divide them into territories and make them go the extra mile for their group’s wins. This helps because now they are working towards a common cause, and anybody can nudge the team towards a win. They will learn to share their wins and divide targets amongst themselves for optimum success. This healthy competition will do wonders for your team, and they also feel more accountable.
“The team will know everyone’s strengths and weaknesses and you can be sure that the final output is a combined effort. Good incentives will make the team collaborate better as well. The key is not to isolate the success of one person or the entire organisation. It is a win for that specific team for the collaborative efforts they put in,” said the sales team lead of a digital marketing agency in Chennai.
#2 Leverage technology and communication tools
What do you use for communications within your team? Slack to share comments and status updates? Wrike to assign tasks and stay committed to deadlines? Trello to watch your team and share calendars? Or Google Docs for multiple people to contribute at the same time? These tools can help your sales team but some of them have tricky but useful functionalities. Ensure that the right training is provided so the entire team is well equipped to use the tool.
Technology and the latest software have helped teams collaborate, but the most effective communication tool ever made is still the mobile phone. There is nothing more effective than picking up the phone and speaking to your colleague or client. This is the best option if you have a hybrid team or a remote one.
A major portion of sales technology spend goes towards CRM tools. This is necessary but other tools are important too to maximise productivity.
#3 Share knowledge and have daily meetings
Yes, some meetings could have just been an email. But knowledge sharing sessions must not wait. Ask your team to share their experiences and expertise and compare their best practices. What is better than one good salesman? That same salesman who shares his success strategies with the whole team to make them equally equipped.
We have no time to learn everything from our mistakes alone. We need to listen to other people’s mistakes and learn from them too. Not only mistakes and experiences during sales meetings, but your team can learn by comparing email templates, playing call recordings out loud, call scripts they have drafted, etc.
“We call it the ‘Daily Stand-Up Special’ at our company. The employees come together and share their success stories. The ones who share failure stories are equally appreciated and encouraged to try again. People are informed beforehand and if we feel there isn’t enough insight to share, we move the meeting to the next day. It is so useful for our company as the best teacher is experience,” says the team leader of a crypto marketing firm in Bangalore.
#4 Ask different teams to collaborate
Marketing and Sales teams have always worked closely together. Their collaboration and all the content they create is based on the sales team’s requirements. But the sales team can also collaborate with other departments like IT, Customer Success and HR.
“In our company, every team is interlinked and at no point is one team isolated. The sales team always lets us know which industries are demanding our services the most this month. The marketing team makes targeted content based on those industries. The HR team recruits people who have specialised in those fields. And the support team promotes our content and creates partnerships with those industries. It is not just a team effort but an organsational effort for each lead,” said the CEO of a reputed email database provider in Bangalore.
#5 Recognise talent and efforts
Just like how your entire team wins when they collaborate, allow them to celebrate even when one person wins. You could take everyone out for a team movie or lunch at a fancy restaurant if they make a sale. It doesn’t matter who made the sale and who contributed as long as everyone feels equally involved.
It will help your sales reps feel heard and recognised for their efforts. It will motivate other sales reps to work hard too. Initiatives like this will create a team-oriented mindset and help your sales department join hands as a whole. Use different tactics as per their psyche to get them working harder and together.
#6 Build trust and a safe environment
Your employees will work best and collaborate more when they feel safe. They will communicate more when the criticism they receive is constructive and friendly. And it will incentivise them to share their thoughts during team meetings if you welcome their input and ideas.
Create an environment that welcomes insights and thoughts from anybody on the team.
Be it a fresher or someone experienced, insights can be shared by anyone. A new recruit who attended their first sales call may have some inputs to share with the whole team.
It also helps to get different minds to collaborate on the same project. Get a millennial, a GenX employee, and a new joiner to attend a sales call. Ask a marketing team lead, sales rep, and support executive to attend an in-person session. These collaborations will create empathy. Each department will know the pains of the other departments.
Summing up
The best way to get your sales team to collaborate is to make them adopt a team mindset. It isn’t about their success or the company’s profit. The team is a family and by working together, they can all achieve new heights.
Every victory is mutual, and every failure is a scope for everyone to learn. Knowledge needs to be shared and even a new recruit can mentor a senior one. It is time to welcome new opinions and maintain a safe environment for everyone to flourish using their strengths.
Want to build a collaborative culture in your workspace and help your sales team complement each other’s strengths? Click here to learn more about getting your sales team to collaborate for enhanced sales and profits.
