52 Weeks of Sales Success

WHAT IS A SALES TEAM?

By definition, a team is a group of people working together for a common purpose, but it’s really much more than that. A team is an entity with diverse skills, talents, and personalities. It is a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts, enabling each individual to accomplish more than they would otherwise be able to do by themselves. A team’s diversity makes it more capable of meeting challenges, and its flexibility enables the team to quickly adapt to changing conditions.

Although every sales team is unique, most start out as a fairly simple two-person team—the salesperson and his or her assistant. The salesperson does what he or she is best at and performs the most dollar-productive activities—activities that drive business and generate revenue. The assistant fills a supporting role—scheduling, processing paperwork, and performing other tasks to free up the salesperson’s time and resources to focus on even more dollar-productive activities.

When salespeople realize how much more productive and profitable they are with an assistant, they usually decide to grow their team. Sales teams can become small-businesses unto themselves. The team can vary in size and structure, with some complex teams having numerous team members who play the following roles (sometimes one person can play more than one role):

• Rainmaker and team leader: Usually the most experienced and energetic salesperson—the one who puts a face on the team, promotes it, networks, builds relationships, and generates the most business.

• Team manager (second in command): The person who keeps the team on track, oversees operations, double-checks the accounting, and runs the meetings.

• Transaction manager: The transaction manager processes transactions from the point of sale to the closing.

• Client care (customer service representative): The front-line team member who meets and greets clients, addresses most of their needs, answers most of their questions, and refers clients to others when he or she does not know the answer.

• Assistants: One or more people to manage daily activities, such as assembling marketing packets, updating Web sites and blogs, performing market research, fielding general questions from clients, and so on.

• Professional office organizer: The office organizer makes sure everything has a place and everything is in its place. Although this may seem like a fairly mundane job, far too many teams waste time looking for misplaced documents and supplies.

• Courier (delivery person): The courier is basically in charge of running the team’s shipping department, making sure all packages reach their destination. That can mean dropping off packages at the post office or delivering them in person.

• Public relations/marketing manager: The public relations (PR) person or marketing manager is in charge of marketing the team and generating positive press through as many media outlets as possible, including the Web, e-mail, TV, radio, print (advertising and articles), podcasts, and videocasts. This person may also function as the team blogger or ghost blogger.

• IT (information technology) specialist: This person keeps the computers running and may also create and manage the team’s Web sites and blogs.

REALIZE THE BENEFITS OF THE TEAM-BASED APPROACH

Salespeople who successfully make the transition to a team-based system rarely regret their decision. What they regret is not having done it sooner. They often tell me about how frustrated and overworked they were prior to building a team. Working over 80 hours a week, having insufficient time and resources for their clients, salespeople often find themselves making costly mistakes and having little time for themselves and their families.

After establishing a team, their lives quickly improved. These salespeople were able to focus on what they did best—dealing with clients and selling product—and could outsource the rest to other team members who had the time, resources, and energy to take on those tasks. Yes, they had to share their profits with the rest of the team, but the increase in commissions was more than enough to cover the added expense. Perhaps best of all, these salespeople had more time and energy for themselves and their family, friends, and communities.

Team-based salespeople are overwhelmingly more satisfied with their careers and with their lives in general than are salespeople who work alone, primarily due to the following benefits of team-based selling:

• Increased personal productivity: When someone else is handling what you feel are mundane tasks and distractions, you can do more of what you love to do more efficiently.

• Increased office efficiency: Division of labor always increases efficiency by delegating tasks to team members who specialize in performing those tasks.

• Increased sales and profits: With your focus solely on networking and selling, sales and profits will soar.

• More and better opportunities: More people means more skills and talents, which translates into opportunities. Inventory your team’s skills and try to identify new business opportunities that can tap your team’s potential.

• Improved customer service: Other team members can handle minor issues, so you can deal with any higher-end issues that arise, providing superior service to all of your customers.

• More free time: In addition to having more free time on a daily basis, you can now feel more comfortable taking some weekends off and going on vacation, knowing that you have people to cover for you.

ARE YOU TEAM-READY?

I believe so strongly in the team-based approach to selling that I recommend it to every salesperson I meet, mentor, coach, or train. I believe that it not only boosts revenue and profits, but also helps overworked salespeople establish a balance between their personal and professional lives. It makes for happier individuals and healthier families and communities.

However, not everyone is cut out to be a team player or has a sufficient amount of business to justify forming a sales team. Forming a team prematurely can result in catastrophe, so before you begin, make sure your situation meets the following criteria:

• You have more business than you can handle on your own or are convinced that creating a team will bring in more business than you can handle on your own.

• You have at least two months worth of reserves to cover the cost of adding team members.

• You have sufficient revenue coming in to pay new team members’ commissions or salaries.

• You can delegate tasks and pass responsibilities to others. If you are a control freak, you may still be able to implement a team-based approach, but you will probably need to hire a manager who is better suited to delegating tasks.

• You have procedures in place to train new team members, as discussed in Week 7.

• You have office space and equipment that new team members will need or it is realistic to expect other team members to bring whatever they need to do their jobs.

TAKE A LESSON FROM YOUR DENTIST

Most dentists don’t work as their own receptionists or clean patients’ teeth. They hire a receptionist to answer phones, greet patients, process insurance information, and bill patients. They hire dental hygienists to clean teeth, take x-rays, and prepare patients for their dental exams.

If your dentist runs an efficient office, he or she probably spends about 5 or 10 minutes with you for your six-month checkup, primarily to find out how you’re doing and quickly examine the inside of your mouth for any potential problems. Your dentist offloads all the lower-level tasks and then focuses on higher-level tasks, such as fixing cavities, capping teeth, and referring patients to specialists.

To maximize your own efficiency as a salesperson, take a lesson from your dentist and learn to streamline procedures. Apply the assembly-line approach to selling, as discussed in Week 7, and assemble a team to handle the sale from start to finish. While you focus on selling and on serving your customers, the rest of your team can handle all the details that keep your office running.

Ralph’s Rule: Start small, with one assistant, as discussed in Week 8, and then start growing your team by adding people with the right personalities, work ethics, skills, and talents. Train them well, and then give them the real responsibility to make decisions.