A common misconception is that a sales team should be focused exclusively on individual performance. This archetypal sales team is filled with selfish, hungry reps who are ready to throw their teammates to the sharks to get ahead, but the tactic may not work as well as people think. A sales team is called a team for a reason, and when reps learn to collaborate, everyone’s performance increases and the organization wins.
Why collaboration matters
According to Inc., collaboration simply works better than an “every many for himself” structure. That uber-competitive mentality may work for short-term goals, but companies with longer sales cycles or that sell more complicated products can’t live up to their potential when the members of their sales teams don’t work together. Everybody wins when people are willing to share their contacts and information about certain deals, and especially when people are willing to discuss the different tactics they’ve tried and what they’ve learned from failures and successes. Everyone can grow when a team is willing to share because it is simply impossible for one person to garner so much knowledge on his own.
In addition, MarTech Advisor said collaboration is vital for good customer service. When everyone is informed about the deals taking place, customers will experience a far more seamless path to purchase. This goes beyond the members of a sales team collaborating with one another. Sales teams must also share information with other segments of the company, like the marketing and customer service teams. John Turner, CEO of UsersThink, told Docurated that sharing information with these two segments of a company is a major way to improve efficiency.
Compensation management software makes it easy for sales managers to share daily, weekly or monthly metrics with whoever they feel should have access to the information. Through compensation management software, managers can send out regular emails reporting on significant sales information that will help keep everyone up to date.
How to encourage collaboration
Managers can encourage collaboration through emphasizing collective goals and creating platforms on which sales reps can share important information. MarTech Advisor suggested weekly meetings that give team members an opportunity to discuss the deals they are currently working on and ask for help. In these meetings, sales reps can share tips and what they’ve learned from past deals, and they can figure out if other team members have contacts at companies they want to sell to.
Weekly meetings are important, but compensation management software makes it so employees can see how their peers are doing whenever they want. Compensation management software allows employees to track their own progress as well as that of other employees. It is a natural way to encourage collaboration, because struggling employees can identify top performers and seek them out for help, as mentorship is another key collaborative technique.
