The decision to use a selling team instead of an individual salesperson may reside with you or with your salesperson. Regardless of who makes the decision, there has to be some logic behind it. For example, new salespeople may want other people on call to support them as they learn. This may or may not fit your sales philosophy. Some sales cultures call for salespeople to learn as they go, mistakes and all, because there is almost no error a salesperson could make on a single call that could totally ruin the prospects for a sale. Other cultures buoy their new salespeople with as large a group as possible. This often occurs in companies that lack proper orientation programs or lack a sales template for their sales force.
There are some key considerations that point to the best time to send in the team. First is your sales template (the documented steps of the ideal typical sale), which should clearly identify when it makes sense to invest additional resources in a selling team and when it does not. It leaves little room for your salespeople to make this decision based solely on their own insecurities or inadequacies, and makes the decision part of a plan. Sales templating will clearly define when a decision on team selling needs to be made and what has to happen before the team goes to work. For example, knowing that a team will be used in the future gives your lead salesperson leverage with the buyer. The salesperson can extract added information from the buyer on the premise that the other members of the team will need it to prepare for their call. You can also use the team to get information from the buyer’s team that the individual salesperson couldn’t get working alone.
Once you have the selling template, cost is another key factor for determining when to bring in the team. Companies often don’t consider the true cost of team selling. After all, the team is made up of a number of people, some or all of whom are being paid a salary. You need to figure out the cost of lost opportunity, time, and the resources each person on the team uses to support this effort. The total cost for the team can be an astronomical amount that may or may not be justified in view of the potential return from the sale.
It will be clear from the outset of some sales that a team will be called for. When you are selling a product or service that needs to be customized or is highly technical, you know the salesperson will need a technical expert at some point. That point is probably later rather than sooner, since your salespeople should have a sound enough understanding of the product and its applications to complete the early steps of the cycle.
Potentially long selling cycles that call for team selling can also be recognized early. Complex services or highly technical products generally take longer to sell, especially if they are used widely throughout an organization. Also, if you know ahead of time that you're going to be selling to a group, you can count on a long selling cycle and plan accordingly.
As the sales leader, you need to coach your salespeople to use their sales templates to identify the signs that point to a need for team selling. Part of your job in this situation is to convince them that bringing in a partner doesn’t necessarily constitute a judgment on their ability or a threat to their control of the account.
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