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by Rupert Jones
Encouraging sales team collaboration is something that many companies struggle with from time to time. After all, business development is a competitive space.
The highly motivated individuals who work in sales are often innovative and resilient yet solo operators.
Imagine, though, the positive influence of a more cohesive sales team. That extra nudge can close a heck of a lot more deals. Sales collaboration and communication can play a significant role in making that happen.
Instead of frustration at slow sales cycles, failure to make sales happen, poor quality handoffs, or even lost sales, work towards breaking down internal communication barriers.
Here are some of the best ways you can encourage better sales team collaboration.
A competitive spirit is part of the job requirements, but companies must find ways to encourage friendly competition in an environment that supports collaboration.
However, this is often easier said than done since it involves re-training old habits and mindsets.
Still, this doesn’t mean it’s impossible, just a bit more challenging.
Here are a few effective ways successful companies use to teach highly competitive people to collaborate:
In today’s world, for a sale to be successful, you need several departments working together, and this won’t happen if your sales team doesn’t know how to play nice with others.
After all, the goal is to compete against the competition, not against your teammates.
Sales are driven by real-time data, which is why easy access to company resources from remote locations is essential. But you can take it one step further and pool all the data sources into one centralized database that each sales team member can access regardless of their location.
This way, everyone gets to share their knowledge and benefit from the knowledge gathered by others.
Lastly, to make sure you don’t just hand in your precious data to cybercriminals, it’s important to equip sales team members with the right tools to access the information securely.
This includes providing them with secure devices, such as laptops, smartphones, and/or tablets. Also, you should offer access to Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), password management tools, and privileged access management tools (like strongDM).
For instance, VPNs are incredibly useful for providing secure remote access to data stores. With a VPN, you can set up an IPsec VPN tunnel between the sales team’s devices and the data storage (which will probably be a cloud location), so the information is securely shared.
Quick tip: Modern companies use a centralized system that allows your IT department to push app updates on the company’s devices. Outdated applications or devices can lead to cybersecurity breaches, so this is the best way to keep your data safe. Plus, in case a device gets lost or stolen, it will be easy to wipe the data remotely.
When dealing with competitive people, you’re bound to have some backstabbing, finger-pointing, and arguments. But, if you cultivate a work environment that rewards such behavior, you’ll end up with a divided workforce.
When this happens, productivity drops, motivation goes down, and talents start leaving.
Luckily, this is a scenario you can avoid by promoting team spirit and collaboration in the workplace. Sales leaders must lead by example and help their peers learn to communicate better with eachother while collaborating on customer-focused projects.
To do that, start by celebrating small victories as a group, but make sure to highlight each team member’s role in a project. This way, you help reduce friction between sales teams and provide each team member with clear goals and expectations.
It also helps to organize social and educational events for your sales team or have them involved in organizing events for customers.
By doing this, you switch the focus on the customer and show your salespeople that your main goal is to create value for said customer.
Getting sales teams to work together is only part of the equation. Ideally, this collaboration should extend beyond functional borders and spread to related divisions.
However, the departments which are related may be reliant on the industry.
For example, in a publication house, sales teams should ideally work closely with editorial and design departments to ensure the feasibility of what they’re selling.
In a corporation, the sales department should work closely with the marketing and branding teams to make sure the customer receives the right message.
In most companies, the sales department’s knowledge is extremely useful and insightful for the creative zone. Plus, the data gathered by the sales team can help the financial and management departments as well.
Employees that feel their input and effort matter are more likely to maintain high levels of motivation and productivity. There’s even a study that shows there is a strong connection between feeling valued at work and well-being and performance.
However, companies often brush over this aspect or don’t know how to show appreciation. If this is the case, here are a few simple ways to make salespeople feel valued:
Give praise
People like to be praised, but the best praises come from people you respect and value. In this case, if the praise comes from C-level representatives, it will mean a lot more.
Get your team members involved in the decision-making
Invite them to the discussion table when drawing the lines of a new project, and ask for their opinion.
Pay attention to their needs
Not all people work the same, which is why companies that offer flexible work arrangements attract the most talent.
Offer growth and advancement opportunities
Access to a training course, mentorship, or a chance to climb the ladder.
Offer financial compensation
This one is still a sure way to show your appreciation toward an employee’s efforts.
Think of other rewards
Financial rewards are great, but so is extra time off, access to new opportunities, or extra vacation days.
Because of the overwhelming influence that “star performers” can have, the balance of power within sales teams can sometimes be unbalanced. This phenomenon is natural but can quickly lead to a high turnover of junior members of the group.
Yet no man is truly an island, and experienced sales stars know that the secret to success is tapping on every resource available – including colleagues.
Team leaders who recognize the contribution of every individual involved in closing a deal can help build better cohesiveness.
Even the most minor factors can influence a sale, and you shouldn’t overlook this—for example, a team member who spent their time trying to find someone’s email details.
An even better way of recognizing contribution is to establish a dual-incentive commission structure. Instead of handing over a huge commission to the guy who signs a deal, work out an additional group incentive for all contributing members of the team.
Competitive people love to play when there’s something at stake, so why not use their passion to improve collaboration?
You can insert gamification elements into team-building activities, or you can have a full-on friendly competition to stoke people’s motivation and have them aim higher.
But if you want results, you have to do things right, so keep these tips in mind:
A mentorship program might be a way forward if you find that encouraging sharing isn’t working despite all efforts. Formal mentoring has long been a part of company culture and often works for various teams.
However, be aware there is a risk in forcing such a program.
While you can use a mentoring program to pass on professional skills, forced relationships don’t always impart the most vital elements in sales.
These “soft skills” are the core inventory of many star sales professionals and seldom demonstrate adequate informal environments. Ideally, encourage but don’t mandate these programs.
Aside from higher engagement levels, it’s essential to realize there are many other potential benefits—for example, increased success rates along with heightened motivation and dedication. In the context of sales teams, that could be a game-changer.
Customers today are more well-equipped than ever in decision-making, and the competition is fierce. By failing to pull together as a team, companies risk falling behind, regardless of business model, quality of product, or anything else.
Communication, respect for diversity, and trust are essential to foster healthy teamwork and collaboration in the workplace.
These skills are even more important now when the work environment is changing, and more teams work in a hybrid system.
To build a workplace culture where everyone feels empowered to speak up, companies must use transparent policies that address toxic behavior in a quick and effective manner.
Also, to communicate efficiently, employees must feel heard by their higher-ups.
Team leaders and upper management play an essential role in creating a friendly, collaboration-prone work environment. For instance, it helps to make yourself more available and easy to approach by team members (for advice, complaints, tips, or requests).
It also helps to promote small talk as a method to get people to start talking to each other (within limits, of course) and foster an inclusive team culture. Make sure to encourage collaboration between different teams and departments as well.
Being at the helm of a ship can be a stressful experience. Whether you’re a team leader or company manager, you’ll need to realize that leading from the front is the way to go.
While there are distinct ways to foster team collaboration, start from the beginning and show them how.
Highlight the pride of achievement, dangle carrots in the right places, and engage with the team directly. An email announcement of policies is less impactful than personal engagement from the top.
Finally, the adoption of open-door policies can go a long way toward showing a good example. If they don’t see the boss showing a good example, why should they put in the “extra effort” in collaboration?
About the author
Rupert Jones is a wealth and wellness motivational speaker who also loves to contribute his discoveries in the tech industry. He enjoys cooking while being accompanied by his nosy cat. Catch up with him over at his online space.