When is Team Selling Appropriate? | Kicks Digital Marketing

Team selling as a strategy can be effective and efficient. Yet, the tactic can be misused, ill-timed, or poorly executed. How do you avoid the pitfalls and capitalize on the opportunities and synergy from team selling? 

Often, where team selling can be most impactful, the salesperson asks for team resources that don’t have a selling background. This approach can be fraught with challenges and can lead to setbacks and significant frustrations in the sales process if there isn’t an appropriate plan in place. 

Leverage team selling in these instances: 

Some purchases can seem simple on the surface. Still, when purchasing decisions impact foundational brand principles, modes of operations, or are so costly that budgets get sacrificed elsewhere to make space for purchase, it’s a complex sales situation. Typically, these situations require multiple subject matter experts (SME’s) approval, input, or understanding. In this instance, you’re using team selling to create alignment, reduce friction and get in front of objections around implementation concerns. 

If policies, process or set-up is required; leverage a team selling approach. For organizations with advanced role-specialization, it is crucial to bring these key team members together. Team members can ask questions and address concerns on the front-end rather than bumbling the onboarding process. Team selling can help create and uncover possible modifications to a plan that can make a more seamless customer experience. 

Even if a sale isn’t overly complex, sometimes it’s beneficial to leverage a team’s depth. If the deal involves a long-term relationship, it can soothe a prospect to engage with other team members. It gives them a sense of what type of engagement to expect once they’re on the other side of a sale. 

If you’ve opted that a team sales approach is most appropriate, be sure to cover these steps to avoid issues: 

In effect, team ‘selling’ is misleading as your team planning. The process allows expertise and multi-channel touchpoints an opportunity to come together before the onboarding process takes place, creating opportunities for you and your clients.