How do you employ team selling?
Since I published Right on the Money, there have been even more changes happening in the marketplace that we as sellers need to keep top of mind. In particular, one of those changes I have been paying close attention to is the powerhouse known as team selling.
Team selling in its traditional form—managers selling with salespeople—has been widely known to be successful. This is because of the established culture of growth and development. Managers are providing constant coaching and their companies are investing in resources to further help them.
However, team selling now not only involves selling with managers. It also involves selling with experts in your own company or experts outside the company. These experts outside your company could be suppliers, subject matter experts, or industry specialists.
Employ Team Selling and Increase Closing Ratio
This is something I’m indeed seeing more and more recently. And the results have been incredible! For example, two of my clients have been measuring the results of their team selling. They discovered that their average closing ratio without team selling was about 35 to 41 percent. However, ever since they started to employ team selling—internal to their company or external to sell alongside with them—their closing ratio jumped to 60 percent! That’s a huge increase!
Moreover, it’s important to note that team selling doesn’t have to be just salespeople physically together in an office. The results don’t change at all if you’re team selling and, for example, your expert is remote and calling via video, working behind the scenes and helping you out via email, or coming in physically and making calls with you. Any of those scenarios are working to contribute to this dramatic increase in sales results.
Thus, my big question for you today: how are you employing team selling? What experts can you use, what management levels can you use, and what industry specialists can you use to really help the customer build confidence in themselves and show that your company is team-oriented?
