Build a Great Sales Team

All work is done by teams. Your job is essentially that of a team builder and a team leader. All teams depend on the peak performance of each team member. Your job is to assemble a superior team first, then to bring every member on the team up to top performance. Your goal is to build the best sales organization you can and to win in competitive markets.

Top Sports Teams

A sales team is like a sports team in many important respects. By applying the same principles that top sports coaches apply to win championships in their leagues, you can build a championship sales team as well. Top sports teams exhibit six key winning characteristics.

1. CLEAR COACHING AND LEADERSHIP

On a top team, everyone knows who the boss is. This is the person who “calls the shots.” Of course, democratic and participatory management are essential for building and maintaining high levels of motivation and morale. But for a crack sales team to perform well, everyone has to know who the coach is. As the sales manager, you are the one in charge.

You are the person who sets the standards and calls the plays. Too much democracy does not seem to work in running a sales team against tough competition in a difficult market.

2. COMMITMENT TO EXCELLENCE

As Vince Lombardi said, “Winning is not everything, but wanting to win is.” Top sports teams, like top sales teams, are on the field to win—to achieve high levels of sales and outperform their competition in the market. They are not working just to get through the day. Top salespeople, like top sportsmen and sportswomen, want to win championships and get the bonus money, prizes, and rewards that go along with success.
Perhaps the best motivator of all, in sales or in sports, is the desire and determination to “be the best.” Unfortunately, if you do not make a clear spoken commitment to be the best with your salespeople and your team, you will unwittingly slip down into mediocrity. If you do not decide to be in the top 10 percent or 20 percent of your industry, you will automatically end up in the bottom 80 percent. Only a commitment to excellence motivates people to give their very best to their jobs, in sales or in sports.

3. OPEN COMMUNICATION

In top sports teams, there are no games and no politics among the players. Everybody tells everyone else what they think, all the time. There are no secrets, no sulking, and no hidden agendas. There is no game playing behind closed doors, and no politics or manipulation. In a top sales team, information flows up and down continually, with an open-door policy on your part. You make it clear that you are completely transparent. If people have any questions, they can come to you directly and you will answer them straightforwardly and honestly.

Psychologically, to perform at their best, people need to be able to talk to their bosses, to ask questions, and to get feedback. Top players need to feel that they can express their concerns to their managers without fear of disapproval or criticism.

4. INTENSIVE PEOPLE-DEVELOPMENT FOCUS

Top teams focus intensely on training their players continually, day in and day out. They are always helping people play better at the sport. It is the same with excellent sales managers. They always encourage their people to improve. Top sales managers insist on continuous personal and professional growth and development.

The sales training budget is key to people development. Sales & Marketing Management magazine did a study into the sales training practices and budgets of the top 20 percent of profitable companies in every industry. What they discovered was quite surprising. The best companies train new salespeople for six to twelve weeks, and often more, before they put them into the field. Thereafter, they invest an average of $6,000 per year per salesperson in ongoing training.
What top companies and top sales managers have discovered is that the return on investment (ROI) from sales training is ten, twenty, and thirty times greater than the amount they invest. The more money they pour into sales training, the higher their sales and profitability.

5. SELECTIVE PLAYER ASSIGNMENTS

On excellent teams, people are assigned to a position where they can make the greatest contribution to the overall success of the team, based on their special talents and abilities. In sales management, some of your people will be best at selling one product or service and some will do better with other products or services. Some salespeople are excellent in going out and finding new business, while other salespeople are equally excellent in maintaining customer accounts and upselling existing customers into purchasing more and more of your products or services.
The best coaches on a sports team move their players around to find the positions where they can perform at their best. Your job is to move your salespeople around so that they are working in the right jobs, selling the right products and services, to the right kinds of customers for them, so they can perform at their best as well.

6. A HEAVY EMPHASIS ON STRATEGY AND PLANNING

One of the most important things that you can do, and that nobody else can do, is to plan for the activities and sales results of your team. Sit down each day and think about what you could change, improve, or do differently. What have you learned recently, and what actions could you take to improve individual or team performance?
To quote Vince Lombardi again, “To build a championship team, you must become brilliant on the basics.”
Your job is to build a team that is brilliant on the basics. The good news is that the better reputation your sales team has for being well trained, and the better sales results they get, the easier it is for you to attract more and better people.
Remember our old friend the “Pareto principle,” the 80/20 rule. It says that 20 percent of your activities account for 80 percent of your results. The very best sales managers think continually about the 20 percent of the basics of building a winning team that make all the difference.

ACTION EXERCISES

1. Think of yourself as the general of an army in combat, determined to win against a determined enemy (your competition). What is your plan of battle?
2. What specific resources and training does your team need to win against your competitors? How can you provide these resources to them?