Tips for Sales Team Collaboration Success

Unless you work under a rock (in which case, how are you reading this?  Is there wi-fi under there?), you’re part of a team.  That means you’ll get to (or have to) collaborate with other people and enjoy the inherent rewards and frustrations of teamwork.

In sales, effective teamwork is exciting when it happens right.  Have you heard the saying, “None of us is as good as all of us?”  That’s what real teamwork is all about.  Here are a few tips and tricks to enhance your sales team collaboration.

Make Expectations Clear From the Start

Does your sales team know why they’re working together? Do they know how they’re expected to work together?  Are specific jobs already assigned to different people or should they divvy it up among themselves?  Will they touch base hourly, daily, or weekly to assess progress and reevaluate their strategies and approaches?

Define expectations whenever a new sales rep joins your team, and make sure everyone knows what’s going on.  Setting clear expectations from the start avoids a lot of frustration and allows team members to shift their energy from orientation to getting stuff done.

Focus on Cooperative Models

Look for ways to give your sales team different leadership opportunities. For example, how about naming co-managers?  If it’s a long-term project, consider having regular meetings and rotating through who leads the discussion.

Sometimes having one team leader the whole time is the best idea, but depending on the project, it might be useful to encourage cooperation everywhere, including when it comes to your leadership structure. Giving sales reps the chance to spearhead projects will help them feel engaged and invested in the success of the company.

Provide the Right Tools

Most of the frustration people experience when working on teams stems from a lack of resources. Anticipate your sales team’s informational needs and make sure they have the resources to find what they’ll surely be scrambling for.  Simply providing your reps with the information, skills, and contacts they need (or will need) upfront can improve sales team collaboration and prevent significant headaches down the road.

A knowledge sharing platform can help your sales team by giving them a central, cloud-based hub where they can consolidate all shared company information. Look for a knowledge sharing platform with robust search functionality so that sales reps can simply type in a keyword or phrase and find what they’re looking for.

Make sure your team can share information quickly and easily.  Communication is key, so if team members share information smoothly, the project will run smoothly.  If there are hiccups, figure out why and make sure you get rid of them quickly.

A team environment can be fast-paced and productive, but it can also be challenging.  Avoid common sales team collaboration pitfalls by offering clear expectations from the beginning, focusing on cooperative models, providing tools, and making sure the team can share information efficinetly.  Anticipating problems and avoiding them increases sales effectiveness and allows your team to get down to business.