Salespeople have a tendency to present themselves as very poor team members. The impression they have historically presented to the rest of their organization is that they are the stars of the team and their team needs to recognize and accept that. As a result, when they drop sales related work on other people’s desks, salespeople historically expect or demand that they simply do it. That behavior today is neither productive or effective.
In the reality of today’s business world, no one is more important to an organization than the customer. To that end, the effectiveness of sales professionals to coordinate their teams in a co-operative and collaborate manner is the critical to engaging customers and maximizing the relationship and experience for them.
A recent blog post by Peter Bregman focused on ensuring follow-thru and is a great reminder for sales professionals that there is no such thing as a handoff in today’s business climate. Educating and maximizing the involvement of your resources to create a positive customer outcome is the secret to sustainable growth.
In his post, Bregman identified several keys to effective follow-thru between resources. Below is an expanded and edited list of these accountable actions:
- Communicating priorities;
- Discovering concerns or ideas not already been mentioned;
- Articulating the key next steps and how you plan to accomplish them;
- Communicating expectations from your resources as it relates to those steps;
- Confirm their commitment to supporting your needs including the time bound expectations;
- Prepare for and deal with reluctance to commit by working through the obstacles and challenges;
- Plan for and deal with potential contingency plans;
- Schedule a follow-up and review meeting to check-in on progress and issues;
- Make list of others who need to be involved and devise a plan to communicate with them;
- Confirm that everyone is on the same page and make certain they are engaged and committed regarding their role.
Building a comprehensive customer based team from the resources within the organization is a powerful tool for sales professionals. This requires that they recognize their accountability for enrolling and engaging their team in the process. Merely dropping in and demanding their participation will not work. Asking for their participation in the planning and follow-through process builds a stronger team, gets better results, eliminates suprises, and facilitates a great customer experience.