subject: Team Building For Sales People [print this page] Team Building For Sales People Team Building For Sales People
However, team building should never be a generic exercise; it should always be tailored to fit the profession of the people it's aimed at. Only in that way will everyone benefit.
The effectiveness for the sales team will depend largely on the approach taken from the outset. If the team building activity is viewed as a kind of product to be purchased from the supplier, who is left to flesh out the details of the activities that the team will undertake without the support of the company concerned, then the results may disappointing. Activities must begin with defining and agreeing the concept of a team, and not a group. All too often the two are confused. In a group there tends to be individual goals and performance awareness, while in a team there is the added awareness of the collective goals and objectives.
Team building applied to a non-cohesive group can actually be damaging to the individual, detracting from their performance ability and doing nothing to generate any collective commitment to a shared goal. Team building aimed specifically at sales people should therefore first establish that there is a team, or start by building shared awareness of one.
Away day activities tailored for sales people should obviously have as their primary focus, a sales element. There needs to be a built-in factor of success only through collective team effort; where individual success, while important, is not as important as the entire team achieving its goals and objectives. Furthermore, team success should be dependent on individual commitment to the common shared goal.
Team Building in this case should be customer focussed, thereby reinforcing the message that good customer relationships are all important to securing sales. The activities should force the team to always put the customer first by asking the right questions and giving the right answers.
The sales team in a company is often the single largest cost it has. This needs to be compensated by the sales team making effective and regular sales that provide a healthy profit margin. The more effective the sales team can be, the greater the potential profits for the company.
There is also an added bonus in an efficient working sales team where each person feels valued and worthy; because they understand their role within the team. They can see how they fit in and they can see that the team is stronger because of their efforts. Team building for sales people can engender these feelings in teams that have them lacking. It can bring a sales team together to become a formidable force, benefitting everyone in the process. It can reinforce the essential difference between sales person and sales team without detracting from the former, but significantly strengthening the latter. Team building for sales people, done properly, is something every company with a sales team should invest in.
