Sales cycles in big companies are typically longer and more complex. Their product line features expensive products targeted towards an upmarket audience. Sales teams today work more towards building relationships with their customers rather than just acquiring them. Of course, revenue does matter; in fact, it matters more than anything else. But then again, revenue comes from satisfied consumers and repeat sales.
With the need for team collaboration rising now more than ever, it is important to acknowledge that it still continues to be a challenge for several companies, which need to come of age and adopt modern processes. That’s the only way to ensure the new and evolving sales strategies do not fail owing to redundant procedures.
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Although challenging to achieve, collaboration is certainly effective and worth the effort. Collaboration among teams brings about cohesiveness, saves time and other resources, increases productivity and helps boost sales. Sales people really don’t need to compete against each other by pilfering leads and territories. That doesn’t work well in the long term.
To reiterate the importance of team collaboration, here are a few ways in which it helps boost sales.
It Creates Common Objectives
People decide to work together often because they have common interests, and goals and objectives. Since they work towards achieving the same target(s), they tend to think along similar lines and agree to workable ideas and propositions that help realize them. This brings them together and results in a plethora of concepts and strategies that could help build team dynamics and uplift their morale.
Sharing of ideas towards the fulfilment of a common objective brings the team members closer and inspires trust and confidence among them. It also teaches them the valuable lesson that much more can be achieved by working together, rather than clashing with each other over petty issues.
It Fosters a Healthy Work Environment
When members of a team treat each other with dignity and respect (without belittling other people’s contribution to the revenue), it gives rise to a healthy work environment. Because team members can unintentionally (or intentionally) create a hostile work environment through their words and actions, it is important to keep a close watch on their behavior towards each other.
Having a healthy work environment is crucial if you want to help your teams focus on their work. It assures that no member of any time will waste his mental capacity thinking over issues that are of no consequence to the company.
It Increases Motivation
Contrary to popular notions, it is not money that keeps teams motivated. There’s more to it than that. When teams collaborate, working becomes much more fun. Ideas and concepts flow without hesitation and productivity increases. This happens in teams that are united and inspired by a single vision.
Collaborative efforts result in the coming together of strengths. Whether it is cold-calling, lead generating, following up with or collecting feedback, it can all be done in a better manner through collaboration between various teams like administration, customer service, after sale support, and so on.
It Helps Prioritize
How many times have we heard sales teams complaining about losing out on plum leads and deal closures just because they needed to complete certain administrative tasks? Imagine the kind of losses a company can avoid by just encouraging and propagating a culture of collaboration!
Of course, there’s a lot that needs to be done and everything needs to be delivered on time. If there is a more important and bigger goal to be achieved by a team, it can be broken down into several smaller tasks and assigned to members of the team depending on the urgency and priority of the task. With more than one person working towards its completion, it could lead to faster and probably better results.
It Neutralizes Internal Animosity
With members of teams not bickering over getting the biggest piece of the pie, you can hope to create a friendly atmosphere at the workplace, one which encourages healthy competition within the organization and leaves animosity outside. It would also help if leaders ditch the top-seller awards (and the like) as that can give rise to infighting as well. Instead, they should work on team-building and set outside goals that teams can achieve together.
When the efforts of all the members of the team are recognized and rewarded upon the successful and timely completion of the target, it creates a sense of worthwhile collaboration.
It Leads to Better Communication
One of the most important factors that contribute to success in sales (and every other field) is proper communication. The quality and the flow of communication determine the kind of coordination and collaboration a team does. Effective channels of communication ensure that the process of information sharing is flawless and quick. The more information is communicated among team members, the more they can help each other.
Conclusion
Immaculately drawn out processes and strategies make it easy for teams to follow protocol and amp up their pace of work. The above mentioned points are a few of the effects of team collaboration. Getting them in place should go a long way in helping you achieve the kind of sales revenues that you want to. Collaboration, however, cannot be forced upon teams. In order for it to work, it needs to happen organically and willingly. Companies need to work towards creating a culture that supports collaborative efforts.
