Are All Sales Teams Created Equal?

Can a single sales team sell direct, indirect, short and long lead sales opportunities? Are the skills required the same?

Is there undue stress on the team due to the different mind sets required for the different type of selling? Should the team be split to enable focus on the development of each channel and the skills required to work that channel?

Are you a Hunter or Farmer?

Considering that sales professionals fall into two primary categories based on personalities, hunters or farmers, you need to uncover each person’s preference zone and align them with the right channel assignment. Hunters are better at direct and short sales cycles then moving on. Farmers are better at relationship management, which is key for business development efforts via indirect channels, longer sales cycles, or account management assignments. The process, strategy and tactics might differ per channel and length. Document your best practices and all the things individuals do well or have done well in the past.

Do you have a Sales Process/Methodology?

If you don’t have a clearly defined and well document sales process for direct and indirect sales, now is the time to pull the team together and develop one. This is the only way to monitor and measure your team’s effectiveness. Winning sales organizations have document sales process (what to do) and methodology (how to do it).

Is it time to retool?

I had to learn this the hard way. I was very successful as an account manager for a major telecom provider. I protected and grew my $20M base of global accounts in a very competitive telecom market. I failed miserably as a hunter. I had to get retool and train to be a killer hunter. I do both well, but still excel as a farmer.

What has been your experience? Leave a comment.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 14th, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under Coaches Corner, Entrepreneurs, small business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.


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