Effective Team Selling: Closing The Gap Between Good Intentions & Reality

Have you ever gone on a team sell with one of your account managers and found yourself cringing at comments they made during the appointment? Or, how about those times when the account manager simply doesn’t carry the conversation, and the appointment slips into what might be referred to as, “the pregnant pause?” Have you been confused at their inability to actually hear what the client was saying, i.e. operating more on a “talking track” than a “listening track?” Have you ever found yourself becoming frustrated with an account manager’s inability (or unwillingness) to do what you were trying to teach them? Have you ever made the observation that account managers commonly wrap up appointments without asking for the client’s business, and without setting up a legitimate follow up appointment?

A few weeks ago, I had a lengthy conversation with a sales manager for whom I have great respect, and he talked about his efforts to bring his account managers’ skill sets up to a higher level. He made the observation that his account managers will sometimes pick up on a simple idea he has tried to teach them, and then inappropriately use it. My response to him was that regardless of what someone is taught, judgment is the by-product of experience. Judgment and timing are just two of the rewards one receives on the backside of experience.

I thought I would share some of the same thoughts with you that I discussed with him about the idea of shadowing one of your account managers, or going on “team selling” appointments with one of them. This one thing is for sure…as a manager, you would conduct a sales appointment differently than any of your account managers would. The other thing that is certain is that the typical account manager will invariably try too hard when their manager is watching, in an effort to make a good impression. Unfortunately, that will occasionally cause them to err on the side of being too formal, too rigid. In other words, they will often handle an appointment better when their manager is not there, than when the manager is present and observing.

When a manager goes on an appointment with an account manager, the manager will often bring to the table years of experience and relationships, which dramatically influences their ability to make small talk and build a remarkable level of rapport. Not one of their recently-hired account managers can remotely compare to their ability to begin a sales appointment the way the manager can. In time, although not anytime soon, a recently-hired account manager will have covered enough ground to do that aspect of the sales process better, but that improvement will come gradually because it is earned over time. In other words, the new hire won’t sell like their manager does because they can’t.

I suspect most managers would be better off in the long run if they would either do the entire sales appointment when they are with the account manager and simply have them watch, or be very disciplined and let the account manager do it from start to finish. If the manager does the warm up, and then turns the effort over to the account manager, the account manager will likely seem small and insignificant in the client’s estimation. In fact, the client could easily end up wanting to work with the manager, and not the account manager, i.e.” the Main Man, the Smooth Talker, Mr./Ms. Personality, etc!”

Personally, I think it represents a considerable challenge for a manager to go on a team sell appointment and not end up dominating the conversation. The last thing on earth a manager wants to do with a young account manager who is just getting started is to let the account manager watch their manager sell in a manner they will be incapable of replicating. Unfortunately, it will be months, or perhaps years before they can hold a candle to their manager’s depth of experience and industry-based relationships.

If an account manager watches their manager sell, and the account manager walks away from the experience saying to themselves, “I could never do that”, a disconnect has occurred that is tough to mend. If a manager goes on a team sell with an account manager and afterwards, the manager senses the account manager is less confident, less sure of themselves, or of what they should be doing (that they believe they can do), the disconnect between what they watched their manager do, and what they can confidently go do on their own will be costly to them, and their company.

The best case scenario for a manager is that they support and constantly reinforce the training the account manager has gone through. To be sure, there are many different ways to sell, but based on the success of account managers who have gone through our training over the past eleven years,  the evidence is compelling…what we are teaching account managers when they are here will absolutely work for them if they continue to use the formula. Managerially, they do have to be held accountable to a reasonable level of activity, or the results will predictably be less than what they could have been.

One last thought…it is vital to continually reassure newly-trained account managers that if they persist in setting the appropriate number of “new tryer sales appointments” and consistently follow up, the clients will start to use them. They will need to be reminded that the results start to come in more slowly than anyone would want. For this reason, it is essential that their manager gives them constant reinforcement for their activity, and does their best to help the account manager keep their perspective upbeat. It is so easy for them to become discouraged when they work hard but don’t see immediate results.

I like the analogy of planting a seed…you plant it in the right place, add water on a consistent basis, apply fertilizer appropriately, and do your best to keep the weeds from encroaching on the plant. It turns out that it is not so very different when it comes to effectively hiring, training, developing, and managing a newly-hired account manager.

As I’m sure many of you know, one of the services that we offer litigation support companies is our professional sales training.  For over a decade, we’ve taught account managers, newly-hired and seasoned alike, a sales process that absolutely works for them if it is used consistently.  It also allows managers to build upon a created “sales foundation” that in many instances is absent for new account managers, or managers who have leveled off in monthly revenue.

Our current class schedule for the coming months is posted under “Training Schedule.”   Let us know if you have account managers you would like to register to attend one of the upcoming classes.  If you have any questions about the sales training course or any of our other services, please give us a call at 1-800-929-8740.