Build a Sales Team: 4 Attributes of (Top) High-Performing TEAMs!

Are you trying to build a high-performing sales team?

Whether you are a new sales leader or just trying to motivate your sales team, this post is for you.

If you’re a sales leader or you’re leading a sales team, my guess is that you found that the high-performing sales individuals on the team tend to be a little bit of an individual. That is, they don’t necessarily work well with other sales team members.

And sometimes those that work well with the team aren’t the strongest salespeople.

sales team building

That’s the way it is in sales. You’ve got high performers that are out there and very driven. Then you’ve got the rest of the sales team.

The goal obviously is to bring the team together and help the team themselves, be able to sell more collectively.

There are four things you’ll want to consider when building sales teams. We’ll use the word “TEAM” as your mnemonic acronym to remember what makes a successful, high-performing sales team.

Let’s dive in!

Sales Team Building: 4 Components of Strong Sales TEAMs

“T” – Personalized Targets for Every Sales Team Member

Let’s start with “T” – for targets. Now, this is nothing new in sales.

You have to have targets, but here’s the key:

Make sure those targets are personalized for each individual.

You set basic targets for what you want to achieve, but you have to look at each person’s success. So, the rate at which I close deals may be different than yours. The number of people I need to connect with in order to achieve that closing ratio may be different than yours.

You want to do what I call ‘the sales math’ and work backward from ‘what is my personal goal that I need to achieve’ and then really personalize the journey there.

Based on my average closing ratio and the number of people I need to talk to in order to issue proposals, determine the ‘sales math’ as far as the number of people I need to connect with in order to hit my target.

The targets themselves are set for everybody in the sales group, but how each person gets there is very individual. You need to make sure you clarify that with your sales team members.

“E” – Encourage Team Selling

The second thing you’ll want to consider in building a high-performing sales team is to encourage team selling.

You know, years ago, when I used to sell cars, if I couldn’t close somebody, I would go in to see the sales manager.

Now I’d stand in front of the sales manager. He had a glass window in his office so that my prospect could see them. And we wouldn’t actually talk with the deal.

I’d stand and say, the manager, look, I can’t close her. I don’t know what’s going on. And he would just nod and shake his head. He said, well, try this, try that.

Meanwhile, she thought we were actually discussing the deal, right? Or he thought we were actually the deal. We weren’t.

The sales manager was helping me strategize around how to close the prospect. That is what I refer to today as team selling.

You may bring your boss in once in a while, but the same strategy works when you put individuals together in the sales team.

If somebody is having a difficult time closing, or they’re going to see a new large company, send two people in because they can work with one another in order to close the deal, right?

Two people are always better than one.

Now, of course, you’ve got to look at how you invest the time of your sales team. I recognize that.

But if it’s a really important prospect or a really big company that you’re not used to selling to, you want to make sure you group some people together on that account because you’re going to have a lot greater chance of success. And that success will happen a lot faster.

So consider and encourage team selling for large accounts or big prospects.

“A” – Accept Losses as a Team

Even the best sales teams that I know who are high-performing have losses.

You really need to accept those losses as a team, discuss them, and dissect them a bit. And really in some cases, even celebrate them!

Why?

Because we learn from making mistakes, right? If you don’t lose some deals along the way, you won’t really learn anything.

We learn because we realize that, ‘this scenario doesn’t work with this kind of buyer’ or ‘I’m rushing through the sale because I’m getting lazy and closing too much’, right?

There are all sorts of lessons that can be learned when we sell.

The key is we have to accept those losses, learn from them.

So as a sales leader, don’t beat people up for making losses. Build your sales team by asking them what can we learn from this. How can we change our approach next time so this doesn’t happen?

“M” – Establish Mentorships to Build Strong Sales Teams

The last one here is mentorships.

Now, I’m a fan obviously of sales coaching. I think it’s great to help individuals perform at higher levels.

But coaching is very proactive. Mentorship is a little more reactive.

We want to make sure that the more senior or more successful people on our team are seen as mentors to those who are newer or not as successful.

What does that mean?

Well, it means that the newer or less successful people know that they can contact and discuss with the more senior, more successful salespeople the challenges they’re facing.

Put your high performers into a mentorship role, and really make it official. Tell everybody!

“Sean is gonna be a mentor to those of you who are new to the organization. He’s going to make himself available for any questions you have, even if you want to bring him into a meeting.”

It’s going back to the encouraged team selling point I made earlier, and it’s one of the best sales team-building activities you can do.

Make sure you set up mentorship relationships. We don’t want the sales team always relying on us, the leader or the manager.

We want them to rely on each other. That’s what builds a strong sales team, builds their motivation and momentum, and ultimately builds your sales success.

All right, time to take these strategies and build yourself a high-performing sales team!

If you’d like more tips and strategies on how to build a high-performing sales team or just how to sell more, make sure you click the link below.