The New Competition was voted by you as the number 7  Sales Trend for 2010.  Over the coming years, we will see collaboration become the new competition.  Markets around the world are crying out for collaboration as innovation and differentiation become scarce in a sea of commoditised products and services.

Sales people who see themselves as collaborators, both internally (colleagues, departments) and externally (customers, competitors), will prosper more than ever during 2010 and beyond.

A large 5 year long research study conducted by B. Rosenbaum, Business Horizons, entitled Seven Emerging Sales Competencies and published in Jan/Feb 2001 revealed what makes highly successful sales people.  His research, among other key findings, showed that the most highly successful sales people are indeed collaborators.  In his research of over 1,000 B2B sales people across 5 years he found that top performers:

• collaborated with colleagues and did not allow competitiveness to get in the way of good business, and often assisted their colleagues in achieving their best by sharing ideas, information and resources;
• orchestrated internal resources so as to benefit the company, its people, and the customers and their people;
• invested time building collaborative, customer focused relationships inside their organisation;
• created an alignment between the customers’ and suppliers’ strategic objectives;
• looked to further the interests of their customers’ firms as well as their own;
• expanded the customer’s understanding of what a business relationship can be;
• built a flexible relationship that is responsive to marketplace changes;
• creatively drew on the full resources of the firm or business;
• introduced customers to other suppliers and potentially valuable support resources; and,
• invested time building collaborative, customer focused relationships inside their organisation.

These findings are not new as you can see.  However these qualities are still seen, if they are seen at all, as a novelty by most senior managers which is a major risk moving forward in such changing times.  Rosenbaum’s research revealed that, sadly, the vast majority of sales managers were completely unaware that these and other distinguishing qualities were what made their high performing sales people highly effective and successful.  What he observed is that these sales superstars where acting and performing this way despite management.  They knew what they needed to do to get the results.  It’s such a pity that their managers did not.

As I wrote recently, many sales teams are still held hostage by old school sales management practices and outdated mindsets that encourage internal competition, league tables and the like.   Too many sales leaders are still stuck in the 1980’s with ‘greed is good’ and ‘carrot and stick’ philosophies which do not work in the long term and only serve to hold us back in a 21st century world.  Most sales rewards are still self serving, endorsing selfishness which is completely at odds with the new world of collaboration and our natural state of being.

Daniel Pink’s new book Drive focuses a big spotlight on this very issue – what motivates us.  He reports that what business thinks works by way of motivation is not what the science shows or the vast majority of people want.

Besides the commoditisation of products and services, Rosenbaum’s research, Daniel Pink’s findings, and other corroborating research, the advent of social media and the multiple levels of engagement we can now have with our clients, suppliers and key stakeholders means that we need to work collaboratively with each other.  And this collaboration needs to take place across marketing, sales, service, supply, production and finance if we are going to create the ideas and solutions needed for our success in the 21st century.

Those 21st century enlightened salespeople will be the conductors or connectors of viable and valuable relationships across many levels.  They will be open-minded, humble and astute, and they will see patterns of connection and synergy in many places.  They will recognise that we are all interconnected and without kindness and cooperation we cannot exist.  They will identify competency and harness talent to achieve effective solutions. They will know that they are working towards something larger than themselves.  And they will know that their success is a shared success they will celebrate collectively.

So we need to get with the program and rethink our approach to sales motivation, sales mindset, sales skills, sales rewards and teamwork if we are to remain viable in this world.  Collaboration calls for a team effort.  Sales teams where everyone is pitted against each other to achieve ‘top dog’ status will be replaced by a ‘lead team’ approach.  Companies that want to bring in new business and grow and develop existing customers will rely on the united hands of many – rather than just one.  Successful sales people of 2010 and beyond will leverage the power of collaboration over competition because they understand that relationships never work if they are forced and manipulated, and that the sum is greater than its individual parts.  Synergy and collaboration will prevail.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au

Many sales cultures are traditionally based on respect for authority, status and success, and encouraging competitive, challenging and achievement-oriented atmospheres. Although this is not true for all businesses, especially in the 21st Century! There are a growing number of businesses adopting more collegiate, lead team approaches. However, despite different types of cultures, sales performance and results are usually derived from the efforts of individuals. Harnessing those individual efforts to achieve synergy (the sum is greater than its individual parts) is a key task of management, yet so many get it wrong. Let’s take a look at one case study and see why.

What is wrong with the following scenario?

• Sales team has great products and service proposition and is part of an international business
• Sales team is made up of individuals who are measured on achievement of individual sales targets
• Each sales person is given a base retainer but earns the vast majority of their income on commissions made from sales converted
• There are a couple of high achieving sales performers, some average performers and some new sales people yet to prove themselves
• Annual staff turnover of sales staff has been about 30-40%
• Average tenure is 18 months
• The sales team is a state team all working in the same city
• Sales performance is purely measured on sales revenue results
• Sales League Tables are on public display showing who is ‘top sales dog’ each week
• The sales culture is based on respect for authority, status, success and competition
• The workplace atmosphere is competitive, challenging and achievement-oriented
• The sales people do NOT work to specific territories/markets or customer segments to manage and grow, instead it is ‘first in best dressed’
• The competitive environment encourages sales people to fight over leads that come into the business leading to ‘bullying’ tactics, attempts to ‘outdo’ each other, squabbling and fighting over who got to that client first
• Sales people ‘sand bag’ lists of clients just to make sure that the other sales people do not get them even if they themselves are not working on those leads at present
• Management provide no selling skills training, no sales coaching, no sales support, no CRM, no documented sales strategy nor a ‘go-to-market’ plan
• There are no formal sales management practices in place except for the weekly sales meeting which deteriorates into an ‘I’m better than you are’ bun fight

This is an example of lazy and ineffectual management. Only focused on outcomes with no regard for strategy, team structure, performance quality, clear leadership, staff retention, values or culture, this sales team is not geared for high performance and continues to lag behind its true potential.

Why create competition where it doesn’t need to be?

Why make selling harder than it needs to be?

‘Old school’ sales management said that you had to have sales people competing with each other or they wouldn’t sell. You weren’t a legitimate sales team if you didn’t have league tables. They said that internal competition would motivate people to sell more. Well they are wrong. The scenario above is not uncommon. It reflects an actual real life situation – happening right now.

This archaic approach doesn’t work. It’s outdated and old fashioned. If you want to generate real sales growth, try harnessing the energy, talent and ambitions of your sales people in a constructive way where they can all achieve their individual goals along with those of the company without trying to ‘kill’ each other in the process. Remember the old saying ‘a team of champions will not beat a champion team’?

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au