I used to work in a very competitive sales team of a recruitment company. Like any sales team, we had our targets and there was a great deal of pressure to hit them. The company was ambitious and committed, and we all wanted to earn the money that was the reward for success.

At that time, the market was short of good candidates – plenty of jobs but not enough good, qualified people to go round. If you got hold of a really good candidate, there was a temptation to ‘top drawer’ that person’s CV. Back in the days where we still operated a lot with paper (this was the last century after all!) consultants would literally hide the candidate’s CV in their desk drawer. This prevented other colleagues putting that candidate forward for jobs and earning the commission you could earn from placing the candidate in jobs you were looking to fill. People were incentivised to act individually and less likely to share and collaborate with other sales people.

This is why I think that you have to ask whether your sales people operate as a team or do they operate as a group?

Sales Team versus a Sales Group

What’s the difference? The word ‘team’ means two or more people engaged in an activity that requires their mutual interdependence and co-operation, in order for them to be successful in achieving the aim they seek together. A ‘group’ is two or more people co-existing in the same time and space working independent of each other to achieve their own desired outcomes.

Think of a cinema audience. This is a group of people. There’s no interdependence, no co-operation necessary between them in order for them to complete the aim of watching the film. They become a team when the fire alarm goes off and they have to work together for their mutual salvation!

It’s hard to promote teamwork if your sales team is a group. Commission is normally paid to people in sales and if the commission structure is heavily weighted for people to be rewarded individually, then what reason do they have to work as a team? Why would they collaborate or support the other team members?

Working in teams is a choice. The only team you don’t volunteer for is your family (or in some countries, some form of compulsory military service). People can choose to walk away from the team at any point. You have to instil in the team members a reason for them to choose to work collaboratively, to make personal sacrifices in service of something bigger than their own personal agenda. Most sales teams fail to create this reason. They are structured on an individual incentive basis, where there is no reason for the members to act collaboratively.

As a leader, what’s your choice?

Leaders have a choice: Do you accept you have a sales group and it’s OK for them to work individually, do you want to have a sales team that works more collaboratively with each other?

If you do want to have a sales team, you need to give people a reason to do so. This might mean looking at how you structure the incentive and commission. Do you need to reward collaborative, team-focused behaviour, maybe with some element of team-wide shared bonus or commission? What if you got rid of individual sales commission completely?

I know one company that has one target for the whole company – sales, operations, marketing, etc. – and the commission/bonus is split across everyone. There is no individual sales commission structure. I was interested by this and asked how does that work when you have a high performer delivering most of the sales, and one person underperforming – why should they get an equal share of the pot? The answer was that everyone has very clear individual goals and targets and are closely performance managed, and there is no tolerance to ‘carry’ underperformers. They are noticed early and either they turn them around or they are performance managed out of the company.

Using purpose to create a sales team

Another way to answer the ‘why should I work in a collaborative, team-focused way?’ questions is around how you connect each individual’s work to the higher purpose of your business. You can create an inspiring call to action through understanding the importance of purpose, above the KPIs and sales targets you set people.

I have written about the importance of purpose on another post which you can find here. It’s vital that you give people reason to choose to put the team first before themselves, to make sacrifices and put themselves out in service of the thing your company exists to do. Knowing how their actions serves a compelling, impactful and meaningful purpose is key to creating this willingness in people on the team.

It’s worth knowing if you have a sales group or a sales team. Either might work for you, one is not necessarily better than the other. But if your group or team isn’t functioning as it should, then you perhaps need to work to change things for the better.

If you think you may need to turn your sales group into a sales team and need some advice, contact me today for a free consultation. andy@theteamspace.com