Established in 1990 in New York City, Imaginative Staffing, Inc. was able to arrive at $17 million in terms of profits. However, the temporary services company assumes an approximate six months in order to close a sale to a major client. Angie Roberts, the CEO of the company, saw this as the primary reason why there is a need to seek methods in order to cut such length of time—one of which is “team selling”.
Although she has barely any idea about the concept of team selling, Roberts wants to know more about the concept and thinks of applying it to the company after hearing about the concept. Placing it as the last item in the agenda in the executive committee meeting, almost all of the members of the group knew nothing about team selling—except for Susan Borland, the sales director of the company. Roberts has grown dissatisfied with the selling effort of the company, which prompted her to suggest the idea of adopting team selling.
In the end, Borland was assigned to prepare a plan for building up and training a sales team that will be taken up in future meetings. After being able to decide about the people who will compose the sales team, Borland thinks that these people should undergo training.
Imaginative Staffing, Inc.: to adopt a team-selling system for selling to important accounts
Imaginative Staffing, Inc., should indeed adopt the team-selling system, especially when selling to important accounts. Although the company is relatively new in the industry, it should be the case that the firm is open to adopting strategies that are promising and offer better alternatives and immediate solutions. Further, the performance of the company in terms of closing a sale—which takes about six months—should all the more prompt the company to device a new strategy in order to shorten this length of time. Team selling, for the most part, should be given proper consideration as it has been effective in some areas. The company should give ample time in order to analyze the profitability of the concept and its efficiency when applied. Once this is achieved, the firm can then arrive at a stand as to whether they are to finally adopt team selling or yet look for other alternatives.
The composition of the sales team
In order to save time and resources, the members of the sales team should be comprised of experiences salespersons or at least have a relative amount of experience in the sales industry. Or if this is not readily attainable, the company can resort to selecting individuals with the closest qualifications needed for the team. The qualifications should be settled beforehand in order to arrive at a careful selection process.
Sales team training and the extent of plan of the team’s presentation
In order to pinpoint the training that will be needed by the time, the firm should settle beforehand the strengths and weaknesses of every member of the team. The performance records of the team members, if available, can serve as a guide in order to identify the key elements that the members should train themselves in. If the firm is able to comprehend and set the goals that must be obtained by the sales team, the type of training should reflect the measures needed to achieve the goal. The type of training, then, can be “customized” in order to fit the description of what is necessitated by the goal.
The extent of the team’s presentation should be planned according to the perceived needs of the client. That is, in order to be able to effectively cut the length of time needed to close a sale with a major client, the presentation of the team should avoid focusing on jargons or terms that are not interesting to the client, or explanations in which the client is not familiar with. Rather, the extent of the presentation should be planned according to the perceived nature of the customer, taking into account what the client needs and wants to hear.
Significant aspects and processes involved
The key elements in the case of Imaginative Staffing, Inc. include the performance of the company in terms of closing a deal with a major client, the perceived solution—team selling—being proposed by Angie Roberts in order to address the problem, and the selection process in recruiting the members of the sales team. These elements are equally significant in order to address the needs of the company, specifically the need to improve its performance in closing sales to clients and the need come up with a substantial solution in meeting this goal.
The significant processes of selecting and recruiting a sales force for the organization certainly hold the specific key in addressing the problem at hand. By carefully identifying who the members of the sales team will be and what types of trainings they have to undergo, the overall performance of the sales team will improve and will be able to target and obtain the goal of cutting down the duration in closing sales with major clients.
Seeking the training modality
Perhaps the most appropriate training modality for both initial and recurrent training for Imaginative Staffing, Inc. is “role-playing”. In this training, the trainee tries to sell a product to a hypothetical prospect (the major client). This learning-by-doing tutoring is backed-up by critiques from specific trainers or the sales manager as well as by fellow trainees.
In order to maintain the training modality appropriated for the firm, “reinforcement” should be done. This can be achieved at least in terms of using the sales manager in coaching the sales team or by creating refresher classes for the team which will be headed by the sales manager, and that this refresher course can be implemented immediately following the training sessions.
Sales personnel and the motivational forces
In order to motivate the sales personnel of Imaginative Staffing, Inc., various methods can be employed. One of these methods is the method of providing the appropriate compensation in the actual sales team procedures, or even during the training sessions.
The compensations need not necessarily take in the form of money. Rather, the compensation can be in the form of a secured position in the company if the trainee is able to complete the training sessions. This can apply if the trainee nevertheless fails to meet the standards required for membership in the sales team.
Moreover, those who comprise the sales team can be provided with the additional compensation in the form of bonus salary payments. This can be formulated by the firm in such a way that it will apply when the sales team is able to close a major deal in a given period of time. That way, both the company and the sales team will mutually benefit from the deal.
Another method is that the firm provides promotions in job positions among the sales personnel once a satisfactory is achieved either individually or by group. In this way, the sales personnel are motivated to work hard and efficiently, thereby securing the future status of the company as well as the individual status of the sales personnel of Imaginative Staffing, Inc.
