Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

It is very common. I bring my regional, a tech support guy, etc. To downplay it if it bothers you, "this is Joe, also in sales with the company. We're traveling together today. It's a great opportunity to train your customer. In fact, when I take on a new line that is exactly how I am trained in the field.

Of course , it's only natural and takes place in many companies.

How can you otherwise teach new guys abt. the company culture and ways customers are approached and treated.

Adam

two salespeople can be quite effective. I would suggest that for each sales call, one salesperson should be in charge of the call, and the other salesperson should primarily focus on observing and notetaking.

I used to go on sales calls with a client, and we would always begin with him in charge of the call. If he seemed in trouble or befuddled, I would keep my mouth shut... that was sometimes a part of his strategy.

If he was totally lost and getting nowhere, he would signal me to take over, and it would become my sales call, and he would be the observer and notetaker. But it was never a joint sales call. At each stage, either he was in charge, or I was in charge.

This worked extremely well.

When I do it, it's just treated as a group meeting. There were no signals. We are all in this together-- it's a discussion. I may say something and my partner would say, "here is another way to say that". There should be no heirarchy-- we are all partners to provide the best possible solution with our clients end in mind.

You may find one that the buyer takes a liking to one of the presenters better than the other. This could be personality, or good salespeople know how to mirror. At that point, the one connecting needs to speak more.

As the lead and salesperson work together a natural synergy takes place. The goal is to work together and cover all bases.

When I work with a regional they may come in with a new program that I was only into'd to at coffee that morning. So I'd start the presentation as they were in my territory and this was my customer. And the regional would interject as appropriate. It flows beautifully both to the reps and the buyer.

Just keep it at 2-- 3 on team A is a crowd! With some exceptions of course. Remember, most buyers have 2 chairs across the desk for a reason. Again I cannot stress enough to reassure you this is very common place.

like Carol, I have also gone on joint sales calls which were very productive sales calls which were quite free-flowing and collaborative. I guess what I should have said is that there are different ways to approach a joint sales call, and the people making the call should discuss their strategy before they find themselves sitting across the table with a prospect.

It actually shoews the prospect that you have a big team and that you can afford to send 2 people. It boosts the prospects ego alo as they feel ' wow I am important enough that they sent 2 people to win my business.

From my experience, th e closing rate is definately higher but you have to be careful also that your sales team understand that it is a temporary situation and that they need to get ready to go solo quickly.