BitcoinAddict

Anyone here have experience team selling? (multiple AEs/CSMs/AMs involved)

I am interviewing for one company where that want to know how well you have sold when a team has been involved with a deal. An example being when multiple people internally were tied to a deal and how you managed to successfully win there.

I have sold with a sales engineer and operations manager on our end being tied to a deal and then others with CSMs involved in an upsell. Not sure how good my answer will be as I would say the basics are: make sure everyone is on the same page, make sure you know what target everyone else on the team has to hit, have pre-calls before every customer call, etc.

However, I wanted to know what you guys think is a unique thing to do and unique trait to have when you are doing this kind of a sale.

☁️ Software Tech

18 comments

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poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

I can tell you that when I bought Salesforce I was confused by how many AEs I had to deal with to get the deal done.

I had my main AE, a Pardot AE, a Service Cloud AE, an AE that owned the Maps product, two sales engineers, etc.

It made me absolutely confused nearly every time I had to ask a question so I just copied them all and sometimes never got an answer.

The only time I've co-sold has been with partners. I'm the AE for the supplier, they're the AE for the reseller or partner agency. Setting clear expectations on who owns what from questions that need to be answered, deliverables, paper to write the deal on, etc, was all handled up front in our Rules of Engagement so that we did not have to worry about stepping on each other's tails.

Dig into how they coordinate the co-selling Rules of Engagement during your interview process. If it's not easy to articulate then it's going to be a headache.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

This is such a mess at many large tech companies. The best part is when they change the team structure annually so that customers are always on their toes trying to sort out who they need to talk to.

It's often easiest when there's one AE and then "Product Specialists" who roll up to the AE but have a specific focus (eg Pardot). Easier for the customer to grasp and provides a clear line of demarcation for who leads the team and each person's role within it.

BitcoinAddict

Opinionated

Apparently Salesforce doesn't seem to be doing too hot on the sales side right now.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

A lot of the big tech companies seem to be following the same idiot playbook.

BitcoinAddict

Opinionated

Some seem to be breaking free

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

It’s about time. This has been a struggle for years. And I mean years.

BitcoinAddict

Opinionated

Upvoted, appreciate the help here brother.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

Numerous roles I have sold with other AEs representing another product/service. The biggest thing is developing a relationship with the AEs so if its a bad fit for one, they back out compared to killing the deal for their piece

bja009

Politicker

Enterprise AE

I've sold with teams and channel partners for 7 years. Best thing you can do is understand your team's motivations and personalities, so you can:

- leverage the right communication styles for each of them
- know how to pick up their slack without making them look bad
- understand what a win looks like for each of them
- translate their incentives into a holistic solution for your prospect
- put them in a position to be smart about things they're good at
- make them feel like a valued contributor to the sales cycle

It's low-key a management job to quarterback team or partner sales. Make sure the deal sizes and comp plan are worth the complexity.

(or if you're like me, you're a little bit insane and you enjoy it - a good team can make you look smart AF and blow out your number)

BitcoinAddict

Opinionated

Selling more internally than externally it seems

AnchorPoint

Politicker

Business Coach

Focus on the preparation, how it helped in the meeting, and then what was gained from the debrief after the meeting.

HVACexpert

Politicker

sales engineer

I have no problem working in a team setting. As PBC said the customer side could be annoying.

I wonder how commission is split up as well? Sometimes in that environment people can fight each for a bigger piece.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

It's a challenge. On the face of it, I enjoy working with colleagues. The problem is when it comes to roles and responsibilities and who's in charge, and the inevitable personality and sales style differences. If the roles and responsibilities are clearly spelled out and each person involved really performs the way they're supposed to, it can work reasonably well. If it's left to the team to sort out for itself how to work together, it's a crapshow.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Right here. Are you the main point of contact? If so make that clear up front and lead.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

There always needs to be a quarterback.

BitcoinAddict

Opinionated

but sometimes that Quarterback is a Ryan Leaf :P

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

That’s the team to avoid.

Maximas

Tycoon

-1

Senior Sales Executive

To me best answer is -based on my experience - that you are split into two halves, first for opening or upselling and the second one is for following up and closing the deal and both of you are sharing the same target and same commission structure as 50% each.
And that was exactly what I've been doing for a few months in a row when I used to work at that other company!

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BitcoinAddict

Anyone here have experience team selling? (multiple AEs/CSMs/AMs involved)

18 comments

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