3 Sales Training Steps to Establish a Sales Partnership

Sales Training STEP #1: Build a Relationship Consensus

Before you partner with another rep, be sure to conduct a pre-opportunity meeting with your potential partner. Hash out a working agreement of who is going to do what and when. Build a plan of action to address the opportunity, spreading the work appropriately among the partners who will be contributing (and benefiting) from the successful sale.

Now formalize your agreement with a written outline describing the commitment that each partner has made.  Put it in writing, with detailed explanations of activities, expectations and responsibilities of each partner. That’s the road map for your successful alliance relationship, but it’s only a starting place. It will be necessary to make regular “relationship bank deposits” of physical and emotional energy to keep the partnership alive.

If the partnership is to be long-lasting and involves ongoing sales activities, it may be a good idea to have potential problems should be hashed out and a formal contract written and signed.  In the case, the sales managers of both firms may need to discussions with their peers in the other companies, in order to reveal potential problems, the nature of the relationship, the scope of the cooperation, and the logistics of the partnering effort.

It may also be a good idea to try to get all the partners using the same CRM system, so that it’s possible for multiple sales reps to collaborate and record activity at a customer or prospect site. Without such a system, it can become impossible to keep sales partnering to from degenerating into battles over account control, where the last rep standing gets the commission.

Sales Training STEP #2: Execute your commitments

Any partnership between competing reps is likely to be fragile at first, while the individual involved learn to trust. The only way to guarantee that the trust will grow is to make sure that you ALWAYS deliver exactly what you say you will deliver - and then a little more.

The best way to encourage sales partnerships inside a sales environment is to create a “Code of Conduct” that reinforces the partnership behavior and helps to eliminate conflict. Such a code helps create a corporate culture where partnership seems normal. Here is a sample code to use as a model:

• As with any other business situation, great results require ongoing measurement and management. The best ways to do this is through a single CRM system, in which all the partners communicate plans, log activities, request help, and report results. The CRM system tracks what’s happened and generates an audit trail that determines appropriate compensation when the sale is finally made.
• But even if you’re not using a CRM system, be sure to consistently communicate to your partner(s) the value you’ve delivered. Ineffective communication is the primary reason that partnerships and alliances fail. You want to have enough communication so that both parties can monitor the relationship both at the “macro” and “micro” level. Then, when challenges pop up, you can quickly work together to address them.
• If the partnership develops problems, don’t give in to anger or frustration. Meet your partner more than halfway. If there’s money on the table, dispose of it fairly or offer to buy your partner out. Above all, avoid taking the matter to court. The end result of such court cases is pennies on the dollar for you (if you’re lucky) and a fat stack of cash for the lawyers.
• Getting your partnership from initial handshake to a done customer deal requires plenty of “emotional” fuel. The partners will need to allocate and expend resources, time, mindshare and energy to turn the opportunity into a sale. As the sales cycle progresses, you’ll need to invest in building and strengthening the relationship and the level of rapport.
• Most importantly, when the sale is won, celebrate - and make sure that the celebration includes appropriate compensation for everyone involved.