Selling is an individual sport. Don’t take my word for it. Ask any seasoned salesperson. Oh sure, they’re willing to ask experts and take someone with them to help make a sale. But the bottom line is salespeople are not only loners, they’re not great team players, UNLESS they need someone else to help them make the sale.

Salespeople are fighters by nature.

They fight for the sale. They fight the competition and purchasing agents. They fight for price, delivery and terms.

Then they fight production, shipping, marketing, management, trainers, service and especially credit and accounting.

And IF they win the fight and win the sale, they fight again for service if something is wrong, broken or late. They fight for credit and delivery.

Oh, they also fight against other salespeople in their company for prowess and position: They fight to win the annual contest of who is the best, most, highest, greatest of them all. They fight for awards, president’s club and commissions.

They fight to achieve management’s imposed sales goals, plans and quotas.

UPSIDE-DOWN THINKING: Management, in its self-serving interests, wants salespeople to be “team players.”

Salespeople are a team of one. They always have been, and they always will be. Salespeople only care about themselves and the sale.

Oh, they will say they care about their customers, and some actually do, but not at the expense of an order. And they will say they care about the company, and some actually do, but not at the expense of a sale.

Why should they?

What causes “team of one”?

Management and executive decisions and the natural progression of:

Sales plans.

Sales quotas.

Sales incentives.

Sales contests.

And other “team of one” circumstances like sales reports, activity requirements and other mandatory acts of silliness that encompass the word “accountability.”

Other elements of sales loneliness:

REALITY: Salesperson makes a big sale, brags to manager hoping for an “attaboy.” Manager says, “You still need three more to meet your quota.”

REALITY: Commissions get cut, territories get cut, big accounts move from “salesperson’s” (big commission) to “house” (no commission).

REALITY: Management arbitrarily changes the sales rules to suit itself.

SALES REALITY WAKE-UP CALL: Nothing happens until a sale is made. Everyone, including the CEO, is paid based on revenues derived from salespeople and sales.

SALES REALITY WAKE-UP CALL: Take a look at all the silly, restrictive things you are asking salespeople to do (including trying to force them to be on the team) and get rid of those things.

SALES REALITY WAKE-UP CALL: Salespeople will naturally join the team if management creates an atmosphere in which this is possible.

1. Begin to refer to a group of salespeople as a family.

2. Get them to bond by playing together.

3. Create mentorships – ways that senior people can help less experienced people win sales – and pay them for doing it.

4. Give different types of awards, like “best family member.”

4.5. If you’re the boss, be part of the team (family) yourself.

My recommendation is: Help salespeople make more sales. Encourage them, train them, support them and recognize that salespeople are the gears and pistons that run the engine.

My recommendation is: Create an inside TEAM of people to support salespeople and help them make sales. That’s a team that any salesperson would LOVE to be part of.

My recommendation is: Create corporate awards for sales support, not just sales.

REALITY CHECK: The engine can’t run without the gears.

Jeffrey Gitomer can be reached by  phone at (704) 333-1112 or by  e-mail at salesman@gitomer.com.  © 2007 Jeffrey H. Gitomer