Here’s How To Team-Sell To Close More Customers

HAVING AN AWESOME team that works together and supports each other flawlessly is more important now than it’s ever been. Unfortunately, many salespeople do not T.O. or team-sell, and here’s why:

1. They don’t want to split the commission.
2. They think it’s OK to let a client walk; there will be another one.
3. They’re afraid to ask for help.
4. They don’t trust the other salesperson coming in because they don’t think they can do what is needed.
5. Jealousy. “If I can’t close it, neither can you.”
6. They’re a client hog who thinks they own everyone coming in.
7. They don’t know how to do so professionally.
8. There’s no one else on the floor to team-sell with.
9. They’re stubborn. “I don’t have to follow the rules.”

To be good at team-selling or the T.O., you have to know when to see the need, be able to handle the need, and be so smooth with your teamwork that the client does not realize what you’re doing; they just love the extra attention. It has to be done with a great attitude and a smile, and your goal must be to make the associate who’s with the client look very professional. This takes training, store floor awareness, and seeing the need ahead of time.
With that in mind, here are some areas of training:

1. Timing is critical. The T.O. or team-sell must be performed before the client has decided they’re not going to buy. When they start to walk, that sale is over because no one can resurrect the dead.

2. Who’s coming in? Do you need a sales associate with timepiece knowledge, gemological or brand knowledge? Do you need someone older, with more experience, or the opposite sex? Do you need a custom designer to sit with a millennial? Always bring in the right person for their strengths, not your best friend.

3. Understand that leaving sales associates stranded is a sale killer. Always have someone who is available to be a runner to get something that is needed or to team-sell, or to get whoever you need to help you and the client in that moment. If you’re practiced, hand signals, body language and eye contact are all that’s needed.

4. When another professional comes in, there needs to be a respectful introduction with their name and title. Let the client know that knowledge is the reason this associate is coming in. Never make the client think they are being pressured. Give the new person coming in all the details of why they’re coming in and what is needed from them.

5. If you are the one coming in, is the other associate staying or leaving? When you come in, arrive on the opposite side of the case, the same side as the client and always on their right. If you’re leaving the presentation, make sure the client is OK with it first. You don’t want the client to think you don’t want to wait on them. If you started with the client, you can become the runner to grab beverages, get the diamond out of the vault or the tools needed.

Team-selling and T.O.-ing make the client more successful, as well as your team and your store. This now has to be standard operating practice.