Winning in technology selling is a team sport that requires mutual respect, trust. and good teamwork among technical sales and account executives. Here is a simple guide for success. 

Strong team dynamics are a common denominator to winning. If you look at football figures like Joe Montana and Jerry Rice, or, more currently, Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski, you can see the winning dynamics in the field. Winning dynamics are also evident when technical sales and account executives work an opportunity together. Both professionals have a role to play, and it is important that they support one another during each stage of the sales motion. 

Technical Sales and Account Executive Opportunities

Below is an example of what the presales and account executive can do during a sales process that includes phases of discovery, presentation, solution, services, evaluation, technical win, negotiation and close win.

As depicted in the figure above, both the technical sales and account executive have particular roles to play. To be successful, each professional must understand their guardrails and positions while navigating the opportunity. If they consistently overstep their boundaries or second-guess each other’s area of expertise, then you’ve likely got a bigger issue, such as lack of trust or confidence in the other’s competence. 

When these poor dynamics are evident, they not only cause a tremendous amount of frustration, but they are also visible to other team members and to buyers as well. This can distract the sales motion and impede the ability to win the business. 

To ensure that the winning dynamics exist among the technical sales and account executive professionals, here are 10 questions to ask.

  1. Do I trust my team member’s intention?
  2. Do I respect my team member’s competence?
  3. Do we respect each other’s strengths and weaknesses?
  4. Do we both mutually understand our individual roles in our sales process?
  5. Can we be honest with each other when we make mistakes?
  6. Can we lift one another up when we make a mistake?
  7. Are we both aligned in the best way to serve our buyer? 
  8. Are we both aligned to do the right thing for our company?
  9. Do we share a sense of urgency?
  10. Are we committed to respectfully challenging one another to be better so that we can win?

Winning business in today’s highly competitive technical selling environment is challenging. But that is why it is more important than ever to ensure that team dynamics between  presales and account executive professionals are healthy and built on trust, understanding, respect and alignment. If you focus on building positive team dynamics and concentrate on doing the right thing for your buyers, the wins will come.