Sales vs. the Team: How to Build Trust, Grow Sales, and Boost Customer Confidence

Sales versus Service. All my hospitality veteran friends out there just chuckled to themselves while reading that. Because they know. There can be a real “us versus them” mentality within the sales and service departments of hotels.

When I first started selling in hotels, the tension between my colleagues in sales and those in service was palpable, and quite frankly, embarrassing. Convention services lived by the axiom, “Sales sells the dream, while we service the nightmare.” 

Why was it that way? Did it have to be? 

I quickly saw how much creativity, expertise, and value the service managers brought to the table after the contract was signed. Had I thought of, or honestly even known, half of what they did, my contracts could have been bigger. It became clear they were the key to booking higher revenue events.

I didn’t want a contentious relationship with my service partners. I wanted us to work together to bring the most value to our clients, while driving larger sales. I asked the most senior of service managers to take me under her wing, train and mentor me. She had been with the hotel for 27 years. Who better to show me the ropes, the dos and don’ts and how to deliver the best possible offering? 

She agreed and we began working in tandem from the beginning of the customer experience. And we became an unstoppable team. We exceeded our shared clients’ expectations, which resulted in doubling my sales revenue on return business.

Flash forward. What does hospitality and manufacturing have in common? You might be surprised. I know I was.

Like my venture into hospitality all those years ago, I am now brand new to the LED lighting manufacturing industry. It’s a field that is technical and at times, skill specific, somewhat like the hotel industry. I am learning from the bottom up as a newbie without an ounce of manufacturing knowledge. All I have to offer is sales experience, tenacity, and the desire to build relationships.

When I first started with SimplyLEDs, less than a year ago, I observed a familiar opinion of the sales department: the non-sales departments believed that my goal was to push product, move on to the next customer, and make a lot of money—expecting the rest of the company to make whatever promise I’d made, happen.   

There was a lack of trust.

I decided the best way to change opinions was to employ the same tactics as I had in hospitality. As someone with no technical understanding of the LED products we build and sell, it would be foolish for me not to leverage the knowledge, expertise, and industry experience of a team of engineers, warranty specialists, production managers, and veterans in other departments to offer the best possible solution for our customers.

Once again, I started to develop an internal partnership with the team, recognizing I needed the whole team to deliver the best product and service to our customer, and to drive higher revenues. Instead of closing the sale with promises I was hoping we could fulfill, I paused the close and told my customer I wanted to bring engineering into the equation, to ensure I hadn’t missed anything. The customer was grateful for the thoroughness and the team appreciated not having questions sprung on them after the sale was done.  

Having now employed this philosophy across two distinct industries, I believe I have enough “data” to confidently say this practice continues to work. The result is a larger sales volume with higher revenue, coupled with an increase in customer satisfaction. Instead of simply selling just anything and letting the dream I promise, turn into a nightmare for my internal team, I am building trust both inside our company and out.  

Here is what I’ve learned along the way:

1.      The team, the whole team, and nothing but the team.  

When the team is part of the solution development and delivery process, the customer isn’t siloed into one avenue of communication within the company. Putting your customer in touch with other experts within your organization helps them understand they can rely upon members of different departments throughout the company. This creates accessibility and respect and leaves your customers feeling important and valued.     

2.      Can’t we all just all get along? 

Bringing the team all to the same page and working together to achieve a common objective, leaves little room for animosity or frustration. Everyone contributes and has a mission. All know the end goal and what needs to be done to get there. Individuals who feel heard and are given a sense of purpose builds a cohesive, responsive, and agile team.   

3.      Really. You can trust me.

If you’re in manufacturing, distribution, or similar, it’s possible your customer isn’t specifically the end user. This creates an added challenge in delivering a solution your customer will have the utmost confidence in. When the team pools their collective expertise, questions get answered and the answers are more creative, resulting in the delivery of a higher quality product. Sure, sales reps could just sell whatever, but is it ideally what the customer needs? Maybe, maybe not. With input by other departments, a solution is forged that truly identifies and meets the unique challenges of the customer, and potentially the customers’ customer.

4.       Ain’t nobody got time for this.

Ever sell, or worse yet, order or build the wrong thing? Guilty as charged. How did it happen? I didn’t ask. I didn’t seek the advice of our internal experts. What was the result? Cost to the company, additional time for delivery, and probably worst of all, an erosion of trust: the team’s trust in each other (here’s looking at you, sales) and the customer’s trust in the company. Mistakes happen every day and they don’t always result in a lost sale or customer, but the little effort it takes to pull together a consensus on the project can save everyone a lot of headaches along the way.

And with that, here’s my favorite…

5.      There's peace and harmony (and alignment) in the kingdom.

We all feel a greater sense of self-worth and are happier in our work when we’re given the opportunity to be part of something bigger than the same old routine that comes across our desk every day. We all want to contribute in a significant way to the health, growth, and mission of the company. Knowing the delivery of a product or solution which exceeded customer expectations, elicits job satisfaction, feelings of value, and inspires creativity, both singularly and amongst the whole team.  

“Fostering an inclusive work environment—where leaders seek input from everyone regardless of their job responsibilities—can lead to higher satisfaction, innovation, and trust among employees.”

-Business Standard, March 18, 2019

As a sales team, a sales leader, or an induvial sales rep, we’re always looking for an edge. Something that drives revenue, cements customer loyalty, and makes us better than the next guy. So, as you’re building a list of reasons to offer your customer when they ask, “why you,” don’t forget the most powerful tool you have—your own team.

Questions? Any lessons you've learned that I've missed? I'd love to hear them! Share below.   

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Cassie Gorrell is National Director of Sales at SimplyLEDs, a manufacturing company designing and building high-performance LED lighting in the United States. SimplyLEDs was founded in 2005 by Electrical Engineers with a desire to do something very different: Simplify LED Lighting.

Cassie has nearly 20 years sales experience in many diverse industries such as recruiting, hospitality, legal services and manufacturing. She is an innovator passionate about building team continuity while delivering thoughtful and dynamic solutions to customers, and about killing the “this is how we’ve always done it” mentality.