salespeople as members of cross-functional sales teams. Sales teams are generally composed of a group of specialists, each of whom contributes different skills to deliver a system-oriented solution to customer problems. In these situations, a salesperson may be responsible not only for maintaining the customer relationship, but also for motivating and coordinating the sales team. Working in teams, therefore, requires new competencies from people who are used to working independently of other employees. Procter & Gamble, for instance, found that its salespeople needed to be trained in such skills as how to evaluate other team members, coordinate projects, arrive at mutually agreed-upon objectives, settle disputes within the team, and provide feedback to team members. Notice that many of these topics were once the concern of management personnel only.
Customer demands are also requiring salespeople to work more effectively across functional areas within their own firms. The increased interaction across functional areas means a change in training methods. Many companies are now requiring salespeople to know how their products are made. Extended stints in the production and operation facilities, for example, enable salespeople to communicate customer problems more effectively with their own technical and production people. If managed properly, these types of cross-functional training programs tend to strengthen a sense of “team” within a firm.