Power team selling motions with Account Teams

Selling is a team sport. At any given moment, you will have a dynamic team selling to an account – each with a unique role in the sales process. Teamwork makes the dream work. Or in this case, the account work. 

SDRs, Account Executives, sales engineers, and customer success reps are all collaborating on the same account with the same end goal in mind – to create and nurture relationships with your customers. Ongoing collaboration with the correct set of people is what helps your sales team close more deals and grow revenue. It allows you to share knowledge, offer forward tailored expertise, and drive continuity for your customers. Ultimately, it’s what helps win the renewal, identify opportunities for expansion, or mitigate churn risk earlier. 

This type of collaboration, across that many people, requires structure and the right visibility to ensure everyone involved can access the records they need. The Account Teams functionality in Salesforce delivers this structure and now you can easily import your Salesforce Account Team setup directly into Outreach and start executing on your team selling motions in-app.

What are Account Teams?

Account Teams represent the group of users at an organization selling to an account. This is particularly beneficial for large accounts that require team-based collaboration across multiple users. Each user, or Account Team Member, is assigned a role to clarify responsibilities and ensure everyone is aligned and held accountable for their own specific tasks. The formation of Account Teams also grants record-level access to all Account Team Members. This makes it easy to share information and streamline communication about updates or changes.

The Account Team framework enables designated teams (made up of Account Team Members) to collaborate more efficiently via record-level access that keeps everyone on the same page. 

When to use Account Teams

By setting up Account Teams, you ensure that everyone involved in an account has the necessary information and tools to effectively contribute to the account's success. This is particularly useful for complex enterprise accounts that require input from multiple departments or specialists. Or perhaps your use case is industry specific. In professional services, you might be a consulting firm with multiple specialists working together on a client account consisting of project managers, consultants, and support staff to deliver client service and ensure customer satisfaction.

Key features and benefits of Account Teams

Account Teams help ensure that the right people have the appropriate level of access to the account and related records, enhancing communication, accountability, and overall efficiency. When it comes to key features, there are three primary pieces that make selling as a team possible.  

Team Member Roles

Assign specific roles to each Team Member to ensure that everyone understands their specific responsibilities and tasks. This minimizes confusion and duty overlap.

Access Control

Grant different levels of access to account data based on the user's role within the account team. This ensures everyone has the right record-level visibility to collaborate effectively on accounts, ensuring that all relevant information is shared and accessible.

Team selling is a powerful strategy; when you come together as an Account Team you ensure that all necessary expertise is brought forward to support your customers:

Strategic collaboration

As an Account Team, you’re breaking down data silos and opening lines of communication to effectively partner on developing and executing the right sales strategies. Information and knowledge are shared among team members leading to better outreach and higher chances of closing deals. 

Strong customer relationships

Multiple team members can provide personalized attention to different aspects of the customer's needs, leading to a more tailored experience. This is especially powerful when working with executive leaders to elevate sales conversations and accelerate negotiations.

Expertise

Team members bring diverse skills and expertise, like product knowledge, technical expertise, or industry insights. This ensures that all aspects of the sales process are handled effectively; no more looping in yet another person for another call in the sales cycle. Ultimately, having the right expertise on hand positions you as an advisor and builds trust with your customers.

Increased Sales Efficiency

Sharing an account’s workload between team members and dividing tasks based on roles, allows each individual to focus on their strengths to speed up the sales process. Having multiple team members involved also decreases the dependency on any single individual – if someone is unavailable or leaves the company, you can still provide continuity for your customer.

How to get started

Outreach is making it easier than ever to support your team-based selling motions with Account Teams. Simply bring your existing Account Team setup from SFDC directly into Outreach and hit the ground running. If you want to get started with Account Teams for the first time, you must be set up in SFDC first. Once that’s been done, simply import your setup to Outreach following these handy instructions or schedule a demo.