The Truth About Co-selling

If you’ve been hearing the terms co-selling, collaborative selling, and collaborative partnerships, you are not alone. This method of selling together is transforming the landscape in which we communicate, live, and work.

While you may have just heard the word, it’s a method of selling that is gaining traction for very good reasons. It helps you be highly productive with your time, connect with the right decision-makers, and create larger sales in much shorter sales cycles. Simply, it is what most salespeople like to call, “a no-brainer.”

But if you are new to the game, you probably have some questions about what co-selling is, how it works, and how it looks in simple and complex use cases. 

Let’s jump in.

First off, let's define what co-selling is.

Co-selling is when two or more sales teams selling, drive the exchange of warm introductions and sales insights through overlapping customer and prospect relationships.

Perhaps the biggest benefit for you and your team is that by drawing on the power of partner relationships and network intelligence, you gain an opportunity to sell more and drive better customer engagements.

Partner co-selling can make your life in sales much easier, and it will. But there is a catch. It requires you to do your job differently and some people have a problem with that. 

But the reality is you have no choice. 

The hard truth is that if you've been doing the same job repeatedly for some time, you’re already seeing the writing on the wall.  

Odds are the tasks you are doing such as prospecting via phone and email, are already in jeopardy. Most of the salespeople I know are already spending less time on the phone. We’re using video conferencing on Zoom whenever possible. We are looking for ways to make our contact more personal – especially when we are working remotely.

The things you’ve been used to doing are more than likely to be displaced with technology.

Just think about how far sales automation and A.I. has come in the last 5-10 years. Ask yourself if you think this is slowing down anytime soon. I doubt it. Consider where it will be in another 5-10 years from now. We can only imagine. 

That said, our idea of selling is changing rapidly and the rate of change will continue to escalate.

You have no choice but to step into a more strategic and higher-level method of connecting with your customers. 

‘No choice’ might sound kind of hard-line. Tough love. 

The reality is that in sales, staying agile is as essential as breathing. It’s a critical skill. When you’re agile, you are curious and hungry to learn about new skills and new tools. 

Being flexible is across the board essential for sales. It shows up as a flexible mindset, a flexible skillset, and a flexible toolset. While developing an agile outlook and skills, you won’t go far with poor tools. Real success requires a new toolset. Using the right tools is not only smart—it’s how you’ll survive and thrive. The right tools enable you to move ahead in your career.

Having The Right Tools

The question breaks down into two scenarios. 

01. Do you want to step into that more challenging work with the right sales tools to help you?  

Or…

02. Do you want to step into the future without those tools? 

Those are your only two choices.

The potential downside of needing to up your game pales in comparison to what the power of co-selling will allow you to do...

Let's look at a couple of use cases:

Simple Sales

Let's explore a simple use case first. 

With co-selling, you gain a clear picture of overlap amongst your and your partner’s customers. You can see which customers are looking for your products, services, and solutions. 

Thanks to understanding where your key target accounts overlap with your partner's customers, you can request a warm referral from the partner rep to the right decision-maker. This allows you to close the deal much faster than if you had no access to this type of insight.

Instead of spending your time doing typical “busy work” of prospecting, you can focus on getting to the target buyer, in the most direct way. As many sales professionals know from working remotely, you want all the help you can get to reach the right person in the right way. Because you are relying on virtual tools to meet up with prospects, this warm introduction is even more vital. 

It enables you to start with a personal connection. This is like starting with that all-important introduction from a satisfied customer introducing you to a potential buyer. It’s exactly what you want and needs.

You can make a personal connection to people you’d otherwise spend days, weeks, or months chasing down. This is especially valuable if you’re working remotely—and don’t have the luxury of meeting at an industry conference. 

Likely, much of the typical prospecting time-eating drudgery that you’ve been doing will be freed up by getting a warm introduction to your target buyer.

That sounds pretty great, right? But it gets better.

Complex Sales

As for a complex use case, you’re not only gaining insights on customer overlap. In complex sales, strategic partners are sharing insights around a key account. This is a complete game-changer. 

In enterprise sales, it is easy to invest vast amounts of time crawling through complex organizational webs…and still not always get to the right decision-maker. By gaining an edge from partner sales insights around a key account, you can determine who the key decision-makers are in a given situation. 

You often find out the person or people contributing to the decision. This may include those who are influencing, resisting, or supporting a decision. Many times you get to know personal motivations as well as organizational initiatives. This gives you a way to connect-the-dots from a good idea to a closed deal.

Working together with your sales partners, you get to know who is the ultimate decision-maker.

In addition to personal introductions, you’ll also gain tremendous value with organizational insights. You can get to the essential information such as organizational strategy, expansion plans, customer focus, and niche markets. You may see opportunities for serving target customers now and going forward. With this insight, you can work together to develop sales opportunities that are immediate, mid-term, and future-oriented. 

As sales teams share insights, you can get a window into decision-making, evaluation criteria, and procurement processes. You frequently discover things that one team knows such as buying cycles, budget allocations, and specific times of the year when departments need to spend their budgets. With this kind of insight, you gain a massive competitive edge. 

Just consider the value of knowing the players and their decision-making dynamics. Add in the value of a comprehensive understanding of an organization’s strategic plan and direction. On top of that, add the value of grasping their procurement process, evaluation criteria, and buying cycle. 

This may increase your win rates and speeds up your deal velocity.

Time Is Money

We all know that phrase, “Time is Money.” In sales, it is true.

But, please, don’t take my word for it.

Do the math. 

In sales, we are all looking for ways to be efficient, effective, and productive. 

You will be massively more efficient because you will have insights into how you should be spending your time. You’ll be radically more effective because you’ll be talking to the right people, at the right time. And, you’ll be insanely more productive because you have insights into how things work.

And we all know, in sales, time is your greatest asset.

Now, if you are still on the fence, let’s talk about that too. I understand that for some people, making a change in the way they prospect and close deals can be downright uncomfortable. 

You might count yourself as the person who already has the best way of doing things — and any change is challenging. This kind of self-protection is understandable. But, in my humble opinion isn’t wise. However, let’s look at it full on.

What if I don't want to Co-sell?

There is, of course, no overt punishment if you don't join CoSell. 

It's your option to take advantage of the network. It’s your option to sell more together or to continue being a solo sales warrior. 

And if you do want to check out collaborative selling, you can of course opt-out at any time, but—why wouldn't you take advantage of it? You and your sales team will be able to team up with other sales teams in your market. 

It's a 1+1=10 type of scenario.

 If you don't use CoSell, you run the risk of underperforming against your competition who do use CoSell...

Sum Up

If you’re looking to use your time wisely and efficiently, look into collaborative selling. It is transforming the landscape of sales faster than anything. 

Co-selling helps you be highly productive with your time, connect with the right decision-makers, and create larger sales in much shorter sales cycles. You can join up with other sales teams to experience what many salespeople dream of: a tool that helps you increase your win rates and speed up your deal velocity.