They say the most successful sales people not only do a good job selling out in the field, but they also do a lot of internal selling. Most companies with multiple departments have difficulty communicating and/or cooperating with each other. Top sales reps understand this and go out of their way to build relationships within the organization because they know that someday, they may well need the extra effort from Bob in shipping or Melissa in accounting.

They take care of the relationships that most sales reps ignore because they don’t see Melissa or Bob’s role as significant, when it is. Yet, if those folks didn’t serve the organization overall and aid the sales team directly, the sales team would not perform as well. In our organizations and in our sales efforts, we must cultivate a spirit of cooperation between team members, even if they seem unrelated.

In the rainforest, plants compete for light and nutrients. The soil is poor, so in order to get nutrients they depend on a symbiotic relationship with fungi.  Symbiotic relations between plants and fungi are very common. The fungus invades and lives in or among the cells of the secondary roots. The fungus helps the host plant absorb inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus from the soil and thus feed it the life giving nutrients. What if the fungus didn’t feel like cooperating? What would happen to the rest of the team? If you want to succeed in sales, make sure you take care of Melissa in accounting or Bob in shipping. The next time you need an invoice straightened out for a client or a product shipped out for rush delivery, you will have a willing ally instead of a resistant coworker.