Competition is in our nature. Healthy competition within your go-to-market (GTM) organisation encourages your employees to go the extra mile, learn from one another and celebrate success. Healthy competition not only inspires your employees, but it also strengthens teams.

As sales cycles become more complex and buyer expectations evolve, it’s more challenging for reps to hit aggressive goals. Sellers are competing harder than ever for buyers’ attention, and when they do engage prospects, their outreach must be personalised and informative. In this landscape, collaboration is just as important as competition. 

We believe that competition and collaboration strengthen sales teams. In this post, we’ll explain that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, when they’re cultural pillars, sales organisations achieve more.

Why should sales teams compete?

Competitive sales environments motivate sellers to hit their numbers. Let’s explore a few reasons why this type of competition is beneficial to sales teams.

Competition motivates sales teams

“You play to win the game.” This famous quote from former New York Jets head coach Herm Edwards resonates with sales teams. As sellers face competitors in deal cycles, winning is their top priority. When sellers have individual sales quotas, their competitive nature motivates them to hit and exceed their numbers. Most sales reps thrive in high-performing sales environments where hard work and victories are celebrated and rewarded. 

Competition fosters innovation and creativity

Healthy competition encourages sales reps to look for new ways to become more productive and efficient. By leveraging sales enablement software, sellers can save time and personalise content at scale. And features like content analytics capabilities empower individual sellers and sales organisations to understand what content most resonates with buyers and identify new best practices and workflows to drive consistent revenue growth. 

It discourages complacency

Every now and then, we can get a little too comfortable. Comfort can work in the short term, but it’s not a long-term strategy. Competition foils complacency because it encourages sellers to outwork and outperform their peers. Routinely setting new goals and embracing new challenges helps ensure that sellers are engaged and fulfilled.

Why should sales teams collaborate?

The difference between competition and collaboration is that collaboration encourages sales reps to work with each other instead of against each other. In a collaborative environment, sellers share their best practices and help the organisation succeed by supporting their colleagues. Every rep has a unique experience, and when they share what works and what doesn’t, the whole team learns and grows. Let’s check out a few noteworthy benefits of collaboration:

A culture of learning

Collaboration provides an opportunity to learn from each other’s successes and failures so the organisation can grow. A culture of collaboration and continuous learning ensures that go-to-market organisations consistently reinforce best practices and improve at scale.

Improved employee engagement

Highly engaged teams can make the difference between failure and success. Organisations that effectively communicate and allow their employees to have an active voice are more likely to be successful because every team member feels valued and invested in outcomes. 

Establishing shared goals

When sales teams have shared goals, reps become more united and invested in how their role contributes to achieving success. The Ohio State University’s research on goal sharing found that people are more committed to their goals when they share them with someone whose opinions they respect. In theory, this means that by sharing goals with leadership, reps become more accountable and, potentially, more motivated to make their mark. 

How to embrace collaboration and competition

The best sales teams encourage collaboration and competition. Reps should collaborate with their peers to compete against other businesses in their industry. Organisations need strong individual performers, but sales reps who embrace teamwork are better positioned to thrive. 

It’s important to make it easy for team members to help one another and encourage them to do so. Competition doesn’t have to be an individual sport. Instead, it can be a team sport with multiple winners. It doesn’t always have to be revenue-based. It can also be measured by other metrics such as the number of emails sent or meetings set. A win is a win, no matter how big or small. 

Every team member has a role to play, and the key is to find the right people for the right roles. Sales coaching helps reps grow, healthy competition keeps them on their toes and collaboration encourages teams to work toward shared goals.

Remember: a win for an individual is a win for the company, and that’s something everybody should celebrate.

Let Seismic be your guide

High-performing sales teams embrace competition and collaboration, which ultimately results in increased sales productivity and sales efficiency. Tools like the Seismic Enablement Cloud™ empower customer-facing teams with the skills, content, tools and insights they need to effectively engage customers and beat your competition. 

If you’d like to learn more, get a demo!