Don Barclay, a professor of marketing at the Richard Ivey School of Business, 'Team Selling - What's In It for you? (1997)' focuses on the evolution of team selling, where it started, where it is today, how and when to use it. The development of technology and the need for complicated solutions involving this technology rather than a single product gave birth to the concept of team selling.
"With the emergence of providers of high-technology products in the 60's and 70's, it was no longer possible for the lone sales person to perform all the necessary duties to make the sale." As said by Barclay (1997) "large organizations demanded systems solutions, not just someone who would sell them hardware," the trend of selling just one product has shifted to selling multiple products, the implementation and support of such products bundled into a 'solution'. "You may have people from sales, marketing, accounting, research and development, and technical support areas all involved to varying degrees in responding to a client's needs," says Barclay (1997), teams were formed for other purposes and essentially developed into what we know as team selling today.
The Richard Ivey School of Business at the Univers...
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Barclay No.446As said by Barclay (1997) "The growth of team selling is changing conventional ideas about sales and customer service." Team selling is a lot more then just a concept, it has changed how we perceive the sales force both as a customer and seller. The sales person has become an extension of the customer organization "team members essentially serve as consultants to the customer" Says Barclay (1997), where employees are getting involved in areas outside the conventional sales force such as inventory management, invoicing and pricing. The concept of team selling has now been adopted by industries outside the technology sector, with use in "less-technology-oriented businesses such as advertising, consumer...