What are the skills needed for successful sales teams?
In order to hit their goals and build a loyal customer base, sales team members need to have the following skills:
- Communication: Sales success requires active listening and strong communication to uncover client needs, articulate product benefits, and provide solutions tailored to the client's requirements. Clear communication builds rapport, fosters trust, and ensures understanding between the salesperson and the client.
- Product Knowledge: A sales rep must provide detailed explanations of product features, highlight unique selling points, and address potential objections with product expertise. A deep understanding of the product or service instills confidence in the salesperson and allows them to address client inquiries effectively.
- Resilience: Sales often involves facing rejection and obstacles, making resilience crucial for maintaining motivation and persistence. Sales teams display resilience when reaching out to prospects despite initial rejections, learning from failures to improve future performance, and staying focused on long-term goals despite temporary setbacks.
- Negotiation Skills: A great salesperson knows how to find common ground to overcome price objections, offer concessions strategically to close deals, and leverage value-added services to sweeten the deal. Effective negotiation ensures both parties reach a mutually beneficial agreement, maximizing value for the customer and the company.
- Positive Attitude and Adaptability: Great sales teams maintain enthusiasm and energy during client interactions, adjust sales strategies based on client feedback, and embrace new sales techniques or technologies to stay competitive. A positive attitude fosters enthusiasm and resilience, while adaptability allows salespeople to navigate changing circumstances and client needs.
How can you hone these skills and become a winning team together? With sales team building games and activities!
Download Confetti's Sales Engagement Calendar to find the perfect occasions for celebration and team building throughout the entire year!
Here are 10 team building exercises perfect for your sales team:
1. Two Truths and a Lie 🤔
“Two Truths and a Lie” is a fun game that builds communication and understanding among your sales team. Most of the time, sales employees are busy interacting with customers and potential clients, which means less time to get to each other’s interests and backgrounds due to their hectic schedules.
In this classic game, people will list two truths and one lie about themselves. Then, in an interactive presentation, a host will share the statements while other players must guess the truths and lies.
Not only does this game help your team get to know each other better, but it also improves the deduction and mind-reading skills of your sales team, which is a key aspect of selling products and obtaining new customers.
How to get started 👉 See if your sales team can spot the Two Truths and a Lie!
2. Personality Tests 📝
Personality tests are insightful activities to complete individually and share as a team. By understanding their personalities better, sales team members can gain valuable self-awareness, allowing them to leverage their strengths and adapt their communication and working styles to collaborate more effectively with colleagues.
Personality tests can reveal complementary skill sets within the sales team. By identifying team members with different personality traits and strengths, sales employees can strategically pair up for joint projects or take on dynamics that capitalize on their joint skills. This collaborative approach can lead to more innovative solutions, better problem-solving, and enhanced overall team performance.
Here are some tests you can take to learn more about your team's qualities and strengths:
3. Custom Company Coworker Feud 👥
A fun and fast-paced game like Custom Company Coworker Feud creates an atmosphere where team members can bond and strengthen their relationships. If your employees are fans of Family Feud, they'll love this survey-style answer game.
By customizing survey questions to reflect aspects of the company, like its history, culture, and key figures, the activity revolves around your brand identity and company values, making it great for new hires.
Healthy competition can inspire employees to perform their best while working as a team and developing good sportsmanship.
How to get started 👉 Survey says it's time to play Custom Company Coworker Feud!
4. Shark Tank 🦈
Shark Tank is a game that requires your sales team to stretch their creative muscles. Instead of selling products on your market as usual, your salespeople will come up with their own made-up products in this game.
Divide your team into different groups or pairs and prompt them to develop a unique product with new features. If time allows, have teams complete a sales strategy and target audience as well. Then, each team will present the features and sales/marketing plan to others. To keep the team enthusiastic and engaged, have everyone vote on a winning team to receive a gift!
5. Escape Rooms 🔑
Every sales professional encounters challenges and obstacles when dealing with clients and closing deals. Escape rooms provide a platform for honing problem-solving skills in a fun and interactive setting. Team members must think critically, analyze clues, and devise creative solutions under pressure, preparing them to tackle complex sales situations with confidence and ingenuity.
Sales can be a high-pressure profession that leads to stress and burnout if not managed effectively. Virtual escape rooms offer a welcome break from the daily grind, allowing team members to unwind, have fun, and recharge their batteries.
How to get started 👉 Put your problem-solving skills to the test in this Escape Quest!
6. Trivia Kickball 🧠
Trivia is always an effective team building for any department. In Trivia Kickball, team members must collaborate to answer trivia questions correctly and advance their runners on the (virtual) field. This shared effort fosters teamwork and communication skills as team members must confidently step up to the plate and outsmart their opponents.
In addition to providing entertainment for your team, this game also contributes to charitable causes that empower youth through outdoor activities and mentorship. By playing the game, sales teams have the opportunity to make a positive impact on the community while having fun together.
How to get started 👉 Sales teams, step up to the plate and play Trivia Kickball!
7. Blindfolded Obstacle Course 🚶
This is an activity for in-person teams only. To play, employees will work in pairs. One person wearing a blindfold will be guided by their partner acting as their navigator.
The navigator verbally directs their blindfolded partner through an obstacle course, helping them navigate around or through various obstacles.
The goal is for the blindfolded person to complete the course relying solely on their partner's guidance. This activity promotes trust, communication, problem-solving, and team bonding among participants. Rotate roles so everyone can get the experience of leading and being guided.
8. Pictionary ✍️
Pictionary is a classic team building activity that encourages creativity and collaboration. Employees will be divided into teams. Each team will take turns drawing a select word or phrase while their teammates attempt to race against the clock and guess correctly.
This activity encourages quick thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork, all essential skills in the fast-paced sales world. Plus, it injects a dose of lightheartedness into the team dynamic, spreading positive vibes and a mood boost.
How to get started 👉 Draw up some laughs with a game of Pictionary!
9. Sell it to Me 💵
A great sales team should be able to sell anything, and 'Sell it to Me' is the perfect activity to practice in a low-pressure environment.
Have each person pick an object lying around their workspace to sell. Divide the team into groups consisting of a seller and potential buyers. Give each seller a set amount of time (e.g., 5 minutes) to pitch the product or service to the buyers. After each pitch, allow the buyers to provide feedback and ask questions. This helps the seller understand the strengths and weaknesses of their pitch and how to improve.
Rotate roles so that everyone can be a seller and a buyer. At the end of the game, gather the team for a debriefing session to discuss key takeaways, what worked well, and areas for improvement. Encourage open and constructive feedback to facilitate learning and growth.
10. Workplace Recognition ❤️
Workplace Gratitude is a team building exercise that boosts morale, fosters employee recognition, and improves teamwork by spreading gratitude. Before the event, we'll collect participant names and send out a form for coworkers to share up to five compliments and praises about each other.
At the event, a Confetti host will anonymously present the compliments, highlighting one participant at a time, allowing everyone to react and add to the kudos provided.
This activity encourages participants to view their teammates through a kinder lens and demonstrate how expressing gratitude can improve teamwork, strengthen relationships, and promote a culture of appreciation.
How to get started 👉 Spread some love to your sales team with Workplace Recognition!
Connect your sales team with Confetti 🎉
Whether your sales team works remotely or in person, investing in team building activities is essential for cultivating a cohesive and high-performing team. By strengthening communication skills, promoting collaboration, and fostering a positive team culture, these activities improve individual sales skills and contribute to team success and job satisfaction.
Whether you're hosting a virtual game or a problem-solving activity, prioritize activities that encourage teamwork, creativity, and fun, and watch as your sales team grows stronger and more successful together.
Ready to book a team building experience for your sales team? Contact [email protected] to get started!
