December 19, 2022

Chief Strategists Discuss Organizing Sales Teams at Scale

A common challenge for companies across industries and markets is how to organize a sales team at scale. In a local market—one with a geographically limited radius—it’s relatively easy to connect the people selling your product with the people building it and telling its story. But as an organization grows, establishing centers of gravity and keeping sales reps supplied with expertise becomes increasingly challenging.

Outthinker Strategy Network chief strategy officers (CSOs) held a forum to discuss the issue. They covered a range of topics, from macro-level organizing frameworks to micro-level team structures. What follows is a summary of tips that emerged from their conversation.

Two Key Questions to Answer When Organizing a Sales Team at Scale

Question 1: Should you organize your sales team by geography or by industry?

When organizing a sales team, you must decide whether reps will specialize in understanding the nature of the industry or in understanding the nuances of a specific geographic zone. The chief strategy officers’ consensus: It depends. Neither is intrinsically superior; each should be deployed under certain conditions.

• Geography: One CSO compared setting up a sales force in Europe to setting one up in the U.S. The compositions of the regions are completely different: Europe is subdivided into many countries with many languages, while the U.S. is a singular nation with fewer common languages. Therefore, when setting up a sales force in Europe, it makes more sense to take a geographically driven approach. Sales reps would need to specialize in local languages and customs in order to do their jobs effectively.

• Industry: Working in the U.S. poses fewer geographic challenges. While vernaculars and accents may vary by region, there is an overall higher quotient of homogeneity in the U.S. than in Europe, particularly in metropolitan areas—norms in Chicago are not dramatically different than norms in New York City. So, a U.S.-based sales force can afford to spend more time specializing in the industry than in geographic nuance.

Of course, the two concepts are not mutually exclusive. Selling in rural Ohio is different than selling in downtown San Francisco, and geographically-structured sales teams will also need industry expertise. But one will be the primary organizing principle while the other comes secondary.

Question 2: How do you keep your teams flexible while retaining necessary expertise?

The strategists discussed a secondary, nuanced challenge. How can you organize sales teams to be dynamic enough to adapt to unique sales scenarios while retaining the formal expertise required to sell? Two suggestions that our CSOs discussed are:

• Scrum: Scrum, an empirical process first introduced in the mid-1990s, is a system whereby teams can iterate quickly and make consistent, incremental progress. There are some initial requirements for setting up a successful scrum team, but it can be an effective model for teams looking for nimble growth. Read more about scrum here.

• Supermind: Supermind, a term coined by Tom Malone, founding director of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence, refers to an informal connective tissue some organizations set up between their technical experts. One strategist recalled how a Fortune 500 company set up a 1,000-person network of experts in different fields, including an informal communication platform and regular events. This way, when it came time to setting up a sales team for a complex deal, the experts were already familiar with each other and knew who to call.

Conclusion

Assembling a sales team at scale is both art and science. These guiding decisions can help orient the team-builder in early stages, but each leader will have their own nuanced decisions to make along the way.

Chief Strategists Discuss Organizing Sales Teams at Scale

Two Key Questions to Answer When Organizing a Sales Team at Scale

Question 1: Should you organize your sales team by geography or by industry?

Question 2: How do you keep your teams flexible while retaining necessary expertise?

Conclusion

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