How to Create a Successful B2B Sales Team Structure

Did you know that successful sales teams are 10X more likely to use plural pronouns like 'we', 'us', and 'our' (instead of 'I' and 'my')?

'So what?' you may be asking. Does this statistic hold any actionable insights for your sales team - especially sales team members looking to streamline their sales process with a better sales team structure?

Well, we believe it does. What that figure reveals is that sales teams with a strong sense of shared endeavour - not just performative collaboration, but a genuinely ingrained sense of community - outperform those without. And quite significantly, too.

So when it comes to improving your sales process for better lead generation, a smoother sales funnel, and more ambitious business goals, finding the right sales team structure for your company is a must. Well-defined sales team structures have the power to iron out many challenges you may be facing today.

Stick with us to learn about sales teams within the B2B space, read up on the different types of sales team structures, and discover the strategies you need to know to get your sales reps off to a flying start. Let's take a look!

Understanding the B2B sales landscape

If we're going to look into how to structure a successful sales team for your B2B business, we first need to get to grips with the complexities of the B2B landscape. After all, you need to know what you're up against if you want to come up with a decent battle plan, right?

Market characteristics

B2B consumers (i.e., other businesses) are looking for long-term solutions to specific pain points. That being so, B2B deal sizes tend to be larger than B2C deal sizes. This makes sense, given that businesses are investing in big solutions.

And when investing in big solutions, there's naturally a longer, more complex decision-making process involving multiple people. That's why B2B sales have a longer sales cycle.

Sales process complexity

When you're dealing in big, complicated business development solutions, be it SaaS or employee Health insurance provision, the sales process is naturally more complex.

Buyer Personas

It's critical in B2B sales to establish your buyer personas as thoroughly as possible. That doesn't just mean knowing your target audience, but understanding everything about what your ideal customer needs, why, and how their decision-making process works.

56% of companies generate better leads using buyer personas.

Key components of a successful B2B sales team

Sales teams (and indeed all sales organizational structures) are intricate machines made up of many parts. No one sales rep or sales manager can execute a sales strategy alone - even if it sometimes feels like they are!

Every successful sales team structure consists of multiple sales professionals in multiple different roles, all doing their bit.

Sales roles

Let's take a look at the key sales roles and responsibilities within most B2B sales teams:

• Sales Development Representatives (SDRs)‍
  
  • SDRs (not to be confused with BDRs - or 'Business Development Representatives') take on the challenge of prospecting - that means finding prospective customers to sell to. Their job, then, is to identify and contact potential customers and then pass them over, as qualified leads, to other sales reps.
  • The average SDR is capable of handling about 15 leads per day.‍
• Account Executives (AEs)‍
  
  • AEs fulfil a critical role in turning new leads into customers by closing deals. In that regard, they should be great communicators adept at lead nurturing and demonstrations. Without an AE, leads will remain just leads.‍
• Customer Success Managers (CSMs)‍
  
  • So you've made a sale - what now? Well, someone from your team needs to stay in touch with the customer, helping through the integration process, answering queries, encouraging further purchases, and receiving essential feedback.
  • That's the job of the Customer Success Manager. Essentially, they focus on post-sales support and customer retention.
  • Never neglect these elements of the sales process: evidence suggests that customer success can drive up to 50% of total growth!‍
• Sales Managers‍
  
  • The role of the sales manager is to oversee the sales reps and develop a sales strategy. The manager is the person to whom sales reps report and the person who analyzes performance data for better enhancement.

This list is by no means exhaustive. Different sales organizations may use different names, incorporate unique roles, or merge roles for specific purposes.

What's important, though, is that a sales process is best implemented when we separate stages and train sales professionals to execute those roles perfectly.

Structuring your sales team

When it comes to structuring your sales team for maximum impact, there's no one-size-fits-all. Different sales organizations, each with their own sales model, industry focus, product or service, and market, will naturally favor different sales team structures.

Let's examine some of the things you need to consider when structuring your sales team:

Determining team size

How big your sales team is will depend on a few factors, including:

1. Company size‍
   
   • Larger companies typically need bigger sales teams to handle the volume and diversity of sales activities, while smaller companies might focus on a lean team with versatile skill sets.
   • For example, a startup with limited resources might start with a only couple of SDRs and one AE, scaling up as they grow.‍
2. Market and customer base‍
   
   • Not all markets are the same. The size and complexity of yours will determine how large your sales team needs to be.
   • For example, a sales team selling within a diverse market like Healthcare may need more specialized roles to cater to different prospective customers, as might a company selling to various industries.‍
3. Sales goals‍
   
   • It goes without saying that ambitious sales goals will require more sales reps and larger teams. If a company aims to double its revenue in a year, it might need to hire additional salespeople to achieve this growth.

Sales teams can consist of anything from a handful of people to hundreds of people.

Organizational structure models

There are several ways to set the broad parameters of a sales organization structure. Here's what we mean:

1. Geographical model‍
   
   • This is where sales teams are divided by regions, i.e., Europe, or the Northeastern U.S. Such a model can allow for localized knowledge and better customer success, but on the downside, it can lead to inconsistent messaging and communication problems.‍
2. Industry-specific model‍
   
   • If you're selling to multiple industries (for example, if you're selling a CRM software which can be used for almost anything), it could be beneficial to have sales reps with an intimate understanding of those specific industries.
     
   • This model can allow sales teams to more powerfully address specific needs and pain points.‍
3. Product-specific model‍
   
   • Similar to an industry-specific model, a product-specific model separates sales teams based on products. This allows sales reps and sales managers to specialize in a specific product, facilitating better demos and pitches. On the other hand, this can create harmful knowledge gaps.

Aligning your sales and marketing team

High performance sales teams don't reach sales targets in a vacuum. It's critical to make sure sales and marketing teams are on the same page and working collaboratively - so important, in fact, that proper sales and marketing alignment can boost win rates by 38%! Sounds good, right?

But your sales organizational structures won't align by themselves. It's essential for senior leaders to provide a clear direction of travel for both teams. For example:

• Set shared goals and KPIs
• Use the same CRM platform
• Schedule regular meetings
• Share customer success data
• Agree on boundaries and processes

All of these things will help to foster a culture of shared vision and accountability, which, in the long run, will give you the upper hand over your competitors.

Set your sales teams up for success today

In today's B2B sales world, old sales organizational structures (such as ten 'sales reps' under one 'sales manager', who is under the 'sales director') simply just won't cut it. We live in a sales environment where buyers are super clued-in, products are complex, and sales reps' roles are highly specialized.

In order to create a successful sales team structure, then, you need to understand your business and market better than ever before. It's critical to research the B2B landscape, the roles of different sales representatives, the different types of sales organization structure, the importance of sales-marketing alignment, and much more.

Needless to say, it's a long process. If you want access to ready-made sales teams - that's right, no need to train your own sales reps - with the experience and expertise to reach your business goals, why not reach out to Leadium? We've helped dozens of companies just like you to find qualified leads and close more deals.