Building Successful Teams

An Article By Ian Kilbride, Published on 5 March 2024.

Having learnt from the best in the UK and South Africa over many decades I have been inordinately lucky to be in the right place at the right time, allowing me to establish and build a portfolio of highly successful companies, foundations and brands. For this I shall be forever grateful.

In the early 2000s, for example, the timing was right for me to launch an innovative and ground-breaking Web development company in a 50:50 joint venture with the world’s largest public relations company.

Two of the overarching lessons I have learnt about establishing and running companies is when to switch style as the business grows or, in fact, to sell at the top when the time is right.

My experience also led me to reflect on building the teams that sustain these entities and whether there is a common thread or threads that bind them?

The first myth I had to dispel for myself was the belief or assumption that teams are teams are teams. In other words, that there is a magic formula to building a team that applies across the board irrespective of the company, purpose or its members. Nothing could be further from the truth. So, the first lesson is to consider the purpose of the team. Why does it exist, what is it there to achieve and, consequentially, what does success look like for each team?

In business, a successful sales team is a very different beast to that, say, of a team of top financial analysts. A team running a philanthropic foundation is an altogether different kettle of fish to that of a motor racing team. I use these examples as I have established and led all four types of teams, so speak with some experience.

I would quickly add too that none of the above types of teams are homogenous. They all have their internal variations, quirks and peculiarities. In other words, a successful sales team, for example, is not driven purely by financial incentives. Within a sales team there are different styles, different approaches, different skills sets and, frankly, different motivations.

With respect to sales, I have found that ‘selling’ something you believe in is not selling, it’s simply an exercise of introducing and explaining.

One of the most successful salespeople I have worked with was driven by a burning desire to recover his pride and self-esteem from a previously bad experience that cost him his life’s worth. For others, the personal satisfaction and gratification of providing the right service and product to meet a client’s needs is the overarching motivation. Interestingly, this is a core motivation and value I have identified in most successful salespeople. In other words, their inner drive is to ‘do the right thing’ for the client and everything else, particularly sales success, follows. As I reflect further, it is clear that professional ethics are key to successful salespeople and particularly those who do not deserve the bad rap caused by the bad behaviour of others.

Great sales teams are not Trappist monks, however. They are characteristically highly competitive individuals, often seeing things in zero-sum terms. A sale for my competitor is a sale I have lost. It is at this point that knowing the individual well enough to understand how they are going to react to failure, a bad patch, frustration and disappointment, is key to building a successful team. For some, failure is a stepping stone to success. They will quickly dust themselves off, open the appointments book, get on the road and close the next sale with even more determination. These are the ‘bouncers’ of the sales team and require very little external motivation. The bouncers will celebrate their success and, as a leader, the most important thing you can do is to be there to celebrate with them. They will do the rest.

By contrast, others take an objection or rejection very personally. This does not make them a bad salesperson or weak team member. Indeed, such people are often highly empathetic to their clients and provide extraordinary service, care and attention. The challenge is not to allow the rejection to overwhelm their drive and determination to succeed. These individuals typically require and demand more time and attention and, frankly, more management.

Here two things are key:  The first is all about how the team views and values the individual. A good team will never allow another team member to flounder, or drift away into failure. Despite their competitive nature, good teams motivate each other and pick each other up when the going gets tough. The reason for this is not just basic human empathy, but also the fact that each and every one of the team has experienced rejection, failure and demotivation themselves.

This isn’t taught in the classroom and can’t be learnt in books, but knowing your sales team means knowing when to put an arm around someone and reassuring them that they are on the right track and success is just around the corner. For others, putting an arm around them will result in the painful loss of your appendage. The last thing they want, or need, is sympathy and don’t you dare give me those doe eyes, let alone come within two metres of me with sympathetic open arms! For these self-disciplinarians, a frank one-to-one talk, a reminder of their sales targets and a quick jibe at their favourite sports team is all it takes to send them back into the arena.

So, understanding, appreciating and skillfully managing diversity is absolutely key to successful sales teams.

On a concluding note, I have also learnt over time never to stop learning, and as time goes by, I have embraced the need for new leadership to ensure growth, continuity, sustainability and succession. At the age of 60, one simply cannot score the same number of goals as at age 30, but one can and must coach others to do so.

In coming months, I will share more of the lessons I have learnt about managing teams across different disciplines and then draw some useful conclusions about what all successful teams share in common.