A couple of weeks ago I made an analogy about sales and billiards. But I couldn’t let it go. The correlations just kept spilling out. So here’s a continuation of it.

When the relationships with sellers are strong, support teams can be seen as a valuable gateway to more sales opportunities. In the pool (billiards) analogy, support teams can open up a new kind of shot that couldn’t be done without them.

Think about the role of support teams as another ball in the shot-line. So now, instead of a two-ball shot to the pocket, there are three.

Let's say for the sake of example that the support team is now the cue ball, the 5-ball is the seller, the 9-ball is still the customer, and the corner pocket is still the sale. So it’s the support team to salesperson, salesperson to the customer, customer to the sale.

It’s a combo-shot.

This gives the seller the potential to make a shot that could not have been made before, but it's a high-precision shot.

Imagine a marketing support specialist helping a sales rep craft a focused email specific to a campaign and customer within the seller's book of business. This could open an opportunity that may not happen if the seller were to craft the email on their own. Marketing (cue ball) helps the seller (5-ball) make a connection with their customer (8-ball) to move them towards the sale (corner pocket).

Having the ability to make a combo-shot can be exciting for both the seller and the support team, but it comes with a major caveat.

By Jessie Shipman.