Is closing a sales deal solely the responsibility of the sales team?
I personally think it's not.
Sales is everything that starts with brand awareness, the occasional social media touches, and the micro-conversions until it leads to a meaningful conversion—the whole nine yards.
This book sums it really well: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/the-collaborative-selling-handbook
Give it an upvote over at Product Hunt main page.
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Ideally, especially in a startup, where there's more of an "all hands on deck" approach to making the business a success, you want to cultivate a culture in which everyone feels a sense of responsibility towards "closing the sale."
It also depends on how narrowly you define "closing;" if you're literally referring to the meeting in which you secure a B2B client, for example, the whole team is obviously unlikely to be there, so in that sense, yes, the "sales team" or whoever is there is responsible. But if you're defining "closing" broadly, to encompass all of the elements that contribute to creating a great product/service offering that secures the sale (from the developers, to the marketing team, to the copywriter, to the UX expert...) then everyone is partly responsible.
It's hard to attribute a sale to any one particular thing.
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Yeah, I get what you mean. The "closing" that a sales team does is always an outcome of all the other touches that have happened before the customers come to the negotiation table.
My point is that the "closing" that you are referring to is often a tactical result of the collaboration that happens behind the curtains—and it's seldom acknowledged. On the other hand, if businesses start embracing collaboration across the board as a default—the win rate goes up exponentially because now every team contributes to a better buying experience.
Collaborative selling aligns all teams together in ways other initiatives can't or traditionally haven't been able to.
short answer is no
May be in terms of execution and accountability but other teams must help and sales must work with other teams with other team in terms of ideation, validation, strategy and feedback to make sure they are well prepared to get things done and bring it those customers. At least thats what I believe how it should be.
To some degree, yes. The marketing teams are suppose to provide Sales with qualified leads and drive pipeline, but they aren't really reliable, when they aren't producing it's important for the sales team to go out there and "hunt" their own opportunities and chase them down. In these situations, it's unfair, but it is on the sales team to go out, find their own opportunities, and close them.
The situation I've described above, though, is obviously a unique one. One great quote I've heard from a buddy in Sales is, "Sales is a good gig when the product sells itself. But it's the worst job in the world when you're selling a software no one wants and you don't believe in its potential or capabilities."
I've seen some sales people who are just monsters and they consistently hit targets and are capable. These people make it look like they've got everything figured out, but their results are usually a combination of product, luck, and talent. When things aren't going their way, it's usually a result of product, luck, and talent still. So sales people can control their destiny, but only to the extent of the quality of their product.
THIS