Why Team Selling is Changing the Game for Commercial Contractors
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Across the commercial flooring industry, many successful contractors have built their business on speed — moving fast, responding quickly to client needs, and building strong one-on-one relationships. But today, Starnet members are proving that speed alone doesn’t maximize profitability. The real winners are the teams that sell together.
From Cradle-to-Grave to Collaborative Selling
Traditionally, a single salesperson would manage a project from the first handshake to the final invoice. It’s a model that rewards individual effort but can limit growth and margin capture. While effective in certain environments, this model assumes that one individual can excel at every phase of the project. In reality, execution of the distinctive project phases (takeoff, contract review, compliance documentation, and executive oversight) are all distinct skills sets. Asking one person to perform every function at a best-in-class level is inefficient and, over time, fatiguing even for veteran associates. Increasingly, Starnet members are finding that gross profit climbs when sales, estimating, and project management teams align at the start of a project.
Team selling changes the economics of every job. When multiple team members engage early in the process, contractors can:
- Capture more project scope by identifying needs that might be missed by a single salesperson.
- Price works more accurately with insights from estimating and project management.
- Reduce downstream margin erosion by turning what would have been absorbed cost into planned profit.
This collaborative model is especially powerful on negotiated opportunities and structured sales agreements such as Sourcewell and OMNIA Partners, where accuracy, compliance, and clarity drive both client satisfaction and long-term profitability.
The Profit Multiplier Effect
Team selling does more than improve pricing—it improves capacity. By distributing responsibility across departments, contractors can pursue more opportunities without overloading a single team member. This creates a scalable sales model that grows the business while maintaining consistency and quality.
Importantly, team selling does not diminish the role of relationships, in fact it strengthens them. By broadening client engagement across multiple touchpoints, contractors reduce reliance on any single associate while deepening trust at the organizational level. As client teams become more mobile, this approach allows Starnet members to remain agile, fostering relationships both deep and wide throughout the customer base. Team selling enables those relationships to be managed as a lifetime asset of the organization, not just of one associate.
Starnet members who have adopted collaborative selling are seeing measurable benefits. They’re winning more work, increasing gross profit retention, and experiencing smoother project execution. In a competitive market, alignment—not just effort—is the new differentiator.
How To Get Started
Transitioning to a team-based sales strategy doesn’t happen overnight. It starts with intentional communication, clear role definition, and leadership commitment. Successful Starnet members emphasize three key habits:
- Involve estimating and project management early. Allow their expertise to shape proposals before pricing is finalized.
- Standardize the sales process. Use shared tools, consistent documentation, and internal reviews to align messaging and expectations.
- Invest in training. Aligning teams around shared selling methods and business goals empowers everyone to sell more effectively.
For contractors ready to strengthen collaboration and profitability, be sure to follow Starnet’s news library for more, and for Starnet members, head on over to Starnet University, where we offer targeted training to help teams put these strategies into action.
If you need a professional near you who is built on team selling, head over to our member pages now!