Work is nothing more than a series of projects that you need to accomplish with other people. I know that sounds simple, but think about your daily work life and how you can basically put almost everything you do into that definition. Sure, sometimes you’re working all by yourself, but if you’re working on anything of size you’re probably collaborating with others to get it done. The success of our business comes down to how effective can we work as a team.

One of the most important projects you work on with a team is a large sales initiative. Let’s say you’ve been invited to an opportunity with a prospect that could be a game-changer for your business. You have 45 days to submit your response. This is a project that you need to work on as a team. What tools do you use to facilitate collaboration and teamwork? What processes, if any, do you follow?

Unfortunately, for most of us, we still use email, file attachments to email, conference calls, and meetings as our primary toolset for collaboration. As far as processes go, I’ve seen some printers at least set up a shared repository of RFP responses or single out a person who is responsible for coordinating the response. I picked a sales project because every printer reading this is interested in growing their sales and sales people are not known for their love of process or project management (no offense sales people—you have other redeeming qualities).