How to Manage a Sales Team: 7 Crucial Tips
Are you taking over an existing sales team? Is it your first time handling sales team management?
Sales managers are the people in charge of hitting sales targets by managing a sales team. They’re the people who recruit, keep an eye on, and coach sales representatives. However, being a good sales manager takes more than sticking to your responsibilities.
In this guide, we’ll discuss crucial tips to help you learn how to manage a sales team. You’ll learn what you can do to enhance and develop a well-coordinated team. You’ll also learn excellent methods to motivate and communicate with your sales team.
Let’s get into it.
1. Establish Your Expectations of the Team Early On
A great first step to building or meeting a sales team is to set your expectations and behavioral norms early. Let them know where your standards in productivity and efficiency stand. However, you must also be aware that setting impossible standards can backfire.
Don’t forget to ask them what they expect of you, too. This way, you know what they’re looking for in a leader. It will also give you insight into their last sales manager’s leadership style.
When you create your first impression, do it with a formal cadence. Uphold this formal tone when you hold one-on-one or group meetings with your team. Even as you grow closer with your team, remain consistent in this regard.
2. Stick to a Results-Oriented Solution
During the hiring phase, look for potential employees with drive and resolve. Having a team of competitive members is a great way to push the company to success. However, having only competitive people in your team won’t get you good results.
You also need to create a transparent environment. This will keep confusion out of the picture and productivity included. Plus, your competitive team members get to see with clarity how your systems work.
Don’t forget to use resources that will also drive your team to success. An outstanding example is Hub Technical Sales Solutions. It’s a productivity platform for technical sales professionals and leaders.
3. Motivate Your Team Members With Incentives and Training
If you want to learn how to manage a sales team, you need to know how to incentivize. Most people work hard because there is a “pot of gold waiting for them at the end of the rainbow.” While the work itself isn’t always akin to a rainbow experience, the pot of gold can be anything.
Also, employees that had an incentive felt more motivated to do their best at work. Some excellent employee incentives include money. 40% of employees say that money is the most motivational incentive.
A free vacation or travel incentive is the next, with 29% of employees agreeing it’s the most motivational. The third placer is extra time or days off of work (23%).
Don’t forget to give your team the proper training, as well. You must show team spirit to get the best results.
Having good training gives your team the skill and confidence with their tasks and tools. It’s especially vital in continuously developing fields like medicine. Training also teaches fundamentals on product knowledge, territory planning, and professional communications.
4. Keep Communication Lines Clear and Open
All successful teams practice clear, constant, and open communication. This type of communication shouldn’t only come up when you’re laying down expectations. It needs to continue throughout your projects.
Managing a sales team or any other team takes a lot of skill, especially in communication. A workplace where communication is open and easy is always better for everyone. If any changes in the company, the systems, or the minds of your employees occur, it’s easy to express it.
5. Give and Ask for Feedback Often
A young sales team needs a lot of feedback, especially if its members are new to the industry. Even when you’re handling an established team or veteran sales experts, giving them feedback will help. It won’t only give your sales team motivation and inspiration.
Constructive feedback will also show them what they’re lacking or overdoing. Don’t be afraid to tell each employee where they did well and where they can improve more. Provide constructive and impactful feedback by focusing on specific behavior. It also helps to be honest and sincere when you give your feedback.
When you give feedback, don’t be afraid to hear what your team has to say about you, as well. Their feedback will also give you a new learning experience. It may be about sales solutions, the work environment, or your leadership styles.
6. Look for Specialized Reps Early and Develop Them for the Long-Term
Before you establish a team, you must seek specialists in their fields. By specialists, we’re not only talking about experienced individuals. We’re also talking about those who have natural talent or skill in their roles as sales reps.
Having the right people can save you from the hassle of replacing and training new employees each time one leaves. Plus, finding the right people is a long-term investment. Exceptional teams are those that have weathered many challenges and celebrated victories together.
7. Establish an Effective and Standardized Sales Process
Even if you have the right people on your team, if they lack an efficient process, success will be difficult to find. One of the duties of a sales manager is to design and implement an efficient sales plan. If the last sales manager’s process isn’t efficient enough, you need to change and update it.
For example, your new sales process may include in-depth training on using sales tools. Even something as simple as adding an extra training day can change your sales team’s success rates. Until new leadership enters the picture with a new sales process, your team can succeed in your goals.
Learn How to Manage a Sales Team With Our Tips
Now, you’ve seen our seven tips on how to manage a sales team. We hope you learned something new and useful from this guide. We also hope you now have a better grasp of your expected duties, skills, and knowledge in handling a sales team.
Do you want to learn more about technical sales, management, and other related topics? Do you want to keep brushing up on more subjects like this? If your answer is yes, check out our other guides now and learn more about sales.
