The year 2020 made sales more difficult, from the inability to use charismatic in-person interactions to drive relationship-building to the new challenges in managing closely and offering team support. However, it also presented an opportunity to innovate, reorganize, and redefine sales team management.
With strong management, your remote sales team has the potential to reach even more customers than you’ve reached in the past. Here are some strategies that will help you manage a remote sales team successfully.
It can be tempting to schedule video meetings all the time to feel clued into your team or help them in the moment, but in many cases, too many scheduled meetings prevent your team from getting out there and selling.
Make your video meetings brief and action-packed, discussing how team members can help each other and get connected to the group vision. Additionally, keep the invitation list to only essential individuals.
Video meetings also offer a place to recognize individual achievements. Uplifting others helps keep morale up and points out how better sales help everyone. And if there is a bonus structure tied to the entire team doing well, your meetings can become places for individuals to understand how their work contributes to the sales team’s success.
Making collegial connections through virtual tools is new for so many of us, especially in the context of becoming someone’s trusted contact.
Help your team by making sure they know that they don’t just have to work through mountains of cold leads, but can instead extend conversations, online chats, and any other virtual connection with potential customers.
Give the space for team members to build relationships even if it means spending a little more time on the phone or in a video call with a potential client. These elements are key in an in-person sale, so naturally, they should be present while building trusting relationships online as well.
As remote working often means communication moves from in-person to online, sales teams must have access to key software in order to do their jobs well. Features should include access to the cloud, where team members can share files, ideas, and more in one central location regardless of where in the world they’re working.
Platforms like Accelo help track your total sales efforts from the first contact to the final sign-off. Investing in a system that stores sales information in one place means that your team will have more time to focus on their sales efforts.
By staying organized, reaching out strategically, and making sure your sales team can access top software for remote working, you help your team excel as well as come across as a capable, current manager ready to handle a digital department.
Being far away from your team doesn’t mean you have any less of a role to play as a coach, mentor, and source of professional development. Morale stays higher when your team feels like they are growing and learning.
If your team is struggling to meet a particular kind of sales goal, get into the process with them, coach them on individual interactions, and offer feedback, all while taking an attitude of “let’s solve this challenge together.”
If webinars, online courses, or other virtual events are relevant to your service industry, suggest them and let team members view them on the clock as a sign that their development matters to you and the company.
In the end, some of what remote teams learn is through trial and error. For instance, customers like a particular messaging platform and not another; customers love being sent updates on how your new product is coming along but are unresponsive to sharing industry trends.
Your team is learning things every day if you put them in the mindset to see the patterns. Make sure that you are compiling a list of strategies that work since they are likely to stay relevant even if your team returns to more in-person sales in the future.
With a collaboratively written electronic guidebook to selling remotely in your particular niche, your team gets to benefit from everyone’s best strategies and avoid having initial mistakes trip up every single new member.
As the manager of a remote sales team, you are working just as hard as you would in-person to empower your sales team members and keep them working together.
Every time you implement a new management technique or strategy, make sure to take time to reflect on what you learned and examine how you can modify expectations or actions for the future. Treating everything as a learning experience helps your team feel like they are in the driver’s seat and ready to succeed.
By using this advice, you can make the best out of a remote work environment and keep your sales team at the cutting edge of your industry. Try a free trial of Accelo today to manage your remote sales team more easily and always know where you stand.
