Top performing sales teams are forged by a blend of invaluable traits that are shared across the whole team. Working towards a uniform purpose and ability to challenge assumptions can make a sales team innovative and create tangible positive change in the organization.
What does it take to be an effective Sales team?
A highly functioning sales team should undergo sales training online which is important for learning sales methodology, overcoming objections and improving communication skills. Effective salespersons carry out key activities such as tracking daily activities, analysing closing ratios and keeping accurate records. These skills can be acquired and reinforced by undergoing various certifications through marketing & sales programs online.
Managing a Sales Team
Skilled Sales managers manage their team members by striking a balance between promoting quality performance and pushing team members with new targets. Here are five tips for a Sales Manager to lead an effective sales team.
1) Orient your Team to be Results-driven
Recruit people with passion and determination. Create an eco-system that focuses on transparency and key sales metrics like leading indicators, win-rate, sales cycle and others. Encourage the beginner stage sales reps to undergo sales training online to learn the important components of the sales process. Make sure to educate the team that business outcomes are a product of productivity and not activity.
2) Provide Constructive Feedback
Make sure that your team members are great at taking feedback. Urge your sales reps to enhance their knowledge resources by looking up the Internet for online sales tips. Try to make the feedback process, positive and transformative experience to the sales reps. Integrate your feedback to your coaching model. Grade them on their receptive ability for self-assessment and feedback application.
3) Provide Incentives
Sales incentives are a wonderful way to stimulate your team and keep morale high. Create a few dashboards in the office which display stats of closed deals and monthly sales value for each person. This encourages organizational transparency by the introduction of elements of motivation and urgency.
4) Set the Bar High
When the sales targets are high (yet achievable) and have the highest value, the sales team will have something worth pursuing. Inspire confidence in team members to aim for the pinnacle in sales metrics. If you’re achieving just 60 % of a stretch goal, you’re doing far better than meeting 100 % of a mediocre goal. Setting the correct goals can alter your sales team’s results for the better.
5) Specialize to grow sales
Not all your team members share the same strengths. Classify them by their strengths and preferences. Group them according to their interests, whether they wish to go after larger clients or small businesses. Segment your sales team according to their levels of expertise in specific sectors.
Final thoughts
To manage a successful sales team and sustain performance in the long term is no easy task. Sales managers are like double-edged swords. They can either inspire their team members to fulfil the organizational goals or can decrease the company’s profitability by crushing team morale.
