How to Manage a Sales Team: 8 Great Tips

A great product is only the first step to creating a successful company. You may have a product people need, but unless customers find what you offer, you won’t create a successful company.

That’s why having a great sales strategy is so important. And when 50% of salespeople believe it’s harder to get in front of customers than five years ago, you need a great sales team to make that strategy successful.

Do you want to learn a few tips that will help you learn how to manage a sales team effectively? Read the guide below to learn more.

1. Set Sales Goals

It’s hard to run an effective sales team without goals. Yes, some salespeople will go out of their way to do as much as possible. But others won’t be as proactive and won’t do much more than necessary.

It makes more sense to create sales goals for your team. Create a sales milestone that’s achievable and pushes people to do more. Once you have your baseline goal, you can work on creating stretch goals and encourage people to go above and beyond to meet them.

2. Create a Great Environment

People work better when they enjoy the place they work. They align with the company’s mission and want to push your products as much as possible. Given how disengaged the average worker is these days, that’s a benefit you can’t ignore.

Work to create a culture of communication and a healthy work-life balance. You want your team to work at their best, and being healthy and engaged will help them do that.

3. Offer Education

Working in sales doesn’t mean you learn everything once and call it a day. The sales world constantly evolves. If you don’t keep up with the changes, you’ll have a hard time adapting in the future.

That’s why you want your team to be updated on the latest information. Look for resources that help people stay educated on what’s happening and will teach them how to take advantage of the changes. This will help your sales team become more productive and make more sales.

4. Use Technology

There’s no getting around using technology in today’s world. If your sales team has to do everything manually, they will waste too much time handling manual tasks and not have enough time actually to make sales.

Technology removes much of that work. You can use tools to store and organize data, create informative reports, and much more. Use whatever tool you can to improve your prospecting toolkit and give your team the tech they need to work at their best.

5. Reward Great Work

An excellent salary can do a lot to encourage people to do well. However, it will only get you so far. Some people need an extra push if you want them to work their best.

Extra bonuses will help convince people to go the extra mile. You can offer anything from a cash bonus to a free dinner. Tie these bonuses to someone’s performance, and you’ll see them start working harder.

You can also reward your team if they hit your extra goals. Think of group activities — like a company party or team vacation — that your sales team would enjoy.

6. Gather Feedback

It’s hard for your team to do well when it’s hard for them to work. They may deal with inefficient processes and not have the right tools. Unfortunately, people won’t always speak up when they don’t have what they need to work well.

Many employees don’t want to rock the boat. They’re afraid of backlash when they talk about stuff they need because they don’t want to be seen as complainers.

You can’t afford for this to happen to your sales team or any of your other employees. You want them to let you know when something isn’t effective. Do your best to make people feel comfortable talking about issues so you can do whatever is necessary to fix the problems.

7. Hire a Great Team

It’s tempting for some business owners to go the cheaper route and hire an inexpensive sales team. Sure, you may get a few sales with this team. But at the end of the day, you won’t have an experienced sales leader who will take charge and drive more sales.

Experienced sales leadership costs more money but pays for itself in the long run. The right salespeople will know how to get started independently and encourage other team members to perform better.

You can also usually get more sales with a few experienced salespeople instead of inexperienced ones. Be sure to hire for experience first and start to bring on people to train after you have your experienced team members in place.

8. Offer Product Guidance

One problem some salespeople have is that they don’t know the products they sell. They can read the product specs and develop a sales pitch based on that. However, they don’t have any real experience with what they’re selling.

This means it’s harder to create a sales pitch that gets results. Unless a salesperson truly understands what a product does and how it solves a problem, they can’t create a compelling pitch that gets results.

Have your sales team spend time with your products to learn what they can do. This will help them better understand what you offer and lead them to make more sales.

How to Manage a Sales Team: Start Improving Today

Your sales team is the backbone of your business. You rely on them to learn about your products, find potential customers, and convince people that you’re worth doing business with. If you don’t do an excellent job of managing a team, you won’t get many sales and won’t keep up with your competition.

That’s why learning how to manage a sales team is so important. Use the tips above to create a more efficient system for your sales team to improve and increase business sales.

Are you interested in more tips that will help you improve your sales strategy? Read more posts on the blog to learn more.