How to build an effective Sales Team

Selling is one of the most crucial aspect of any organization. Infact, it will not be wrong to say that the success of an organization depends on the effectivity of its Sales team. Sales team is not just responsible for selling, but it also does several other important things. This article talks about what are the various factors that determine the effectivity of a Sales team and provides several ways in which you can build an effective sales team.

Some of the Tasks Sales Team does in addition to selling-

• Sales team act as the “eyes” and “ears” of the company- They are the ones who interact with the customer, face competition, move around in the market.
• Sales team is the “Brand ambassador” of the company- Every Salesperson represents her/his company to the customer as well as the competitor and market in general. They play an important role in building, sustaining and growing company’s image and its brand.
• Customer, Competitor and Market feedback- Since the sales team is in continuous touch with the customer, it can collect crucial feedback from the customer. Similarly, the sales team can collect feedback about competition and Market.
• Sales team facilitates Customer Relationship- Sales team plays a critical role in developing, sustaining and growing mutually beneficial relationship with the customer. 
• Cross sales/Up-sales Opportunities- Sales team generates Cross selling and Upselling opportunities.
• Account Mapping- Account Managers handling various customer accounts get an insight into the responsibility matrix of the account (customer) and understand power dynamics

Factors that determine effectivity of the Sales team-

The effectivity of the team is determined by the following factors-

1.     Quantum of Sales (completion of sales targets)

2.     Increasing pocket share from existing accounts

3.     Developing new accounts

4.     Generating useful references from customers

5.     Obtaining favorable testimonials / feedbacks / reviews from customers

6.     Generating Cross-selling / upselling opportunities

7.     Improving leads to conversion ratio consistently

Ways for developing an effective sales team-

Developing right kind of work culture and environment within the organization is of utmost importance. Following are some of the ways in which an effective sales team can be developed-

1.     Clarity-Be very clear on what exactly you want your sales team to do. Do you want them to focus on volume or value or both? Accordingly, the sales team could be trained and groomed with necessary Knowledge, Skills and Attitude.

2.     Performance Measurement- Having the appropriate framework for measuring performance is of utmost importance. Most organizations tend to use the Performance Measurement framework essentially as a control tool. In some cases, the framework is designed to disqualify people rather than to qualify them for performance related rewards and incentives. Hence, having an impartial and a holistic framework for measuring performance is extremely crucial. Hence, one of the first steps is to communicate clearly on how the performance of the sales team will be measured or on what factors would the performance be measured.. As we know, “What gets measured, gets done”! Hence, define the performance parameters clearly. For this purpose, develop appropriate Key Result Areas or Key Performance Indicators (KRA / KPI). Also decide and communicate (to the team) the frequency of performance monitoring clearly. Depending on the nature of business, the frequency (for certain parameters) could be daily/weekly/monthly/bi-monthly/quarterly/half yearly/yearly.

3.     Responsibility Matrix-Have a well-defined responsibility matrix within your sales team. Define the roles and responsibilities clearly. Remove all ambiguity and overlaps.

4.     Territory Allocation- Make sure there is no overlap or conflict while allocating territory. Similarly, grade the accounts based on their revenue, potential for growth as well as strategic value/importance . Allocate your best salespersons to handle your major accounts / strategically important accounts. Develop a system for resolving territory related conflicts.

5.     Recruitment- Recruit the “best fit” candidate in your sales team. Depending on whether you are focusing on Volume, Value or both, your choice of candidate will vary. Some of the factors you may consider while recruiting are -

a.     Domain experience (for experienced candidates)

b.     Type of accounts handled (in terms of size of the company- big, medium, small)

c.      Quantum of targets handled (for volume look at top line while for value look at bottom line)

d.     Account growth- by what percentage did the account grow under the candidate (who managed that account)

e.     Number of “live” relationships at decision maker level- how many decision makers does the candidate know personally? How many of them would continue to give business to the candidate if she/he changes the job

f.       Recruit a candidate who is open minded- At times, experience leads to candidates having preset minds. Always recruit a candidate who is willing to learn, coachable and curious.

g.     People Skills- In B2B context, relationships makes selling simpler. Thus, people skills are extremely important. One of the ways of knowing this is to find out what kind of a network (of contacts) has the candidate developed.

6.     Diversity- having a team with diverse traits (language skills, experience & background, exposure to dealing with decision makers, type of companies handled) will always help in pursuing different opportunities

7.     Compensation- As they say, “If you give peanuts, you will only get monkeys”! Depending on the type of your product/service and markets served, you may decide on an appropriate compensation structure for the candidate. The compensation must be commensurate with the experience of the candidate as well as Industry standards. Similarly, you may decide on an appropriate ratio of fixed to variable component.

8.     Training- Organize and conduct frequent trainings for Sales team in following areas-

a.     Technical- Training on Product/service, selling skills, how to sell using technology

b.     Soft and Behavioral Skills- topics like interpersonal communication, writing effective emails, writing effective messages on Whatsapp, working in teams, self-grooming

c.      People Skills- How to deal with senior executives, how to ask appropriate questions, Networking skills

d.     Motivational / Inspirational

9.     Celebrate- It is extremely important to celebrate even small victories. This keeps the Sales team motivated.

10. Recognition and Rewards- Every human being needs recognition. Devise your own mechanism of recognizing and rewarding members of your sales team. The recognition and awards could be for achievements in critical tasks as mentioned in “Tasks Sales team does in addition to selling” at the beginning of this article. Focus on incentivizing for parameters like new accounts developed, revenue pocket share growth of existing accounts, Cross-selling/upselling opportunities generated and converted, number of leads generated through references, leads to conversion ratio and achievement of top line/bottom line.  These need not always be in the form of Cash incentives. Other forms of recognition and rewards could be explored.

Dr. Parag Amin is a Marketer, Consultant, Coach and Trainer. He has a rich Corporate and Academic experience of over 27 years. At present, he is associated with a leading B-School in Navi Mumbai as the Dean of Marketing. He can be reached on [email protected]