How to build a top sales team:

By: Asif A Usmani

Businesses need sales to stay alive in the same way that humans need water. Managing a sales team is not an easy job. Effective sales managers hire right sales people, provide them with necessary tools to perform and monitor monthly numbers to grow. Sales managers can either inspire their teams to reach their goals or crush their morale, it depends on their kind of leadership.

“In today’s era where technology has become integral part of our daily job, the internet can’t always build relationships with customers but only a good sales team can do that”

It can be very difficult to find out what your sales team truly needs from you to hit their goals and work consistently. Running a sales team is really hard work, you need to be patient and articulate. As a sales manager, your success depends on your team’s ability achieve numbers and meet deadlines. But sometimes, it’s hard to control and motivate people. Below are the few tips to build a top sales team.

Hire the Best

If we aren’t finding and hiring best sales resource then we won’t see any change. We will have to change our input in order to get different output as Einstein beautifully defined the definition of madness, “You expect the different results with same efforts”

As per Harvard study, while hiring a new crew we should be less worry about organization culture and more about background & reference checks, assessment during interview ( this is extremely important) and in some cases test results. As per the HBR, below will be the weightage of each attribute while hiring.

There could be five top qualities of a successful salesperson:

1.        Sympathy

2.        Focus

3.        Responsibility

4.        Positivity

5.        Team Player

Sympathy or understanding refers to an employee’s ability to identify with customers, put himself / herself in their shoes, and make them feel respected. Once a sales associate exhibits this skills, they can gain the trust of customer.

Focus has the drive to accomplish their goals and stay on track. A person with a large sense of responsibility won’t place the blame on someone else when they’re in a difficult situation. They accept errors, fix mistakes, and adopt quickly. A positive salesperson is always hopeful and never give up. Failure doesn’t disrupt their positive view of themselves. In today’s working conditions where things are rapidly changing we always need someone to help us on different matters, teamwork is one of the best skills any sales guy can have it.

Set clear goals

We must set clear, understandable and simple targets in order to achieve big goals and the most important is to communicate to sales team on time and keep reminding them on regular basis. There are many innovative ways to keep reminding goals. 

Product Knowledge

If sales associates do not know product like the back of their hand, they’ll fall short when closing a sale. Make sure all the team members must understand product details and features so that they can effectively answer questions during objection handling of sales call. Listen to sales calls, review recordings, and keep testing their product knowledge.

Know your leadership style

It takes great leadership to build great teams. As a leader, you must be extremely aware of your leadership style and techniques. Are they as effective as you think and most importantly how well are they accepted your sales teams? Evaluate yourself and be critical about where you can improve, especially in areas that will benefit those whom you are a leading. You may have good intentions, but make sure you hold yourself accountable to course-correct and modify your approach if necessary to assure that you’re leading from a position of strength and respectability. Be your own boss. Know who you are as a leader.

Motivate & reward them

Achievement-based rewards are always a good idea. We can reward them periodically depending on the performance. A sales contest for internal customers is always helpful to keep them engage and hopeful.

We motivate our people when we reward their great results. Some rewards might include taking them on lunch or dinner, shopping vouchers, family entertainment passes or giving them a full day off etc.

Right sales processes

Create sales processes that work, but be flexible and don’t be stuck to them strictly. Ineffective sales processes are a huge barrier in sales execution. Sales process should help us meeting daily, weekly and monthly sales target. Don’t be afraid to step out of the box to deliver the different results.

Analyze Results

Sales results provide you true insights that how well your sales methods and sales tactics are working. Thoroughly analyzing data can help you figure out which sales associates are working efficiently and which products and services are selling the best. By analyzing results on a regular basis, we will know what objectives to adjust or a complete change in strategy.

Be Proactive with feedback

Feedback is the key to assuring any team is staying on track when giving feedback, it’s best to start with the positive. List things that a person is doing well and then two things that he/she can improve upon. Discuss their performance with them and evaluate critically, share specific examples of what they did right and if there’s room for improvement, provide a detailed breakdown so that they know exactly what to improve and how to improve it. You have to be disciplined about your feedback.

Set up effective communication

Regular meetings are a great way to keep in touch with your team. If we want an effective communication, communicate with your team directly. Daily team meetings of 10 to 15 minutes will help you to know them well, you can share latest news / information and you can take their views about business, some will come up with new ideas too. It is very important that your team should communicate to you, if they do not ask questions or do not participate in team meetings then it is not a good sign. You should encourage them to participate, ask questions and solve their worries. A good sales manager knows his team’s strength & weaknesses. Don’t limit your conversation with employees to professional topics. Talk about what you do and who you are outside of work. Share a story about your children or past experiences. Discuss hobbies with your team. You have to be different in each team meeting

Encourage learning & development

We must have noticed that people invest so much in their routine life, latest mobile phone, car, and new fashion / style etc. but always reluctant to invest in themselves. Their degree is old, they are out of touch with latest development in industry and so on. When we invest in our team’s education and help them stay on top of new industry techniques, we are helping them to keep up with new trends, techniques and methods. We can ask them to read good books, we can refer relevant books and materials. We should also send them to different training programs and team building skills. 

Don’t forget to have fun

Achieving sales target is great, but it doesn’t always boost morale. Having fun with your team to boost relationships is just as important as meeting target. We can hold creative sales contests, theme days, sports festival and different fun activities to engage them positively. At a time when uncertainty is being dealt with each day, you must take the time to celebrate success.

Bottom line

Managing a sales team is never easy. Your sales team is the backbone of your organization, so it’s important that you learn how to manage in a way that works. Find and hire the best people, give them the training, set clear goals and communicate on time, and create sales processes that work.

Respect your team members, and remind them their core job. Analyze your data and provide regular feedback. Motivate and reward great results, encourage learning, and don’t forget to have fun with your team.