Managing an international sales team: not something given to all!

Managing a sales team is already a challenge. But managing an international sales team is something that is not given to all. Can you imagine what it means?

Beyond the geographies, distances that separate you and the members of the team, there are hurdles like languages and cultural differences that you need to take into account and overcome. 

Even if you speak a common language (business English-American), that is not the mother tongue tongue of the team members, you have to think about how what you say will be translated and filtered by each and single individual and related culture, to make sure that what you said has been understood the way you expect.

As a manager of an international sales team, you will have to fight against all odds and go beyond typical management skills that are required when you manage a local team, to reach expected goals.

Here are a few findings that I am sharing with you based upon my experience:

First the bases: you have to settle a few bases defining goals, identifying challenges and unknowns with pros and cons, work for success and plan for the worst with backups options. 

Everything and anything can happen depending on the regions you have under your responsibility. There are multiple potential risks such as political, environmental, geographic, ..., that you need to consider.

Here I don't recommend anything different from what you would do in any structure to meet, plan, report, measure performance, ... Systems and methodologies are commonly understood and accepted. By being able to replicate this in all countries you manage, you will go faster in making sure every single sales representative is informed, trained, and operational. The technology here helps a lot with limited costs (video, CRM, social apps, project management, ...). Just make sure that basics are understood, this will be a good start. 

But technology will never replace the value of traveling, meeting and taking the time to be there on the field with real people.

Second, be present. Being present although costly (time and money), bring a significant advantage. You will learn to know who are really the individuals and personalities of your team members. You will understand how they perceive you, the company, the goals, ..., and the global communication. 

This will give you the capacity to identify all potential misunderstandings and put in place plans for corrections. It is very easy to blame for misalignment and their consequences. But before that, ask yourself as a manager if you really made what is expected to get the alignment you wanted. I mean considering the differences.

Meeting with your teams will also give you an incomparable capacity to learn from the market, prospects and clients, while building your set of stories and learnings for reuse and improvements.

Finally, this will give you an incredible skill that very few managers have: the capacity to use the right tone, vocabulary and behavior that will give the right meaning to the words you use to communicate. Not all cultures and individuals, with their own stories and experiences, understand the same way similar words said in a common language (Business English - American).

This is why being present helps to make sure that all is well understood and executed as planned and desired.

Communication needs to be strong and effective. Not just with emails or chats, videos... Communication requires a presence that many will translate in costs, without realizing how beneficial this is for all! Make your maths.

Simplifying communication using technology with an international sales team and asking during a video call if what you say makes sense and seeing your team nodding, doesn't mean at all that all is clear, understood and that execution will follow. Copy and pasting doesn't work.

Communicating with an international sales team requires an increased effort in precision, timing, rhythm, clarifying objectives, asking for feedback, assigning tasks, and looping-back to cross-check and validate.

Third, learn from your team, habits in each of their countries or regions. Make sure to avoid pressuring them with a lack of management of time differences. They have also a private life, families, beliefs, ..., that you want to respect. Be careful of humor, cautious with familiarities, and learn, not from books or blogs, go there and listen, look and feel, adopt behaviors. Ask your team to teach you. They will value this. Take care of potential social norms or differences, laws, holidays, ethics. Above all, learn how each culture establishes trust. You will need this trust with your team, but above all, you will need this trust with your clients and partners. Look for details, do more than you would do with a local team. Because with the distance and differences, you rapidly lose track of your team members lives. 

And we all now that ups and downs of our lives can make the difference in a project or contract signature a new hire or a key event.

Make these differences, new strengths. Your team will recognize this and reward you by many means.

Learn to take a time that technology and lightspeed communications sometimes does not allow us to take. Precipitating is always bad and managing an international sales team with precipitation will teach you exponentially that you will lose more than you win. 

Differences of cultures is an incomparable asset in business that nothing can replace. But ignoring that differences or thinking that just a common sales management experience could help overcome, reach targets and win, anyway, is a BIG BIG mistake. 

Knowing this can give you a significant advantage. To give feedback obviously for reinforcing or reorienting, but simply as well to progress and manage time or speed-up a process.

Managing international teams can be significantly eased with technologies. But you will never replace traveling, being present and develop special relationships locally with your team, clients and partners. 

There is a cost that you need to asses, and take into consideration, the cost of being far from your own family frequently. But the value for you and your business is huge, you learn, you support, you gain trust and you get rewarded. 

Managing an international sales team is not improvising. Few have the experience, skills and capacity.