Wondering how to lead a sales team to success? Follow our lead and don’t skip any of these steps
Step 1: Hire efficient talent
Hiring the right staff is the first step to leading your team toward success. You not only want to hire good salespeople, but you want to hire individuals who work well in a team atmosphere.
Step 2: Build good relationships with your staff
If you want your staff to respect you as their manager, you’ll need to put in the effort to build relationships with each person you are supervising. Learn their strengths and weaknesses. Encourage and motivate them. Think of yourself as their coach, not their boss.
Step 3: Set realistic goals
The only way to measure success is to create goals and track achievements. Depending on your industry, set realistic goals for your sales staff. Better yet, ask your team to work with you to create the goals together. Then, once the sales goals are created, post them somewhere everyone can see. Track progress as it happens. A visual reminder will motivate your staff to reach their goals.
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Step 4: Lead by example
If you want to create a successful sales team, act in the way you’d want your staff to act. Dress appropriately and professionally at all times. Treat your clients with respect and work hard to close all sales. Communicate with your staff so no one feels left in the dark. Another way you can lead by example is by keeping your emotions in check. The mood of management is obvious to their employees, and it can greatly influence productivity. If you don’t want your staff crying or yelling at work, it’s best you save these behaviors for elsewhere, too.
Step 5: Create a recognition system that works
Employees are motivated by rewards and recognition. Regardless of your budget, find a way to create a recognition system for staff members who meet or exceed their goals. If your budget for rewards is low – or even zero – you could create a public recognition in your company that highlights the achievements of one salesperson a month. If you have the money to spend on a recognition system, poll your staff for rewards that they would like to work for.
Step 6: Let your staff do what works for them
If some of your staff approaches selling in a different manner than you would, let them work their magic. No one likes a micromanager. As long as their approach fits in line with the company guidelines, allow your staff the freedom to work in the manner that they do best. This may mean on-site meetings with clients when most sales staff meet off-site or it could be something completely different. By giving your staff the tools to succeed, and then allowing them to make their own choices, your staff will feel more comfortable doing their job.
Step 7: Encourage positive competition
On the sales floor, there is competition between sales staff. Encourage this! The competition could be for a reward if you’ve created a recognition system, or it could be general fun between coworkers. Be on the lookout for unhealthy competition. If two of your team members seem to always be in a negative competition with each other, it might be time to sit down with both of them to be sure no issues arise.
Step 8: Manage conflicts
Even if you have the most respectful, hard-working sales staff, situations occur where you may need to use your conflict management skills. One of your staff might think a coworker poached his potential customer. Sometimes team members can’t always resolve issues on their own. It’s up to you to step in and be a non-partial mediator. The longer conflict is allowed to fester, the bigger problem it will turn into.
Managing a sales staff is no small job. That’s why we recommend using Blitz to automate your lead generation systems. Set your staff up for success by ensuring all prospects get assigned to the correct sales staff and contact is made immediately.
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Create your fantasy sales team. Let our automated software simplify your sales process. Sign up for a FREE 30-day trial of our lead management software and turn more leads into customers with less work!
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Do you have any additional tips for how to lead a sales staff to success? Let us know in the comments!