How to Manage and Motivate Remote Sales Teams
We’ve all been navigating how to manage our teams while working remotely as a result of the pandemic. However, certain teams are more difficult to manage than others. Sales teams are possibly the most difficult to manage and motivate during this time. How can you keep up the team’s energy? How can you ensure your team is continuing to sell effectively? How can you make activities and objectives visible to your entire team when you’re only communicating through Zoom and Slack? In this guest Dreamit Dose, AJ Bruno, Founder and CEO of QuotaPath and Dreamit Alum, answers those questions and more. Read below to see the best practices he recommends. You can watch the whole Dose below:
1. Standups
How do you ensure your team is synched up at the start of the day or week? One of the best ways is through consistent standups. AJ says, “Showing up is half the battle and there’s no difference in a remote work setting.” Even on Zoom, standups have proven to be effective. They encourage transparency and accountability of the team. Most importantly for a sales team, they get the team in the right energy.
AJ recommends actually making people stand up, even if the standup is over Zoom. What better way to lift your energy than to get the blood flowing.
On a goal-oriented sales team, it is very important that the team be held accountable on a consistent basis. Not only are standups effective, but they’re easy to replicate in a remote setting.
2. Get as close to the customer as possible
As a leader of a sales team, you can’t merely watch over a dashboard to ensure your team is hitting goals. Instead, you should get as close to the customer as you can. Get involved in the sales process, from improving the messaging of the team to understanding how the customer is responding to the product. AJ recommends getting a leader on the call to hold the team accountable. Of course you should let the team handle the call, but this gives you the opportunity to coach your team following the call. If you can’t get a leader on the call in real time, you can also record calls to provide the opportunity for coaching.
Make sure your team is actively listening to the customer, not just showing up and throwing up.
3. Establish an understanding of activities and success metrics
Many business leaders review activities and outcomes at the end of each year. This will not work for a sales team. The best of sales leaders know that activities at the top of the funnel are crucial for a successful year. You must keep track of day to day activities, and constantly strive to improve upon outcomes. Make sure that the team understands what the objectives of these day to day activities are, and that outcomes are visible to the entire team. You can do so through dashboards or weekly reports.
4. Have a clear incentive plan
Of course incentives are always effective, especially in sales. However, they’re most effective when the team clearly understands what their incentives are, and what they’re based on. Ensure your compensation plan is very simple. This should be visible to the entire team. Getting this right isn’t simple or straight forward. AJ adds that he himself is trying to figure this out at his own company.
5. Win the hearts and minds of your end-users
AJ’s final point has to do with the most important factor to any sales team: the end-user. You must constantly question whether your product wins the hearts and minds of the end-user. Not only will this lead to better sales outcomes, but also will motivate your team. A sales team is more motivated when they truly believe their product delivers value to the end user. One of the best ways to do this is to provide demos. Is your customer blown away when they see your demo?
AJ promises that these 5 things will definitely move the needle for your sales team. Each of these items can be done in a remote setting. Although visibility amongst your team is difficult to achieve in a remote setting, it is not impossible as long as you have a well-communicated plan that you deliver upon consistently. Take note of these items and your team will definitely meet its goals despite the circumstances that do not necessarily work in their favor. You will get to a point where the team operates just as well, or even better, in a remote setting.
By Alana Hill, Securetech Associate at Dreamit Ventures
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