Get the most out of your sales team by empowering them and harnessing their productivity
What is a Sales Team?
Sales team is the front-runner of your business. It’s the face of your business to your prospective and existing clients.
Sales team makes your product reach to the prospects, study their requirements and propose the best solution that fits their needs. They take the discussions further and drive the deals towards completion and win the clients for your business.
Sales team is the most dynamic and important part of any business.
An ideal sales team displays the following qualities:
Why is Sales Team Management important?
Good management of every resource and every facet of a business is the key for a thriving entity. Sales team, being on the front side of driving a business, has to be managed not only to keep a tab on the sales, but also to enhance and empower the team members.
Effective sales team management helps the team members grow, resulting in growth of the company and persistent increase in client data base.
In short, when a team is properly managed, it gives a holistic growth for the business and builds a brand identity by itself.
Customer loyalty, repeat orders and growing client list are some of the indications of a steadily growing business.
5 best practices for effective Sales Team Management
- Be a Guide. Let the team work independently
Nobody likes micromanagement other than the managers who do it 🙂
Every sales person has got their own personality through which they channelize their work and demeanor towards the clients. Do not change that unless it’s absolutely irrelevant.
Good management practice is to guide the sales team in to-dos and what-nots.
Basic understanding of approach, product/service fit and prospecting solutions to customers should be a guide for the sales team. They should not be made to byheart a script and strictly adhere to it while talking with the clients. This may lead to disasters and loss of valuable clients.
Every client is different, so is every sales person. Manages should assess and hone the strong points of the sales executives and equip them to use it for drawing in more sales.
2. Streamline the Sales process. Use tools like Sales CRM
A systematic approach towards any task with defined milestones makes it better, easier and achievable.
Same goes for a sales process too. Every business MUST have a streamlined sales process which starts right from initial training to a sales executive on what’s the product/service offered, upto customer and demography-wise strategies to achieve greater targets.
Workflow management is pivotal in sales. The best way to manage a workflow effectively is with a CRM software. Especially is the CRM software is capable enough to automate the workflow and customize it as per every business requirement.
Every organization has its unique way of operation and success goals. A proper system which helps the sales team to stick to the workflow process, update effortlessly and gain insights on their performance helps a great deal for quick and steady progress towards achieving sales targets.
This also builds up a culture to provide great customer experience, which goes a long way to achieve customer loyalty and a good word for your business too!
3. Train the team on Sales Pitch and Customer Judgement
Sales pitch does not mean just letting the prospects know about your product. It means understanding their requirement and giving a solution for their pain point.
A sales executive must be trained with examples and real-time scenarios where a customer is convinced not on what you offer, but rather on how will that solution solve the issues they’re facing.
Sales pitch depends on a number of factors- like nature of the requirement, urgency of purchase, type of customers-whether a new inquiry or old customer re-connecting for purchase, pricing placement, etc.
Sales executives must understand the three basic ‘W’s of a sales pitch-
What – what is that the prospect is looking for?
Why – why should they go for your product and not the competitor’s?
When – when are they ready to purchase? Give better offer for urgent requirements.
Customer judgement too comes along with training for a sales pitch. This includes delving deeper into the customer mentality and their priorities. Are they inclined towards the quality ? Or is it only the pricing? Are they sure of their requirement? Or they need some guidance from you to propose an apt solution?
Based on this, sales executives can help customers make an informed decision and ultimately gain more trust on your business.
4. Set attainable goals
Achieving goals is important, but so is setting of attainable goals. The goals or the targets set must be in due consideration of the nature of the product/service offered, customer niche and behavior, type of market and prevailing purchase trends.
Sales team must understand that they have to work smart, not only hard and that the targets are 100% achievable if the efforts and implementation align.
This will boost their morale and confidence and they can outshine themselves on every sales won!
Managers have to have a deep understanding of the sales nature and capacity of the sales team while setting their targets. May it be individual or a team target, it should justify the number of sales executives, their capacity and expected output from them.
5. Celebrate achievements
A single word of praise goes a long way!
Sales executives put in their efforts, sincere intentions and push themselves to their maximum productivity to bring in sales to your business. This calls for a pat on their back, publicizing their achievements and appreciating their work.
Celebrate their milestone achievements.
Appreciation can make a day. Can even change a life. It matters.
–Margaret Cousins
If the sales team doesn’t feel appreciated, their enthusiasm will start weaning. Who can afford the front-runner of a business getting drained off their energy and ultimately impact the sales negatively?
That’s why always managers must point out the achievements and extra ordinary, or out-of-the ordinary works of their team and witness the rise in performance by themselves!
This article is presented by Maple CRM – the best sales and field service management software for SMEs.
Want to have an online demo of a CRM software built specially for your business and customized for your workflow?
Connect with our CRM experts to know how can an extremely simple CRM software help them manage their team, provide custom insights on performance and deliver a great customer experience.
+ 91 953 892 5641
info@maplecrm.com