19.1 The Basics of a Sales Team and your Position

When it comes to the basics of a sales team, then obviously the size of the team can vary a great deal, although when it comes to actually running it this should not make too big a difference in the grand scheme of things.

Now, the actual basics of the sales team will stay the same no matter the industry you are working in, or what is expected of you as well as the numbers you are dealing with. Indeed, even the roles you need to play when in this position can vary depending on the company you are working for, so what we need to look at are some general key points that can be applied to any company in any industry.

In your position as the head of the team, there are obviously going to be a number of important jobs that fall under your jurisdiction that simply do not apply to the rest of the team with their own jobs. Throughout this module we will examine the various characteristics you require in order to be successful in this position, alongside how to actually run a team in an effective manner.

Finally, there will also be the need to show you how to increase the productivity of your team in an easy to follow manner simply because, at the end of the day, if you are unable to do this then it will be your job that is ultimately on the line.

When it comes to the general structure of a sales team, it is normally very simple indeed. You will be in charge of the team, but you have to remember that in the majority of cases there will also be another individual above you, such as a regional manager or area manager, who will work alongside you and check you are doing your job correctly.

Below that, there will be your salespeople and there should be no real structure amongst those individuals with them all having the same title and there being no sense of some being regarded as superior to others.

For example, there will generally never be a senior salesperson apart from in very large teams where the leader of the sales team needs a helping hand to deal with the sheer volume of issues that can arise on any given day.

Your position is, therefore, relatively clear and easy to understand. You are the individual who is responsible for running the team, but you are also the person who has to deal with head office, or the area manager, in order to tell them how the team is getting on and act almost as a go-between, relaying information and sales targets to those individuals who are actually dealing with customers and clients.

At the same time, this is a position that does require you to be able to gain respect from those you are managing, although that is clearly going to be something you have to earn via your own individual actions rather than to just expect it to be the case.

That is why some people are cut out for being a manager of a sales team while others are best just getting out on the road as a salesperson and having the reduced level of responsibility.

19.2 The Important Characteristics you Need to Have

So, as a sales manager, you are in a pretty powerful position and it is one that does involve you needing to have certain characteristics to ultimately get the most out of the people who are part of your team.

Now, we are not saying that you need to be born with these various characteristics and nor do you need to have every single one, but at the same time, even just having the absolute basics can go a long way to you becoming a successful manager of a sales team.

1. You are a people person

Perhaps the first thing to mention is that there is a real need for you to be a people person and by this we mean an ability to handle people in the correct manner at all times.This is just common sense in that you will be in control of a number of people at any given time and will be required to deal with various characters and issues, and understanding how to really do this will remove some of the stress from your shoulders.

2. A desire to improve your own self

It is important that you have this desire to improve your own self and by this we mean going on a sales course or management course to help to further your own abilities. This in itself is important as you do have to consider developing as many attributes as possible so that you are the best manager going.

3. To have been a success off your own back

It is always going to be easier for you to get respect if you have the success and experience to back up your position. You will often find that people are going to respond better when they understand that you have been through what they are going through. If you have had success in sales, then you need to make that known and share your stories and experiences with the team as this will build respect between everybody.

4. You must be observant

It is important we stress the absolute need for you to be as observant as possible as that is a key thing for all sales managers, since it is the only way in which you are able to identify issues and to then be able to correct them before they make life extremely difficult. However, being observant also covers other important factors such as being able to identify problems and to see them as quickly as possible by simply keeping on top of matters at all times.

5. You must be a leader

A good sales manager will tend to be a natural born leader and this is something that can make a massive difference to your ability to get the best out of those who form your team. A leader is not only the person who hands out details of what to do, but they also offer guidance to those they manage and this is something that can make a massive difference.

6. You must be good at explaining

If you are a long winded type of person, then you are going to find it quite difficult in explaining and coaching others and this will, in turn, lead to one or two problems for you as a sales manager. There is a need for you to develop your ability to explain to people what you mean to reduce the amount of time you spend answering questions that you should have already dealt with.

7. You must know how to diffuse situations

This is important because there will be various times where there are certain situations that do need to be diffused and this is one action which is going to end up resting on your shoulders rather than anybody else on the team. You need to remember that issues will tend to end up being passed on to you, as clients or customers will have a tendency to only want to deal with those in authority and higher up the sales chain.

You need to be the type of person who does not get riled and can handle difficult situations rather than being more likely to make things worse.

19.3 How to Run a Sales Team to the Best of its Ability

The sign of a good sales manager is an individual who is clearly getting the absolute best out of the individuals who make up their team.However, in order to do this it is best to adopt a multi-angle approach as there is a need to understand that different people within the team will have a tendency to work differently due to their own particular quirks and preferred way of selling.

That is not to say it is going to be impossible for you to bring the team together, as that is certainly not the case. Indeed, to get them working together, there are a number of things you are able to do that will make a difference.

1. Follow up with your sales team

The first thing you must do is to always follow up with your sales team just as you are supposed to do with your clients.

The idea here is that you can ascertain if there are any issues bothering them, if they are hitting targets, and if not, why not?

However, you also need to make sure that they understand the training they were given, if they require anything to help with their job and also if they require any additional training to help them.

2. Understand the need of setting goals

You will be familiar with the idea of setting goals, but what we have to say is that there is a real need for you to not only set goals in the way of sales, but to also consider setting developmental goals for the team. Set them targets of improving their knowledge or skills because the more rounded an individual is, the better they are going to be as a salesperson and a better member of your team.

3. Set targets according to individuals rather than the team

You are going to quickly discover that the sales team are individuals and each person is unique and this can pose a problem or two for sales managers. The mistake most people make is that they treat the team as one, but you cannot afford to do that. Instead, you are going to get better results from your team if you can assess them individually and understand their own strengths and weaknesses to then work out how you are able to set them targets that coincide with the things they are best at.

4. Learn their personalities

We are having to really stress the importance of learning as much as possible about the individual members of the sales team and this includes their personalities.

What are their quirks?

What is their best approach to everything?

How do they learn new techniques and methods?

Understanding this does mean you can give them coaching that best fits in with their own individual approach and this will always lead to you getting a better end result.

5. Never just contact them with bad news

Keeping morale high is important if you want to get the best out of your sales team, but often sales managers are guilty of only contacting those people in their team when they have something bad to say.

This is not going to do you any favours because the people in your team will start to only associate you as being the bearer of bad news. Instead, you should set aside time to share positive news with them as often as possible as this boosts their confidence and it creates a better energy.

6. Address negativity

If you are aware of an individual in the team who is being negative in some way, then it is in your best interest to tackle their issues as quickly as possible. Leaving it alone in the hope that the individual will settle down is not an option as negativity can spread between people in the same way as a virus can spread. This would make your job of running the team a lot harder, which you certainly do not want.

7. Give adequate coaching

If you give people adequate coaching, then this is capable of providing them with the right amount of confidence in themselves to push on and reach their targets without you having to hold their hand most of the time. A failure to give the correct coaching will only lead to their ability to develop and grow being stunted, which is crazy when you consider how easy it is to stop this from happening in the first place.

8. Keep them up to date on industry developments

You will often find that industry related developments can make the sales aspect a lot easier for the members of your team. The easiest way to do this is to arrange an individual schedule with each member which covers the entire year, and make sure you work with them telling them any important information that can make a difference to the way in which they are able to talk to their clients and hopefully close the sale.

9. Keep discussing their own individual developmental requirements

This is something which is extremely important, but as the sales manager you have to maintain contact with your team members to discuss how they feel they are progressing when it comes to their own individual developmental requirements. This will not only allow them to develop their own skills, but it will also mean they are going to perform better and be capable of hitting their targets, something that will also paint you in a positive light.

10. Deal with conflict immediately

If there is any conflict, then there is a real need to deal with it straight away. Furthermore, you should also deal with it openly so other members of the team are aware that you will not sweep any conflict or fights under the carpet. This will not only show your willingness to deal with issues, but it will also result in people gaining more trust and respect in you, something that is especially important when dealing with a sales team.

11. Make it clear that you expect feedback

Feedback is extremely useful in a number of ways, but in this respect it is not only useful in letting you know what people are thinking about their work or your ability as a sales manager, but it also provides people with a feeling that they are actually being listened to.

FACT

Replacing your bottom 20% of salespeople with only average performers would improve sales productivity by nearly 20%.

Source: salesforcetraining.com

19.4 Dealing with the Issues of a Sales Team

It is also important for us to look at how you deal with issues that can arise from running a sales team as this is something which will happen from time to time.The problem is that you do have a number of people with different personalities as well as different levels of drive and expectations, and it can be tough trying to balance it all when you have various people crying out for attention.

However, the important part is that you make sure everybody in your sales team is aware that each person is being treated equally, as the very idea of there being favourites can lead to pressures and problems which can be difficult to resolve.

This is where being a good listener can really make a difference. Your sales team wants to know you are taking their complaints seriously enough and that something will be done about their issues rather than it just being ignored. This will not only lead to you getting more respect from them, but the team in general is going to work better as they feel that they are not alone and are part of a unit which is capable of working well together.

It is also the reason why you need to be able to handle people correctly and we already stated how there is a strong need to avoid favourites, or the concept of there being favourites. When there is an issue within the team, that issue has to be dealt with immediately or else it can spread and make the problem harder to resolve.

Now, if you are unable to actually deal with it immediately, you need to make it clear that this is the case, but that you will get back to them after talking to your own superior. This is not passing the buck, but instead it just strengthens the idea that you do take issues or problems seriously.

So, when there are issues, you need to consider doing the following.

1. Listen to what the problem is

2. Take action or at least tell your team what you plan on doing

3. If you do not know what to do, then refer it further up the sales chain

4. Never ignore the issue

5. Deal with it as quickly as possible

There is no other way of dealing with issues within your sales team or else morale is going to drop and that, in turn, is going to lead to a reduction in productivity levels which is something that simply cannot be allowed to happen.

19.5 Boosting the Productivity of the Sales Team

Finally, in your role as the manager of a sales team it is also your responsibility to look at trying to increase the productivity of the sales team to the best of your ability.

A failure to do this can ultimately lead to you running into difficulties and your own job can be under pressure, which is clearly not something you want to happen. However, there are various techniques and methods that can be employed by you which are capable of boosting productivity, and we will examine those methods in order to provide you with some insight into what is possible from your position.

1. Create a sense of friendly competition

One of the best methods is to create a sense of friendly competition, but the most important part there is the term 'friendly competition'. The last thing you want to do is to create an idea of rivalry where one person thinks they are better than the rest as this can lead to conflict, which directly goes against the idea of building productivity.

Friendly competition does help to push people on and it gives them a sense of wanting to do better because they do not want to be shown up by the rest of their team. The only problem with this is that you are strongly recommended to do this after some initial team building away from the working atmosphere or there is the real risk of creating divisions that can be difficult to correct.

2. Keep everybody up to date on news

Another key way of boosting productivity in your team is to make sure everybody is aware of changes to the industry, products, or services that they can then pass on to their clients and customer base.

Think about it this way, if your sales team is underprepared, then how can they ever hope to do a good job and close those deals at the end of the day?

You would not be able to do that, so why would you expect members of your sales team to then do it?

3. Deal with issues immediately

A small issue can easily evolve into something that can have an impact on the entire team and affect their productivity. As the sales manager, it is important you do not procrastinate over an issue and believe that you can deal with it another time because by then it could be too late and it may be too difficult to sort out. You must nip things in the bud and make sure the rest of the team is aware of your decision and solution so they can then employ the changes themselves.

4. Offer regular training

In order to increase productivity you must be aware of the need to provide regular training, especially if there are any new products or services on offer. Preparation is absolutely essential because a failure to be prepared will only lead to a disgruntled customer or client and that is hardly going to improve your chances of being able to get that all-important sale. The best way to do this is via training and sales meetings where this can be addressed at one time with everybody in your team.

5. Sales meetings to share tips

You have to remember you should all be working towards a common goal and that should also include a willingness to help one another and share tips which have proven to be beneficial to other members of the team. This does mean you need to consider the fact that everybody has to get on with one another to allow this to happen, so one of your main roles has to be building the team spirit so people feel compelled to help one another.

6. Do regular team building wherever possible

Earlier on we mentioned the idea of some friendly competition, but at the same time we also discussed the possibility of team building exercises to help create the correct atmosphere within your team. However, this has to be done in conjunction with your company and you need to be aware of what is expected from your side of things before you launch into some major team building campaign.

The thing to keep in mind is that the theory that a team is able to help one another through the tough times is certainly true, even in sales, since it does mean that this willingness to support one another will push people on to greater things.

7. Have rewards set up

It is a basic human trait that we always perform better when we feel there is some kind of reward out there for us, as we all aspire to do something when there is the knowledge that we can receive something in return.

Now, it is accepted that some companies do operate on a reward basis and that is why the better salespeople will have a better company car for example, but the main reward will always be the most important thing in sales, a better commission rate.

As the sales manager, you can certainly discuss the possibility of having various levels of rewards depending upon what the individual salesperson has achieved, and indeed having this sliding scale can spur people on more than you would ever think possible. The rewards and what they have to do in order to qualify for them, is something that will be between you and the company, but just having various levels of rewards is certainly something worth thinking about.

8. Increase efficiency

It makes sense that if your sales team is more efficient across the board, this will have a profound effect on the productivity of your team. This is where you need the skill to be able to organise and work out shortcuts which will not have a negative impact on their ability to do their work and will reduce the time wasted on areas which are just not that important. Efficiency and productivity are so closely related that for many one can only work in line with the other and as the sales manager, it is purely your responsibility to take charge of this area wherever possible.

Furthermore, you should also be able to look at how the different team members are working on an individual basis to see how you can help them become more efficient rather than trying to deal with everybody at the same time.You need to keep in mind that each member of your team has their own individual strengths and weaknesses and you need to work in line with those aspects to get the absolute maximum out of each individual person.

In other words, you need to create your own strategy as well as become as efficient as possible in your own self to then translate that into something useful for the rest of your team.

9. Increase motivation

This may sound rather basic advice, but the best sales managers also tend to be the best motivators as this has a clear impact on the productivity of the team in general. We previously mentioned the use of rewards in order to get people to work to the best of their ability, but it goes beyond that. Instead, when we are discussing the concept of motivation, it also comes down to you being able to constantly work on their confidence as there is no doubt that confidence increases productivity due to more sales being closed.

Talk to your team, get to know them better and understand what makes them tick and then use that to keep them motivated. As you can imagine, this is going to rely on your people skills more than anything else, which is why we stressed earlier on why there is a real need for you to be a people person when looking at this kind of position.

10. If required, stress the need for qualified leads

If the sales team is not necessarily responsible for generating the vast majority of their leads, then this is something you can focus on as the sales manager. It makes perfect sense for you to make sure that the leads they do get are more likely to result in closed deals, and productivity increases as a result. If your sales team is chasing up leads that are clearly going nowhere, then that will reflect poorly on your ability as a sales manager. Examine the sales leads aspect and your sales team will get on better in the long term.

11. Examine and re-examine strategies

You will be familiar with the concept of requiring a good sales strategy in order to get anywhere in the industry, but the same basic idea can be applied to boosting the productivity of your sales team. We noted how you need to look at dealing with individual team members and understanding what makes them tick, and this translates over to the strategy you need to devise for an individual that will allow them to become more productive. Sit down with them, create the strategy in accordance with their personality and strengths, and then check back at various times to see how things can be changed to allow them to make even more progress than ever before.

12. The one to one sales meeting

It is strongly recommended that you set aside time with each member of your team to conduct a one to one sales meeting on a weekly basis even if this is only for 15 minutes at a time. However, the reason why this boosts productivity is perhaps not what you expected. When your sales team is aware that they have time set aside with you every single week, you will find the questions that pop up or they encounter during the week will be put aside for the meeting rather than allowing them to dominate their thoughts. Instead, it is going to free up time for everybody and when you can free up time it means they have the ability to concentrate on what is important, knowing full well that they can address their various concerns at a later time.

13. Avoid requesting too many reports

Even though you clearly need to keep on top of things and track the progress of your team, it is also going to be counterproductive for you to request too many reports too often. The problem here is that you will end up getting your team members to dedicate too much time to creating reports that it is going to result in them feeling they need to focus on this rather than closing those deals and that is not something you want to be doing. Instead, have a set report at a set time and you will see an upturn in their ability to close those deals.

14. Select the correct people for your team

As you can see, there are several options available when it comes to you trying to boost productivity within your team as a sales manager because, after all, that is certainly your responsibility. However, it has to be stressed that there is a need for you to be willing to adopt various strategies in order to ultimately get the absolute maximum out of your team, as well as accepting there will be moments whereby you need to adapt according to individual needs and issues that can arise at any time.

You must remember that as the manager of a sales team, it is going to be solely your responsibility to go ahead and push your team as hard as possible and to their maximum limit because anything other than that does tend to mean you are not doing your job as effectively as you perhaps should be.