Four tips for leading a successful remote sales team

What image comes to mind when someone talks about a “sales space”? Is it a scene from the movie "Wolf of Wall Street"? Are the phones ringing off the hook and are the sales reps talking over each other in loud voices? You may not be alone with this thought, but it's not entirely true either.

The truth is that sales teams don't need to sit in the same room and talk loudly to each other to be successful. You don't even have to work in the same city, area or country.

When companies begin dividing their sales teams, they typically think about four key components:

1. Preparing employees for success: How do sales professionals structure their days when working remotely to be best positioned for success?
2. Performance management/data: How do I know my team is productive and not distracted by Netflix when working remotely? What data should I pay attention to to know it is productive?
3. Maintaining a Strong Culture: How can we stay together as a team? How can we have fun, support each other, and build relationships remotely?
4. Continuous collaboration: How can you avoid those “look over your shoulder” moments when you can ask a colleague or drop in on someone to discuss an issue in real time?

Given the challenges mentioned above, here are some tips for managing a remote sales team.

Start with the basics

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The first step to setting your team up for success is making sure they have the technology and tools they need to do their job well. For sales reps, that could mean two monitors, headsets, keyboards and tools like Zoom or Slack. Once you're set up, work with your employees to create a schedule to maximize peak performance. Here are some things you could encourage in your team:

• Plan your day in advance: Setting aside a small window of time to transition from "home mode" to "work mode" will help you confirm all your appointments, prepare your agendas for calls, and generally prepare for the work that needs to be done today .
• Build Prospecting Blocks: Without the energy and hustle and bustle of the office, it can be difficult for your team to find the motivation to prospect. Set up predefined prospecting blocks for your entire team and use Slack to gather the group based on the number of calls made and opportunities booked.
• Block management time: Many salespeople get lost in the details, their inbox, and the 80% of activities that don't help them accomplish more each month, quarter, and year. If you take your time, you can complete all administrative tasks in one collection point, leaving you more time for sales.
• Turn off: Effective selling happens when you and every member of your team are performance-oriented. If you're always "on," you're not always bringing your best. Olympic athletes don't train 12 hours a day with full commitment. The same principle applies here too.

Set clear expectations

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With representatives and managers physically separated, communication needs to be improved and a foundation of trust and autonomy created. It's up to you as a manager to convey exactly how you will measure performance so that your employees clearly understand your intentions and expectations. Whether you're setting clear, measurable sales KPIs or setting up a system for sales call participation and feedback, everyone should be on the same page from the start to avoid misunderstandings.

Promote a strong team culture

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One of the biggest challenges with remote work is reflecting the culture in the office. While it may seem intimidating or even impossible, it is entirely possible to create an inclusive culture and psychological safety in a remote team. It just takes a little creativity and effort. Investing in tools like Zoom, Slack and HighFive or carrot.io can get you started. You can use these channels to communicate about work, but also to host chats, virtual coffee parties, team quizzes, or celebrations of team members' milestones and birthdays.

Encourage collaboration

In sales, a large part of the learning and collaboration takes place directly on site. You hear about the best practices of your colleagues and use them to improve your next conversation with a potential client. Even if you're not in the same room, there are ways to encourage that collaboration when you're not in the same room. I use team meetings to educate myself on compassionate selling and how we can grow through the challenges we face.

Ultimately, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to managing a successful remote sales team. By addressing the initial concerns, you will find the confidence to find the best solutions for my team. And as a reminder, your team doesn’t expect a manager to have all the answers. What's important is that as a leader, you are committed to improving and developing so that your employees can do their best work, no matter where they are.