Managing a high-performance sales team can be a daunting and time-consuming task. When you take into account that more than 57% of sales reps failed to hit their sales quotas in 2019 and the number is elevating each year. How to manage a sales team efficiently is the major concern of the majority of the sales leaders considering the fact that more than half of them underperform. One of the reasons behind this is that sales managers think of themselves as perfectionists and pay less attention to educating subordinates.

Missing on sales quotas isn’t the worst thing that you might encounter. The annual turnover rate of salespeople is a whopping 35%. Turnover can be expensive to handle as the cost of replacing a departing employee can be as high as 2x their salary. 

The purpose behind this overview is to give you a clear idea of the situation to prepare yourself for success. All you need is to follow proven sales team management strategies. To boost employee satisfaction, improve performance, and elevate company revenue, you need to improve the sales management process. 

Killer Sales Team Management Tips and Tricks For 2021 and Beyond: Manage a sales team

Have you been racking your brains on how to manage a sales team? Are you ready to upgrade your sales reps’ skills? Follow these proven strategies for optimal results. 

• Set SMART Sales Goals

Setting ambitious and realistically attainable sales goals is an art. Your sales team should have the flexibility to set their short-term goals, ensuring that they give their best. To find a perfect blend of both these aspects, set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely) goals. 

• Focus on Results First Approach

Most of the sales managers focus more on the activities of the sales reps rather than the results they produce. For instance, the number of calls a sales rep makes rather than the deals he/she closes. This practice not only frustrates the sales team but also diverts their attention from the long-term goals they strive to achieve. 

You should look for results that the sales team is producing and if you are not happy with them, look for opportunities and pipelines. After that, analyze if the pipeline has pitfalls, review them and guide the sales reps accordingly.

• Clarify Sales Model 

To get the right answer to how to manage a sales team, you should involve your team as much as you can. Sales reps should know the sales model that a business is using. Let them know whether you are using a traditional or contemporary approach to sales. Whether each individual will be held responsible for every aspect of the sales process, from attracting the prospects to closing the deals, or different sales duties are assigned to different groups. 

Both these models work differently. Which one will be the best option largely depends on the organization structure and growth rate. For instance, the traditional approach works best for startups, and the contemporary one is ideal for large-scaled and established brands. 

• Hire the Best Talent

It is the simplest as well as the most complicated thing when it comes to sales teams. Put simply, the performance of your sales team depends on the specialized expertise of every worker. Thus, you should try your level best to get the best talent on board to get optimal results. The perfect candidate will fit in your sales team and strive hard to enhance customer experience. 

• Assign Clear Duties And Responsibilities

How can you expect team members to perform exceptionally when they don’t even know what they are expected to do? Every sales representative should have a clear understanding of the responsibilities and tasks he/she is supposed to do. You should try doling out tasks that match the personal skill set of the employees. 

You might see that an employee proves to be dynamite while generating leads and crumbles like a cookie when dealing with an actual customer. In such a situation, you should allow the employee to join the lead generation group and allow him to do what he is best at. 

• Develop A Scalable Sales Process

When it comes to knowing how to manage a sales team effectively, one of the key steps is to create a system that will scale with your business. You will allow your sales team to perform more efficiently and close more deals by implementing a systematic sales approach.

You should create a sales process that is clearly defined, customer-centric, repeatable, goal-oriented, predictable, and trackable. Every individual on your sales, including new hires, should be able to follow the sales process without any trouble. 

• Focus on Educating Your Sales Team

One of the key tips on how to manage a sales team is to invest in educating it to improve understanding of the sales process. The success of a company lies in the efforts that employees put in. The companies who invest in developing the skills of their employees get the most out of it. Give them opportunities to polish their skills, share experiences, and learn new sales tactics. Thus, companies should organize occasional training sessions to deploy new tools and technologies that come into the market. 

• Use the Right Tools

It is almost impossible to strive in a competitive market without using updated and suitable tools and software. You cannot achieve desired results using outdated technologies, and investing in the right tool can go a long way. Thus, you should focus more on choosing the most appropriate CRMs and other tools while learning how to manage a sales team. 

• Give Constructive Feedback

You might be well aware of the carrot and sticks approach. You might be thinking that will it be effective when we are talking about managing a sales team? 

It is a fact that the majority of the sales managers forget to give constructive feedback to the team. When you solely focus on failures and bottlenecks, the employees will feel demotivated and frustrated. The power of spoken words from a manager in boosting employee motivation is matchless. Employees feel contented and strive to do their best the next time. Don’t forget to encourage your sales reps with a few positive words, and sometimes bonuses or other monetary rewards can work wonders.  

•  Set Up Clever Communication Channels

Communication inside the team is most probably the most crucial essence of teamwork. That’s why you should build an organizational culture where employees can share their experiences and talk to coworkers without any hassles. If you organize a few tedious tasks correctly that are taking up a lot of time of your sales team, you will be just one step away from getting desired sales results. The performance of your sales team will improve, skyrocketing the revenues. 

Be An Exemplary Sales Manager 

Though managing your sales team is no easy feat, every manager wishes to excel in this part of their job. Fortunately, the 10 killer tips and tricks on how to manage a sales team listed above will come in handy to do achieve this milestone effectively. You should read this guide once again and start implementing the tricks that align with your organizational goals. 

Last but not least, don’t forget to invest in a sales management platform. Try to be the sales manager that you had the wish to have.