Last updated on January 20th, 2025 at 06:35 pm
Building a high performing sales team requires a strategic approach from the recruitment stage to on-boarding, training and team management.
A sales manager is to their team what a coach is to a sports team, directly responsible for driving success. Embrace your role as the strategic leader who motivates, and steers the team toward achieving organizational or business goals.
In the recruitment stage, look out for people who are articulate and confident. This is important because it will translate into how they will speak to prospects about your products and services.
In addition, incorporate role-playing scenarios to assess individual coachability. If a potential hire can take constructive feedback and make improvements without their ego getting in the way, then you have found yourself a team player.
Now that you know what’s actually important, let’s get into the “how”.
Over a 14-day period, new hires should listen to and take notes of both successful and unsuccessful sales calls in order to recognize the dos and don’ts.
The sales manager should meet with new hires at least twice a day to discuss areas for improvement and offer constructive feedback.
Following this is a role-playing exercise to assess their progress and reinforce key lessons.
In addition, also evaluate the new hire’s response rate and adaptability. How quickly can they pivot in conversations or navigate challenges?
In order to build an exceptional sales team, hold nothing back.
Avail your trainees with all the resources and information they need to know about your products and services.
An informed and confident sales representative not only understands the products and services, but also conveys authority and expertise. This is something that prospects immediately recognize.
The more information and training they have, the better equipped they’ll be to create compelling pitches, switch tactics on the fly, and seize opportunities.
Train them to use the first 5 minutes of the sales call to;
Train your team to make a great first impression because it is a great determinant of whether the prospect stays engaged long enough for you to lead them all the way through the sales funnel.
We often hear about “market research”, but how often do you talk about Sales Prospecting Research?
Well, it is the game changer that sets high performers apart from the rest. Successful prospecting is the entire team’s responsibility.
If you are in the B2B services sector, you are pretty lucky here because you have access to professional platforms and tools that will provide data on who exactly you should be contacting in a business. Thanks to LinkedIn, you can even find their names.
Gone are the days of randomly cold-calling or sending unsolicited emails. This outdated approach can harm your brand’s reputation and negatively impact your email domain health.
Learn more about our B2B Email Marketing Services.
However, prospecting is different for B2C companies. Because you are targeting individuals, you need to take a hands-on approach. Traditional methods like walk-ins, distributing flyers or brochures, and setting up booths in busy areas are so much more effective.
Modern prospecting is intentional and strategic. It’s integrated into every product or service feature and aligned with your business goals.
Lastly, whether you’re targeting businesses or individuals, prospecting starts with understanding your audience.
For B2B, this means researching the business you’re contacting, learning what they do, and identifying how your product or service can address their needs. For B2C, it’s about connecting with individuals on a personal level.
A script helps your sales team steer the conversation towards decision making.
For example, when pitching a B2B service, you might say: “The decision you face is whether you are sure that you are going to achieve greater profits independently or with our assistance.”
Your job as a sales manager isn’t only to count the number of calls made and emails sent every day.
A sales manager’s primary responsibility is to make sure that the entire team is performing at a high level, provide constructive feedback, on-going training and support.
Once a trainee demonstrates their readiness and confidence to hold their own, then graduate them to a part time sales representative.
They should spend half of the day on outreach and the other half reviewing what they could have done better.
As a new sales manager, establishing clear performance expectations is critical to building a high-performing sales team.
High-performing sales teams thrive under managers who lead by example. No one respects a leader who demands what they cannot demonstrate themselves.
A study by the Rain Group highlights this dynamic: 75% of salespeople meet their yearly targets under high-performing managers, compared to just 47% under low-performing ones.
As a sales manager, it is your responsibility to set clear performance standards and enforce accountability.
For example, team members who fail to meet KPIs for 2 consecutive weeks should be placed on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) with a possibility of contract termination if no progress is made within an additional 2 weeks.
Additionally, put up a leader board because sales people are naturally competitive and then cut the bottom 10% every quarter to communicate that you do not tolerate poor performance.
If you are too tolerant, you will build the weakest team.
Today, having a high performing sales team means the difference between a profitable business and one operating on losses.
However, without strategic clarity, direction and intentional efforts by company leadership, your dream team will not build itself.
Lastly, to significantly increase revenue, your sales team should work together with the marketing and customer service teams and not in silos.
Ntinda-Kampala, Uganda.
info@ckmarketingsales.com
+256 757560358
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