As a sales leader, your team mirrors your behaviors and attitudes. Adopt a learning mindset yourself, not just for them.
Fractional sales leaders demonstrate key qualities like emotional intelligence, transparency, accountability, and a partnership mentality.
They stay on top of sales techniques, tools and strategies. Participate in training alongside your team. Shadow reps in the field to better understand their reality. Solicit and act upon feedback from your team through surveys and discussions.
In this article, we'll explore practical tips and proven best practices to help you build a high-performing sales team that exceeds expectations.
Your first step as a sales leader is to establish an inspiring vision for your team. What are your objectives for sales volume, revenue, profitability, market share? Get specific and set clear deadlines.
This vision provides a unifying sense of purpose that motivates your team. Share it openly and get their buy-in. Encourage salespeople to see themselves as partners in realizing this vision, not just implementers.
Effective sales managers act as coaches who delegate ownership of the "how" - tactics and implementation details - to their team. Your role is to focus on the "what" - the bigger picture vision and goals.
Then provide your team with the ongoing training, resources and support they need to make that vision a reality. Champion and reward them when they achieve milestones along the way.
Building a stellar sales team starts with recruiting talent possessing the right attributes. Determine the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) required for each sales role.
But also emphasize identifying candidates with the right attitude, over just aptitude. Skills can be taught, but values and work ethic are ingrained. When in doubt, opt for hungry and coachable over experienced.
Look for motivated self-starters who are eager to learn and grow. Assess for qualities like ambition, persistence, collaboration skills and a solutions-focused mindset.
Make the interview process rigorous. Vet resumes, conduct role play scenarios, use behavioral and situational questions to gauge fit. Be selective and don't rush hiring decisions.
Once new team members are on board, invest heavily in training. Create an extensive onboarding program to instill your sales methodology, systems and culture. Assign mentors to provide guidance. Offer continual skills development through classes, workshops and coaching. Set clear expectations, then equip your team with the tools to meet them.
To spur your team to keep pushing themselves, compensation should be tied directly to performance. Avoid over-relying on fixed salaries, which remove the motivational spark of variable commissions.
Design incentive plans that reward both individual and team accomplishments. Offer bonuses and spiffs for achieving specific metrics like sales volume, new accounts and client retention targets.
Consider different commission structures for hunting new business vs. growing existing accounts, based on where you need more focus. Ensure earnings potential is high enough to drive real effort.
Use sales contests over set periods to increase competition and energy. Recognize top performers publically. Leaderboards, awards ceremonies and prizes all provide healthy motivation through peer accountability.
Just be sure incentives align clearly with your established sales objectives and vision. The goal is to strategically spur desired behaviors, not just temporarily juice the numbers.
Sales technology should be viewed as an accelerator, not just as a costly overhead. The right systems streamline processes and administrative tasks, freeing up your team to focus on higher-value selling activities.
A user-friendly CRM centralizes prospect and client data, provides sales pipeline visibility and helps manage leads and opportunities. AI-enablement delivers insights through analytics and reporting.
Tools like email tracking improve follow-up effectiveness. Automated sequences nurture leads. Video chat and screen sharing make remote selling more productive. Social media monitoring and marketing automation expand reach.
The key is choosing solutions that integrate well together and with your existing sales workflows. Drive adoption through training and regular usage monitoring. And involve reps in tool selection - they know firsthand what will make their jobs easier.
Target technology investments that save time, expand capabilities and deliver the visibility, efficiency and effectiveness needed to hit goals.
Sales management is impossible without measurement. Establish clear, well-defined performance metrics and rigorously track them.
Look beyond just revenue numbers. KPIs like call volume, pipeline stage conversion rates, sales cycle length, customer retention and profitability per sale all provide deeper insight.
Set benchmarks based on past performance and growth goals. Measure both team-wide and individual progress on a consistent, ongoing basis.
Make metrics visible through summaries, leaderboards and performance dashboards. Schedule regular 1-on-1s and team meetings to review numbers and progress.
Easily-accessible metrics allow you to catch performance issues early and reallocate resources. The visibility also provides motivation and healthy competition. Just focus on the vital few KPIs that offer the clearest picture of sales health and adoption.
Your team's skills will plateau without continual guidance and development. Schedule dedicated 1-on-1 coaching sessions at least biweekly with every team member.
Jointly review performance metrics and activity goals. Identify areas for improvement. Listen to challenges they face and strategize solutions together. Share best practices and resources you think may help.
Have reps record sales calls and review a sampling together. Observe live calls whenever possible. Leverage what top performers are doing well as learning tools. Role play to hone objection handling and other tactics.
Coaching builds personal connection while growing capabilities. But it only works if consistent. Don't cancel or postpone sessions. Make coaching a cornerstone of your management approach.
Beyond scheduled meetings, offer timely feedback whenever possible. Praise what is done well. Constructively critique what can improve. Even small adjustments to behaviors can cumulatively optimize performance.
Just ensure feedback is specific, supportive and focused on the work itself. It should energize, not discourage. Foster an environment where reps feel safe asking for help and see continual learning as embedded into their roles.
By staying true to the strategies above, you can assemble, motivate and grow a high-performing team ready to deliver on your biggest ambitions. Just remember that real change happens slowly, through consistent daily progress and care. With the right foundation, your team can accomplish something extraordinary together.