You thought managing a Remote Sales Team in the office was difficult.

 

Let’s face it: managing a remote sales team is difficult. You have less visibility, less direct interaction with your team, and less control over the processes and workflows they use as a manager.

 

Do you think so?

Because of the epidemic, many sales managers grudgingly adapted to remote sales in 2021. But before then, many other sales managers were successfully and cheerfully running remote sales team.

 

While working remotely may appear to be a disadvantage because you have less immediate and easy touch with your reps, a well-managed remote sales team may be just as productive and successful as an in-office team – if not more so.

 

So, how can you manage your sales crew from afar?

 

In this chapter of the remote sales guide, we’ll go over:

 

• What distinguishes remote sales operations from in-office sales?
• How to Manage Sales Teams Remotely: 6 Methods for Maintaining a Virtual Sales Process
• 4 expert strategies for managing remote sales representatives

What distinguishes remote sales operations from in-office sales?

 

Remote sales is far more reliant on apps and internet processes than in-office sales. Sales managers in charge of remote sales teams must keep their processes and workflows tight and easily accessible to their workers. To make meetings more efficient, team communication must be prioritized, with clear agendas and goals.

 

While sales management in the office might be more spontaneous, remote leaders must work harder to gain the same visibility into what their agents are doing.

However, having a clear sales and communication strategy in place is only the beginning: these processes require regular upkeep to run smoothly. It is part of your job to constantly evaluate the correct tools to construct a sales stack that allows your team to perform at their peak.

 

So, as a remote sales manager, how do you handle maintenance?

How to Manage Sales Teams Remotely: 6 Methods for Maintaining a Virtual Sales Process

 

Setting up your process is critical; maintaining it is the true challenge of managing a virtual sales staff.

 

Here are six strategies for increasing your visibility as a remote sales manager while maintaining systems that work for your team:

1. Establish explicit performance objectives for the team.

 

Setting clear expectations is critical for a remote sales team, as we discussed in the last chapter. Setting performance goals for your team is a critical component of this.

 

Of course, sales quotas are still crucial, but remote sales teams can set targets that bring them to their quota by completing more sales activities that result in agreements.

 

Work backwards in your sales process to match your goals to quota: How many cold calls do salespeople need to make in order to schedule a meeting? Once you’ve figured these things out, you could, for example, set a target quantity of cold calls each day or week for each salesperson.

 

Set up a sales scoreboard to keep track of these critical tasks and watch as salespeople build healthy rivalry while performing essential sales activity.

 

CRM automatically creates a sales leaderboard on your Activity Overview dashboard. You may configure the leaderboard to measure activities such as the number of outbound calls, call duration, meetings held, SMS or email sent, response rates, and more.

 

2. Specify the stages and actions involved in your virtual sales process.

 

While all sales teams should have a well-defined sales process, this is more crucial in a remote scenario.

 

When your sales crew is spread, they cannot constantly come in and ask you a short inquiry. Productivity is critical in a remote setting, therefore having clear, defined processes is crucial. When a tried-and-true sales process is constantly followed by the entire team, the outcomes can be much greater than you might think.

In general, the stages of a successful sales process are as follows:

 

• Prospecting
• Researching
• Connecting
• Presenting
• Responding to Objections
• Closing
• Delivering
• Continuation

 

Of course, you’ll need to tailor this procedure to your own circumstances and consumers.

 

Following that, identify the essential activities that shift prospects from one stage to the next.

 

For example, do your reps have more success with cold emails or cold calls when connecting with prospects for the first time? Is there a sales pitch script that is more effective with specific types of prospects? Do prospects in a certain industry prefer a product demo over a sales presentation? What types of follow-ups result in higher response rates?

 

When you put these activities to the test and observe what happens, you’ll be able to create a stronger structure for your sales staff to follow. That way, whether they’ve been on the team for years or just began, they’ll know exactly what they need to do to complete deals.

3. Determine the remote sales KPIs that will affect your team’s success.

 

Tracking the correct KPIs gives you a better picture of the health of your sales process and team.

 

Here are some sales KPIs to keep an eye on:

 

• Sales activities per rep: This tells you how active each rep is and which activities they are having the most success with. (Hint: CRM’s Activities Comparison Report makes it simple to track and compare rep activity.)

 

• Pipeline conversion rates: Tracking this enables you to run a sales pipeline analysis and determines the health of your pipeline. Any changes in these values are an early warning sign that something is amiss with your process.

 

• Sales by contact method: Understanding how your prospects prefer to be contacted assists you in determining which activities are most helpful to your team.

 

• Average conversion time: When you observe how long it takes from the time you make contact to the time the deal, you may test to enhance this statistic or identify flaws in your process before they seriously slow down the sales cycle.

 

• Sales by lead source: If you notice a higher amount of sales from a specific lead source, you can direct your staff to concentrate their efforts on that lead generating strategy.

 

These are just a handful of the key performance indicators (KPIs) you could be tracking for your remote sales crew. Find the KPIs that have the greatest influence on your bottom line and set up tracking so you can keep an eye on your process and team from afar.

4. Provide your sales staff with more information about buyer activity and answers.

 

Especially in these turbulent times, client attitude, priorities, and demands continue to evolve. So, how do your merchants know what their customers want today?

 

Having improved visibility into buyer activity for yourself and your team is critical to properly presenting your service.

 

So, how are purchasers behaving? A sales dashboard can help you keep track of website activity. Determine which landing pages are receiving the most attention and use the themes and arguments from these sites to help your sales team sell more effectively with their sales scripts and email templates.

 

Encourage your team to discuss buyer reactions to various approaches or messaging. In your daily stand-up meeting with the sales team, have one of the team members talk about a call they had the day before. Whether good or bad, and spark discussion on buyer answers and sales objections.

 

You might also encourage discussion in a specific channel where reps may relay the reactions they receive while on the phone.

 

This can assist you as a manager in determining where your scripts and templates may need to be altered, as well as assisting the rest of the sales team in keeping their prospects’ current needs in mind while they sell.

5. Assist your remote sales team in concentrating their efforts.

 

Your sales crew will be more productive if they are focused.

 

But how do you ensure they’re focused when you’re not in the office with them?

 

It is your role as a remote team leader to assist reps in selling effectively to the proper people. Managers can help salespeople prioritize the proper leads as one approach to accomplish this.

 

Set up a lead rating system based on specific attributes and behaviors that advises salespeople which leads on their list they should contact first. Essentially, this is assigning a point value to your prospects’ attributes and activities.

 

This is what it might look like:

 

Another strategy to keep your team focused on the correct transactions is to clean up the data in your CRM on a regular basis.

 

Is your pipeline, for example, clogged with leads that never progressed ahead in the sales process and deals that fell through before closing?. While following up with these folks is a crucial component of getting new business. You don’t want these old leads to build up your pipeline and divert your attention away from fresh, hot leads.

 

Managing remote sales representatives entails keeping that data clean so they may focus on selling rather than sifting.

 

Advice: Do you want to save outdated leads for future follow-ups? Make a separate follow-up pipeline and place older leads in it. This maintains your main pipeline clear for new sales while also establishing a dedicated strategy to reclaim these lost leads. CRM allows you to create several pipelines and tailor the steps to your individual procedure. Sign up for a 14-day free trial to explore how it works.

6. Train on a firm basis that fosters autonomy.

 

Too many sales managers continue to teach their teams using the sales strategy of the week’ method.

 

But how do you know your training will be effective if it is based on generic sales principles or potentially effective tactics?

 

Remote sales training, on the other hand, should be based on a foundation of processes and best practices that have been proved to succeed over time. You want to master the foundations and concentrate on timeless ideas.

In one interview, Chad Sanderson of Value Selling Associates discussed how various recent events, including but not limited to the current epidemic, have changed the face of business.

 

“We need a touchstone, we need a framework to navigate these challenging times,” he remarked. When you train your team on a framework, you can say, ‘This framework has weathered more than just this particular period in time, and I can focus on practicing on this basis.’ So, while the winds of change are howling outside. I know my foundation is strong and I’ll be able to perform consistently.’ By providing that structure, you provide them with something stable and reliable independent of what else is going on.”

 

Train your team on a solid foundation of proven sales methods, and you’ll provide them the ability to function autonomously in a remote location, regardless of the world scenario.

Four expert strategies for managing remote sales representatives

How can you successfully manage remote sales reps and keep them motivated to keep selling once your processes are in place and your salespeople are ready to start selling?

 

Here are four expert ideas for managing and motivating a remote sales team:

1. Create an environment of accountability.

 

One of the most effective methods to escape the trap of micromanaging your remote sales team is to instill a sense of accountability among your team members. This type of environment encourages sales representatives to stay working because they feel personally accountable for the outcomes they see.

 

Here are some suggestions for how to go about it:

 

• Assign your salespeople the task of establishing agendas for 1:1s: At the very least, urge them to contribute items to the list of topics to be discussed.

 

• Encourage sales representatives to take the lead on innovative approaches and processes: Request opinions and suggestions from your team, then have them test their own ideas and validate their theories.

 

• Have reps own their performance goals: As previously stated, when you set performance goals, have each rep accept responsibility for tracking and planning to meet those goals.

 

• Make a safe space for people to ask for help: No one has all the answers. Make sure your reps feel safe and comfortable enough to seek assistance from other members of the team. You could, for example, set up a channel where reps may ask questions about deals in their pipeline and receive comments and advice from you or other members of the sales team.

 

• Allow each salesperson to select their optimum home workflow: Because each rep’s personal circumstances differ, hold each one accountable for their WFH timetable. Allow for flexibility wherever possible so that everyone can care for their family’s requirements while also working.

2. Provide as much transparency to your staff as possible.

 

Transparency and trust go hand in hand.

 

If you want your remote sales agents to trust you as a manager and the firm as a whole, it’s critical that they have a clear picture of what’s going on in sales and with the company.

 

Set up dashboards for essential sales KPIs, for example, and make sure your reps have access to that data. Encourage reps to look at each other’s performance in different areas and chat to each other to better the things they’re dealing with if you’re using Activity Comparison Report.

 

Of course, transparency is even more important during a crisis. Niamh O’Keefe, corporate leadership expert, highlighted this in our book, Leading Sales Teams Through Crisis:

 

“During a crisis, individuals require more reassurance and information than usual.” Be more transparent and communicative than normal.”

3. Hold regular one-on-one meetings with each team member.

 

Regular 1:1 sales meetings with each of your agents must be a regular part of your schedule, not just a stopgap measure when an issue arises.

 

Consult with your sales representatives to determine a day and time during the week that works best for them. Then, add this to your calendar as a regular event. With Google Calendar, you may allow invitees to make changes to the event and leave the door open to change the meeting. If the rep is on the phone or has another pressing task.

 

Regular face time with each team member helps you to check in on their job as well as their emotional wellness. Make detailed agendas that you and the salesperson can add to or change, but also leave time to converse. These conversations will help you create trust with your team, monitor the health of their work environment, and determine when it is appropriate for you to step in and assist.

4. Commemorate accomplishments and achievements

 

If you’ve ever worked in sales, you’ll remember the mini-celebrations that took place when a deal or a milestone was hit.

 

But just because you’re in charge of a remote sales team doesn’t mean the fun has to stop.

 

While it isn’t exactly the same, there are still lots of ways to recognise your team’s achievements in a remote context.

Why not, for example, commemorate agreements with a GIF in the sales team’s channel? Prepare interesting presents for salespeople to receive when they reach their quarterly targets. Such as a few months’ subscription to their favorite subscription boxes, such as Book of the Month, Birchbox, Dollar Shave Club, or BarkBox.

 

Even while working remotely, celebrating milestones and goal accomplishments helps keep your team engaged and unified.

Lead your remote staff to success and productivity.

 

Motivating and managing a Remote Sales Team is not easy, but it is possible to do it successfully. In many remote sales teams are just as effective as in-house teams: it all comes down to how you manage your reps.

 

But, now that you’ve laid the groundwork for a successful sales process, how can you coach and assist them to do their jobs more effectively?

 

See Chapter 3 for real-world, expert guidance on coaching and empowering a remote sales force.