Even the most talented sales teams can sometimes fail to live up to their full potential. As a manager, you can take steps to optimize your team so they consistently perform at the highest level possible. Here are a few tips to follow.
1) Track & Analyze
To get the most out of your sales team, you have to know where you’re starting, where you want to go, and how you’re going to get there. The only way to do that is to set goals and then track and analyze your progress.
Tracking sales data like leads and conversion is a necessity. I would even encourage you to take it a step further and analyze your buyer’s activity on the website. Even if they don’t fill out a form, there is still valuable information to be had about their online activity.
2) Provide Tools & Training
It’s easy to get stuck doing the same old thing in the same old way, especially if it has been successful in the past.
Just because the team isn’t broken doesn’t mean they can’t be improved!
There are tons of great sales tools that can make life easier like TimeTrade, an app that helps you schedule appointments, and Rapportive, a Gmail plugin great for researching clients. Educate your sales team and allow them to try new technology and tools so they can increase their productivity.
If you haven’t already, you should also consider training your team on mobile. 65% of chief technology officers say mobile support for employees is critical this year.
3) Motivate & Empower
If your team isn’t motivated, then it doesn’t matter how much training you provide or how detailed your data reports are—your business risks failure.
Financial incentives and performance-based rewards are great and can be highly effective. Just don’t forget there are other ways to motivate a team.
Setting attainable goals and then giving words of recognition when your team reaches those goals goes a long way. They’ll also appreciate you giving them the flexibility to use their creativity to solve problems.
Optimizing your sales team starts with you. Give them the tools and motivation they need to succeed and they will.
What steps do you take to optimize your sales team?
