Building a successful sales team requires several steps. This guide explains 6 steps to take when building a sales team.
One can argue that sales are the most important function in a business. Without revenue, your business will go bankrupt. When a start-up opens its doors, sales is often the responsibility of the founder.
But a time comes when the entrepreneur can’t stay on top of leads as their time is consumed servicing existing contracts and clientele. When there is a lot of demand for your products or services but no one is available to speak with clients to close sales, it becomes necessary to hire a sales team to avoid leaving money on the table.
Are you looking for ways to increase your sales through successful sales team management? Then read on for 6 essential steps you should follow when building a sales team to grow your business.
1. Identify Your Sales Goals and Needs
The first step when building a sales team is to clarify what your sales goals are and the kind of sales professionals you will need to achieve these goals. A revenue goal of $10,000 a month will require fewer employees and less skill specialization than a revenue goal of $100,000. If most of your sales occur online, you may require more online sales experts as compared to brick and mortar salespeople.
Knowing your sales goals helps inform other processes like selecting the best technology for your sales team.
2. Develop a Foolproof Sales System
The next step after identifying your goals is to come up with a sales process to maximize sales. This procedure should include all stages of your sales funnel─ from lead generation to after-sale service.
Test your sales process and tweak it where necessary to make it as efficient and effective as possible. Once you have your sales team in place, you must keep communication lines open so that your team can suggest improvements to your sales process.
3. Hire the Right People
Once you know your sales goals, you get an idea of the type of people that can help you reach your targets. Before you start the recruitment process for your sales team, clarify the job descriptions of the positions you want to hire. Specific sales roles you may need include:
- Inside sales rep
- Field sales rep
- Sales development reps
- Account executives
- Sales manager
Once you have the roles, you can define the personnel requirements. What skills, experience, and personality traits would the right candidates possess? Some personalities may suit your company culture better than others.
There should be several stages in your interview process to weed out unsuitable candidates. The first may be a written assessment via email or a phone interview. You can then have a face-to-face interview, and finally, you can conduct a mock sales demonstration.
During the interviews, have at least three people from your team talk with each candidate. The input from each of the interviewers will help remove individual biases from the process and make it more likely that you hire the right people. When selecting candidates, be sure to hire people that would be flexible enough to perform different roles in your team as your company grows.
4. Properly Onboard Your New Team
The hiring process is not the last step when building a sales team. The new hires must now be assimilated into your company and be given the training and tools they need to succeed in their new roles. A poor onboarding process will cost your company money as employees may resign before their probation period is over. Those that stay may not perform at the highest possible level.
Proper onboarding will involve training the employees on your sales processes as well as arming them with extensive product and client knowledge. They must also be given all the tools they need to thrive at their job such as a functioning workstation, phone, computer, access to your CRM software, etc.
Motivation is a big part of managing a sales team. Take time to get to know your new team members so that you can create a suitable rewards package. This can help motivate them to achieve their sales targets.
5. Choose the Right Tools and Technology
Now that your sales team is in place, you need to provide them with the tools they need to perform their given tasks. Other than a phone and computer, you also need to have a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System. This software helps collect customer data.
It’ll be easier for your team to know what sales or customer service approach they should use with each customer or lead. Using data analytics mined from a CRM system can double your sales revenue so it is important to find one that can work for your company.
6. Develop and Communicate the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
For your sales teams to perform their best, they need to know what is expected of them. This way they can assess themselves to see if they are succeeding or failing at their role. The sales KPIs for your team will be determined by the goals you identified in step one.
It is advisable to include your sales team when drafting the performance standards and sales quotas that they will need to achieve. Including your team in this conversation ensures that set goals are realistic and achievable.
Additionally, because they helped draft the KPI’s, everyone will be on the same page concerning performance expectations. Your team will be more invested in their performance if they feel that their opinions were considered when drafting expectations.
Start Building a Sales Team to Skyrocket Your Business
Building a sales team that is successful can be a challenging process with many steps. You need to hire the right people for each position. You’ll also have to have effective sales team management which involves onboarding and training the sales team so that they can sell your products or services to your target clientele. The good news is that once you’ve found your dream team, your business will be unstoppable.
Are you looking to work with sales professionals to increase your revenue? Feel free to call me at (404) 245-3775 today to get started.