Setting Up and Managing Sales Teams

Setting up and managing sales teams is an essential skill in business. It’s no wonder that Sales has become one of the best-paid and most versatile jobs in business. With so many opportunities, it can be a bit overwhelming to know where to begin.

However, with this article, you will be armed with everything you need to know about how to set up and manage your sales team. From who makes the decisions to what tools are available for use, you will now have all the information you need to get started on the right track. Read on for more information!

Building a Sales Team 

As a new sales manager, you can start in a situation where you inherit an existing team, which comes with its own pros and cons. That said, you can also start from the very beginning. Say you just joined a startup company, or are setting up a new Division in your company: building a high performance team starts with… hiring a sales team. This is the first step you should do to get started: you need to hire your first sales team.

The team will be your core, backbone, and foundation of your company’s success. Without a solid team, you cannot achieve the things you want to achieve with this company. In order to make sure you are hiring the right people, it is important that you know how to build a sales team. Moreover, hiring the right people is not very complicated: all it takes is time and effort.

As a new sales manager, here’s what you should do when hiring salespeople:

1) Get started with the right people and talent. Try to hire someone who has been in the industry for at least 2-3 years and has already worked as a manager before (or who could work as a manager in the future). You can hire someone from other companies too if they have experience in selling products or services of that industry. For example, if your startup sells mobile applications for iPhone or Android devices (for example), then Hiring people from other companies that create and sell Apple or Google apps would be an excellent idea. Then go ahead with their resume: read it carefully; ask them about their experience; talk about their strengths and weaknesses; ask them about their past projects; try to get some ideas on what type of skills they have; then write down everything you learn from them over several interviews or phone calls . After that’s done, get ready for the next step: writing down everything they tell you by hand! That way it is much easier to find out if they are the right person for your startup. It could take a while, but it’s worth it.

2) Find out how they can help you. Find out how they can help you with what they do. For example, if their main strengths are in, say, enterprise sales, then ask them about their b2b sales experience and how they can help you with that. If their main strengths are in sales planning and strategy, then ask them about their experience in that area; if the main strengths of theirs are technical sales or software sales, then ask them about their experience in that area too; or if the main strengths of theirs is marketing and customer service or product management skills (for example), then ask them about their experience with those fields (and then refer them to your colleagues in those areas if (s)he isn’t a fit for your role). The point of this step is to find out which areas of expertise your candidate has been working on before (or is working on now). If you don’t know anything about his/her previous projects, it’s better to start with a simple interview than nothing at all.

3) Ask for recommendations from other people who have worked with him/her before too! Try to get some recommendations from people who have worked with him/her before as well as current employees who have worked with him/her before. This helps you understand which areas he/she is good at and which areas he/she could improve on . Because some employees may have been doing different tasks than others (therefore giving different recommendations), it’s best to ask them what their recommendations are and then work out what each person’s recommendations are.

4) Ask for feedback on your interview. If you are a good interviewer, you will be able to ask questions to your interviewee that he/she would not normally be able to answer. For example, if your interviewer is able to identify problems with the system they are working on, they can ask you questions like “What is the system like when it works?” and “What are some of the problems we are having with it right now?”

5) Take notes! This step is especially important if you have been hired as a junior employee. You need to be able to take notes so that later on when you have more experience and are working for a senior team, you can discuss what was said during that interview . It’s also important for you to remember all of the words he/she said in the interview and how they were phrased . If possible, take notes on everything your interviewer says as well as any other information that comes up during the interview . This will help you follow up on any information later down the line when interviewing other employees and making decisions about them.

6) Contact them again! When it’s time for your next interview, do not forget about them! They may have moved away or quit or gotten married or whatever else happened in their life. Do not assume that they haven’t contacted them just because they did not reply by email or phone call. Make sure they’ve been keeping in touch with their former colleagues and get in touch with them again if anything has changed.

Deciding on the Goals You Want To Achieve 

In order to have a successful sales team, it is important to have clear goals. You should have clear targets, know how you are going to measure them, and decide what the goal is for your team. This typically translates as “how many sales” you as a whole (and each sales rep individually) want to achieve.

Typically, “how many sales” you set as a target is a function of your average selling price, and the overall revenue you have set out to achieve (or have been forced to accept).

Determining the Tools You Need  (Sales Stack)

The next step to getting the most out of your sales team is to determine what tools you will need. You need a good CRM and a solid sales pipeline. We have reviewed some of our preferred CRM suites before, and your ideal one will depend on your situation and how much you can afford. Some of the best we’ve used are Hubspot Marketing Hub, Pipedrive, and Zoho CRM.

You should also invest in training and coaching for your sales team. From our experience, companies invest way too little in training and development for their sales team. This is wrong! We cannot stress this enough: knowledge is power (continuous learning is key!), and practice makes perfect (mock calls, meetings and the like will substantially improve your team’s performance). It’s your responsibility to come up with a sales playbook that shows various ways your team can progress opportunities down the funnel, from email templates to cold calling scripts, objection handling plays etc.

You will also want to make sure that you have everything else you need in place for your team to succeed, from the basics (car, mobile phone, laptop) to the more creative such as free food (always a favorite), home office support and others.

Establishing a Culture of Results and Growth 

Establishing a culture of sales results and growth is essential to your success as a sales manager. If you are looking for a way to make your team more successful and productive, you need to establish a culture of success. It is important to set goals and make sure that your team is on the same page to achieving those goals. 

Usually, this type of culture is one where high-performing sales reps are rewarded with bonuses or promotions, normally quarterly or monthly. The idea is to then break them down to a more granular level (weekly, daily) so that it’s clear what needs to be achieved, day in and day out.

In parallel, it’s key that you, as a sales manager, provide the training, mentorship, and guidance needed to help the team achieve the results you all want.

Wrapping up!

We hope you enjoyed this article about how to start and run a sales team. We understand that it can be a daunting task to find the right people to hire for your sales team, but we also believe that with the right people, you’ll be able to find success, so it’s well worth the investment! 

Don’t hesitate to reach out to us anytime with any questions or concerns. We hope to hear from you soon! If you have any further questions about how to run a sales team, please feel free to message us at sm101@remarkable-story.com. Thank you for taking the time to read our article, we appreciate your feedback!