5 Basic Steps To Build A Sales Team

Training and coaching the sales team

First of all, in order to improve the professional skills of sales staff, training and coaching must be promoted and invested.

However, the capacity of members in a team is often uneven due to differences in age, work experience, cognitive ability, and working attitude. Managers need to classify members of their team so that they can have appropriate sales staff management  and behave accordingly.

One of the simple models of sales staff classification and employee management that we can apply:

Determine how to behave with each group of employees

To different employee groups, managers need to treat them differently:

(1) Low competence and a bad attitude: This is the employee group that managers need to quickly detect and decisively remove from the organization. Try not be benevolent or hesitant because these team members may have a negative influence on their peers. No matter if you are allocating considerable resources trying to improve them or not, they always feel not motivated.

(2) Low competence but a good attitude: This is usually the group of new and young team who lack sales experience. 

In sales, employees’ certificates and degrees sometimes tell little about their competence. Therefore, it is difficult to accurately assess what these new employees can bring to the organization, and it takes time to train and coach them practically.

We believe that it is important that these employees are mentally prepared to learn and assist the organization. Your patience, of course, should have its limit. However, during this training, you should constantly motivate them because learning new things and mastering transformation is not easy for everybody.

(3) High competence but a bad attitude: This group is the hardest to please. They bring in many customers along with abundant sales. 

However, they prove to be a weak link in internal solidarity, as they often have negative thoughts or personal biases. With a bloated ego, they sometimes cause many problematic situations for managers. What you need to do is offer them a certain amount of privacy with a clear agreement.

They can have it their way on the condition that they also ensure the whole team’s work. Reverse-psychology encouragement is also an effective method but requires sincere ingenuity. 

If possible, you should share, confide, and offer better benefits, and positions - only if they can improve their attitudes. They are smart, they do not mind changing, and they just need a just cause.

(4) High competence and a good attitude: They are truly the cream of the crop. These employees bring in the majority of sales and pose as role models while forming an emotional connection with their team members. Everyone wants to have at least one such employee on their team.

Empowering, encouraging, and supporting are the best options for these team's members. Especially, transforming employees in the (2) and (3) groups into group (4) and helping them develop further is a good way to develop a skilled team.

Motivating the Salesman

Motivation is what moves people. This is an essential factor in the sales profession because it is rare to find a job that accompanies so many rejections or failures. 

Maintaining their enthusiasm is always one of the most important tasks of a manager. Motivation is divided into intrinsic and extrinsic. 

• Intrinsic

Intrinsic motivation emerges from the nature of work that brings satisfaction and pleasure on its own, without any other accompanying reward. 

However, we can still influence the intrinsic motivation of sales staff by creating a comfortable, transparent, and fair working environment. Establishing a simple and effective sales process is also a way to help team deepen their love for the profession. There are a few CRM and sales tools that can effectively support you at this stage.

• Extrinsic motivation

Extrinsic motivation occurs when an individual performs a task to obtain an external reward or avoid an undesired consequence. You can reward outstanding individuals with bonuses, presents, vacations, etc. 

However, you should keep in mind that everyone is driven by a need to be acknowledged. Honor your employees when they complete a sales target or achieve top excellence. Proper praise is an effective art of building a sales team.

Always try to create good morale for employees

>>>> See More: What is an online sales collaborator?

Sales management software

The issues above certainly do not cover everything about build a sales team, and there is still a lot of work for a manager to do. However, with today’s development of technology, there are many software tools that can support you. Notably, Viindoo All-in-one Enterprise Management Solution can help you build, enhance, and expand your team.

First, for staff training and coaching tasks, you can use:

• Viindoo skills framework is designed to standardize the skills framework that employees need to achieve at each level respective to their capacity. As a result, you, along with your staff, can create a training plan suitable for each individual and keep track of that route.
• Viindoo E-learning app, where training courses are divided by topic, allows users to interact and exchange knowledge. Training courses on the software are also designed in a variety of formats (videos, slideshows, website links, infographics, files, etc. to attract learners.
• You may apply Gamification such as giving points and badges when employees complete a training course or creating a leaderboard to compete within the team.

Secondly, increase sales with the dynamic duo of Viindoo CRM - Customer Relationship Management App and Viindoo Sales - Sales Management Software:

• Viindoo CRM helps Sales staff optimize customer service efficiency with a step-by-step process, and automatically setting actions to research behavior. Your team can follow up, track every step, and learn how to predict, gaining experience for themselves and their teammates. They can evaluate effectiveness by customer segment, engagement channel, communication campaign, advertising, etc.
• Viindoo Sales helps businesses plan strategies, set and allocate business goals, and design sales processes, from every detail to the big picture. The app also provides a visual analysis system that helps not only managers but also employees—with comprehensive data for analysis, evaluation, and reference—to accelerate deal closings, make accurate and timely decisions, and boost sales with Upsell / Cross sell theory.

Viindoo Enterprise Management Solution is an all-in-one system with authorization, notification, and real-time tracking at every stage. Managers and leaders can guide their teams during daily assignments and customer service journeys. 

Therefore, it properly assesses each individual’s capacity and contribution. At the same time, it helps managers to grasp, adjust and train employees in immediate situations. Your organization can operate properly in accordance with the Plan PDCA: Plan - Do - Check - Action (PDCA cycle), significantly improving work performance.