How to Virtually Manage Your Sales Team

With the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic still looming large over the professional world, many businesses are sticking to a remote model for the foreseeable future – how can you virtually manage your sales team? While remote work is more convenient in many respects, managing a team remotely is a challenging endeavor. Without the flow of in-person meetings or the ability to check-in with employees at the water cooler, managers are struggling to find effective and sustainable techniques for managing their remote sales teams.

But virtually managing your sales team isn’t as hard as it sounds once you develop an actionable plan. From communication to remote teambuilding activities, here are our tips on how to virtually manage your sales and prioritize future growth.

Prioritize Communication to Virtually Manage Your Sales Team

Managing a remote team boils down to communication. Without communication there’s no accountability, collaboration, or comradery. Unfortunately, communication is often the first element that breaks down during remote work. With everyone in different places, contending with disruptions from roommates, kids, and partners, your salesforce is dealing with a vast array of factors that make focus and communication a greater challenge than in the office.

Prioritizing communication starts with adopting the right technology.

• Chat Tools – Virtual chat platforms are a fantastic way to encourage a flow of communication between coworkers. Establishing a secure, accessible chat base is key for encouraging consistent communication.
• Video Calls – Video calls are your best friend when it comes to facilitating face-to-face communication. Whether you host team-wide meetings or one-on-one chats, video calls provide a greater sense of connection than other means of virtual communication.

When creating your plan for effective sales communication don’t forget that it’s always better to over-communicate than under-communicate. Err on the side of providing employees with too many resources than leaving them feeling stranded and isolated.

Adopt a Consistent Schedule

Creating a consistent work schedule may be tricky since, as we will discuss later, it’s important to be flexible with employees working from home. This being said, it’s still necessary to instill a sense of rhythm and predictability to the work week. Start by establishing weekly meetings to check in with your team. Even if these meetings only last fifteen minutes, it’s important to facilitate a time to talk with everyone.

Additionally, setting consistent and clear deadlines for projects is extremely helpful when organizing a remote sales team. If everyone is on the same page about expectations, it’s easier to keep your operations running smoothly.

Virtually Manage a Sales Team by Embracing Flexibility

Employees have grown accustomed to a certain degree of freedom that comes with remote work. While some elements of working from home may be challenging, don’t underestimate the benefits of a flexible schedule and comfortable work environment. With this in mind, give employees more flexible options when it comes to work hours or time spent in-person at the office. Wrangling the remote workforce is a push-and-pull between enforcing structure and allowing employees the freedom they’ve grown to value.

Set Achievable Goals

Brainstorm with you sales team to set achievable team-wide goals. This builds a sense of community, and makes team members feel united even if they’re in different time-zones.

Goals may include elements like lead generation, cold calls completed per day, closed deals per month, or number of referrals from existing clients. No matter which area you decide to focus on, make sure your goals are manageable. Employees will gain a greater sense of satisfaction and achievement when they are working towards goals that are realistic.

Facilitate Remote Team-Building

Fostering a sense of community is the hardest thing to achieve in a remote work setting. Without consistent in-person meetings or opportunities to chat at lunch, it’s easy for employees to feel isolated. This is why it’s essential to organize remote team-building activities.

• Hold a Remote Happy Hour ­– Have everyone bring their beverage of choice for an after-work remote happy hour. This allows employees a chance to connect outside of work in a laid-back setting.
• Use Ice Breakers – Ice breakers have a reputation for being cheesy and embarrassing, but they can also be fun and illuminating! Pick an ice breaker before every meeting to help employees get to know one another.

Encourage employees to facilitate their own virtual events and clubs to connect more outside of work. Whether they schedule virtual coffee dates, book clubs, or game nights, it’s important to encourage employees to take advantage of social opportunities.

Manage Your Team with Help from Acquirent

Looking for more strategies to manage your remote sales team? At Acquirent, our seasoned sales development professionals are here to help support you and your team by providing training, recruitment, and onboarding strategies. When you partner with Acquirent, we are committed to helping your sales team flourish whether they’re working at an office or in their living rooms. The future of sales starts with a strong team, and with Acquirent it’s easy to help your team thrive.