Is it possible to have a successful sales team outside of a traditional office setting? Yes — with the right strategy. Sales managers must adapt new tactics when working with a virtual team to help them reach their sales goals and adjust to a different way of work.
If your team is transitioning from in-office sales to a remote setting, or you’re setting up a new team that will be completely remote, it’s essential to take a slightly different approach to management.
Here’s how you can build and manage a successful virtual sales team.
Related: Create An Effective Virtual Onboarding Experience
7 Tips to Lead Your Virtual Sales Team for Success
Setting up your virtual sales process and getting your team to stick to it is challenging. But with these seven tips, you can level up as a virtual sales manager and motivate your team to keep selling.
1. Set Clear Expectations
First, setting your expectations for how your sales team goes about their process is crucial, but this step is a little more challenging than with in-house teams. While sales quotas are still something to think about, the goals you set should help them improve their sales activities and lead to them closing a deal.
But how do you do that? By looking at your sales process in reverse. Start by thinking about how many sales you need each team member to close, then look at how many of their meetings result in a sale and how many outreaches it took to set those meetings. This process will help you set reasonable quotas for your reps.
2. Create a Defined Sales Process
Having a well-defined sales process is crucial for all businesses, but it’s especially important for virtual sales teams. Staying productive when working remotely isn’t always easy, so a straightforward, documented sales process is 100% necessary.
You get the best results when your whole sales team works together and follows your sales process consistently. You should have a set standard from researching potential prospects to closing, delivering, and following up with them.
3. Track and Share Progress
Tracking KPIs and sharing them with your team gives you better visibility into their approach to the sales process. Some top virtual sales KPIs to watch include:
- How active is each sales rep? Track and compare their activity and look for which people excel in which area.
- Is your sales pipeline healthy? Look at your pipeline conversion rates — fluctuations in numbers mean that something in your process isn’t quite right.
- Which sales method works best? See where most of your prospects and leads come from to target them the right way.
- How long does it take to convert leads? Knowing this answer allows you to test ways to improve conversion time and catch problems in your sales cycle.
4. Train Based on Sales Best Practices
Forget about the method of the “sales tactic of the week;” instead, focus on training your virtual sales team using a foundation of best practices that you know will work over time. While this varies from team to team, you need to give everyone the ability to work well in a remote setting.
Some training tips that are essential for remote sales teams include:
- Take into account the time zones where your sales reps reside to ensure everyone can attend training seminars and meetings.
- Record your webinars and video conferences so that your team members can reference the lessons later.
- Sales training isn’t about telling; it’s about showing. Give examples and show your sales reps different tactics to close virtual deals.
Related: Hybrid Work: Challenges and Solutions
5. Prioritize Transparency and Trust
Whether during team meetings or important sales calls, trust and transparency are key. Without a transparent view and real-time information about what’s happening with the company and its sales, how is your virtual sales team supposed to trust you?
This means communicating frequently and implementing tools for collaboration. For example, let your sales reps access the KPIs you track, let them review each other’s strategies, and encourage them to work together to improve in areas they might be struggling.
A team that communicates is a team that succeeds. See how a real-time collaboration platform can help your virtual sales team close more deals.
6. Hold Everyone Accountable
Creating an environment of accountability is the best way to avoid micromanagement and keep your team working efficiently. This atmosphere helps keep virtual sales teams motivated to get results. Here are some tips to foster accountability:
- Ask your team for feedback, allow them to try new methods, and encourage them to test their ideas.
- Don’t just set performance goals — give your sales reps the responsibility of tracking and reaching those goals.
- Ensure your virtual sales team feels safe asking questions. For example, creating a specific communication channel for reps to get advice from each other.
- Give them some flexibility when working remotely; work-from-home schedules affect everyone differently, and giving your team some flexibility in their schedules will help keep them accountable and motivated.
7. Implement Communication Technology
Did you know that remote workers have a hard time participating in virtual meetings and that many companies feel like they could have made the transition to remote work easier with the right communication and collaboration tools?
If you want to manage a successful virtual sales team, your priority should be on communication — after all, your reps can’t swing by your desk to ask for information or advice. Digital platforms help bridge this gap of accessibility.
Every member of your sales team should know how to get a hold of you and their colleagues through the proper channels and at the right time. Unfortunately, common apps like Zoom and Slack leave much to be desired.
So, how do you cut out stressful Zoom meetings and the lack of engagement from Slack conversations? With a better collaboration platform.
Related: Strategies to Maintain Work-Life Balance With Remote Work
Better Sales Start With Better Collaboration
Managing and motivating a virtual sales team isn’t easy, but you can make it easier with the right tech stack. With proper collaboration, your remote sales team can be as effective (or more effective) than in-house reps.
Follow these seven tips if you want your virtual sales team to succeed, and don’t discount the importance of setting up better communication and collaboration platforms to keep everyone connected.
Want to see how the right remote collaboration software can take your virtual sales team to the next level? Schedule your free demo of our 3D platform designed for real-time collaboration.
