How to Manage a Sales Team: 10 Best Practices You Should Know

According to HubSpot’s 2023 sales strategy & trends report, in 2022, 41% of sales reps surpassed their goals, and the same amount met their goals. 18% performed poorly, highlighting the need to develop an effective sales team led by an analytically charged leader.

Handling a sales team involves handling metrics, meeting quotas, coaching sales reps, and maintaining high team morale. With an effective team management strategy, companies can reach their goals efficiently.  A report by Gartner found that 72% of successful organizations' sales leaders focus on improving their sales processes and team effort. 

It takes a lot of effort from the management to handle the sales team, look after the team, and meet the expectations set by the organization in the long run. A report has revealed that 65% of sales leaders who invested in their sales enablement have reported outperforming their goals.

Whether you're a new team leader or a seasoned team manager, it is essential to understand how to manage your team efficiently. 

With Gartner substantiating in the same study that among chief sales officers, 61% desire an improvement in sales managers’ effectiveness as a top priority, we shall find out why good sales team management is essential and the best practices to manage a sales team efficiently.

The benefits of having a dedicated sales team

A sales team is significant for a business looking to flourish.

• A dedicated sales team can majorly affect your business, from recognizing leads to developing customer relationships to promoting trustworthiness and retention.
• A good sales team forms an organization's backbone to remain competitive in its segment. They offer invaluable information about client trends and inclinations to program marketing campaigns to prompt results.
• Spending in a strong sales force assures the business to remain competitive by acquiring valued customer data, developing contact with prospects, enhancing lead conversion rates, etc.

Keeping these benefits of a dedicated sales team, it's evident why appointing a devoted sales team for companies of all sizes is essential.

10 best practices for managing a sales team

90% of sales reps state that leadership and management encourages them to prioritize long-term relationships with their customers over short-term wins. It helps the company not just enjoy long-term clientele trust and relationship, but also build a robust foundation to deal with all types of sales issues.

As a sales team leader, it is essential to help your sales organization to achieve its goals. It includes inspiring the team and ensuring they focus on their goals and keep up their performance. When the team performs correctly, it helps the organization achieve its goals. Thus, the ability to manage your team efficiently impacts your company's success.

Keeping this in mind here are 10 best practices for managing a sales team:

1. Establish clear goals and objectives

Setting effective goals is an art. You work to make them ambitious enough to stretch your sales team to ensure that they give their best effort. But, it is essential to make them realistically attainable so your reps don’t consistently miss figures and get demotivated.

To draft the right balance, choose SMART goals- Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely.

• Specific: The more precise your goals are the better it is. It provides the team with a tangible target to aim for.
• Measurable: Ensure the goals chosen are simple to track to help you gauge progress.
• Achievable: The goals which are too ambitious may demotivate your employees, so ensure they are achievable.
• Relevant: Don’t just pick any random goal. Aim for goals according to your company’s objectives.
• Timely: Ensure every goal you set has a desired due date.

Setting SMART goals for your sales team will help you successfully manage your sales staff.

2. Provide proper training and resources

Primary training, onboarding and continual learning are major points of running an efficient sales team. Sales reps work with a basic knowledge of how the sales procedure works but they don’t have a good experience. To make their talent work for your organization, it is important to upskill them with right tools and training. The training involves best practices and company specific knowledge.

With the basic knowledge, even amateurs in your team will perform extraordinarily well. Consistently reinforcing your team’s knowledge through ongoing professional learning, you can enhance your return on investment.

As per a report, 59% of millennials state that development measures are essential when choosing whether to apply for a job.

3. Set expectations for performance

Knowing what you expect of your employees is a major motivator in employee engagement. So, make sure your rep realize their priorities to develop an effective sales team. Set proper expectations for your team depending on your sales goals so they know what they are working towards.

According to Alex Olley, CRO of Reachdesk, it is achievable by helping your team understand what quality work appears like. Provide examples to provide a frame of reference. Share them what successful sales calls are so they can model their behavior.

4. Develop a system of rewards and recognition

Most sales managers set quotas and metrics for accomplishment, but it should also be a point of celebration. Take time out to recognize your team members for their achievement, regardless of whether it is big or small, to make them feel appreciated and satisfied.

Recognition has a major effect on employee motivation, majorly in a stressed sales environment. It helps make employees excited about coming to work daily and fulfilling their duties while working towards the best. You can also celebrate achievements by sending out emails sharing the top-performing employees of the week or month and reward them for surpassing their quotas with a gift or commission.

Here you can use Xoxoday Compass. It is your one-stop solution to for companies to motivate sales reps by giving them tasks to fulfill and rewarding them for every time they complete a milestone. It is good way to incentivize your sales team and keep them motivated to close more deals.

5. Create an effective communication plan

Communication is important for sales team management success. If your reps fail to reach you, your organization will never close as many deals as it could have. So, ensure you have several channels to contact your team.

Always ensure that the communication between you and your team is transparent. Transparency boosts healthy relationship and wipes out any chance of confusion. As per an Accountemps survey, 33% of employees stated that poor communication negatively impacted employee morale.

6. Monitor and measure performance

Assess your team, note down their achievements and opportunities for enhancement. Evaluate their daily work and do some research to see how they performed in the past. It is more like auditing where you assess gaps and looks for space for improvement.

Once you’re done with auditing, you can develop better strategies for your team’s performance trajectory and make better decisions in your management.

7. Encourage collaboration and teamwork

Learn about your team to promote camaraderie and help them become more productive in their roles. Try and promote more collaboration and keep the team motivated. Apart from giving individual recognition, managers should also promote teamwork to boost companionship and inclusiveness.

8. Address issues quickly and consistently

Addressing issues and providing support helps develop a high-performance culture and provides an environment where reps feel engaged, valued, and motivated.

9. Make sure everyone is on the same page

Helping your team is essential to foster a sustainable work environment. As a team manager, you must keep every member on the same page. It will help you instill confidence in them. Assess your team and find out which member is high production and which member struggles to meet deadlines. You can achieve this by:

• Practicing continuous communication with team members
• Actively listening to your team members
• Using your experience to help those who are struggling
• Inspiring optimism by maintaining a collaborative work culture

10. Foster an environment conducive to success and growth

Cautiously craft a company environment which ensures that the employees are comfortable at work. Develop an environment that aims towards the success and growth of the company and the employees. For instance, you can offer professional development to help your employee learn and succeed together. Alternatively, you can provide flexibility at your workplace in terms of scheduling or work location.

How to set and achieve goals with your sales team

As per the data, 28% of sales professionals are expected to surpass their quota in the coming year, but the sales companies are not providing support.

Thus, setting sales goals for your team is essential. SMART sales goals are focused and easy to achieve. But, the only mistake sales managers make is focusing only on the numbers.

Of course, you want to increase sales, boost revenue, and gain success, but without a good place, your team is unlikely to accomplish these things.

You can use the SMART approach to guide your strategy when creating sales objectives. The SMART keys work as a checklist to authenticate your pre-determined sales targets. Eventually, you wish to accomplish these goals to motivate your team and drive your business toward higher success.

Steps to achieve sales goals

1. Assess your sales objectives daily

Suppose you want to see the big picture goal clearly, scan and plan for the week and review goals for the day. Also, once the day ends, review how it went and set goals for the coming day.

2. Review and set goals weekly

Once the week ends, assess the goals achieved in that week and prepare for the next week's goals.

3. Review the goals with a partner every month

Your goal partner could be your teammate, mentor, friend, or boss, but it should be a person you can explicitly work with to ensure you are working towards your goal well. Discuss the challenges and potholes that hold you back from achieving the milestones.

4. Review your annual goal every quarter

Only set three quarterly priorities, work towards them with all your passion, and stay on track to meet your yearly targets. Define your yearly goals in quarterly meetings and set monthly targets and actions for the next quarter.

5. Set targets yearly for the next year

Once you're done with the goals of one year, plan next year's big-picture goals (for instance, becoming the best sales rep in the coming, getting promoted, and earning $100000 per year). Ensure to align them with short-term goals and what needs to be done every quarter, month, and week.

How does sales analytics helps in sales team management

Companies that don't use sales technologies have witnessed a 12% fall in their sales goal accomplishment rate.

Sales data analysis is a significant way for companies to boost their sales capacity and meet customer needs in this competitive world.

The absence of data shouldn't be a reason why your sales strategy fails. With more and more companies gaining the power to make data-supported sales management decisions, the scope for error is less.

Luckily, a well-drafted sales analytical program can help deliver a rise in profits and support your company in making better decisions.

Here's how sales analytics can help with sales team management:

1. Refined product offerings

Sales data offers deep insights your company can use to shred costs and boost your product offerings.

By assessing transactions, you can spot products that are underperforming and overperforming. Then you can further find out the reasons for their performance and refine products to meet your customers' needs better.

By removing the underperforming products, you can lower costs and focus on high-profit-making products.

2. Disruption and innovation

The company adapts to market trends, customer demands, and conditions to stay competitive. This is where a well-drafted data analytics program can help you gain a competitive edge.

Data helps you identify the customer's needs and deliver customized solutions better and more efficiently at a reduced price.

3. Precise sales forecasting

A significant benefit of sales data analysis is its power to estimate future sales depending on historical data. Unlike predictions, historical data offers a precise and real image of how your sales team will perform at a specific time.

When leaders forecast it, they can use it to allocate resources and manage their workforce effectively.

4. Performance assessments and incentive plans

With reliable data, sales managers can develop a sales forecast for every sales rep and compare their current and past performance.

If a sales rep has performed low, the sales manager can provide them with coaching and training. However, they can reward them for their hard work if they have performed well.

By collecting sales data, managers can rectify performance issues, set realistic sales goals, and appreciate high performers.

5. Boost retention rates

According to Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company, a rise in customer retention by 5% enhances profits by 25 to 95%. Hence, your sales team should aim to ensure the highest retention rates.

As per Esteban Kolsky's research, 67% of clients state bad experience as their churning reason, but only one of 26 unsatisfied clients complain.

Sales analytics allow you to discover the primary reasons for churning and proactively address these concerns to satisfy customers.

Wrapping up

Though it may appear that leading your sales team to success is demanding and challenging, it is not as you can see.

By making exemplary efforts and planning and executing the sales management practices stated above, you can witness a noticeable improvement in your sales team.