The 4 Essentials for Creating a Successful Sales Team Blog Feature
Anna Adamczyk

By: Anna Adamczyk on July 1st, 2015

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The 4 Essentials for Creating a Successful Sales Team

Motivational | sales team

Creating a successful sales team is a challenge. Dealing with different personalities, experience levels, and styles of selling can add even more pressure to meeting revenue targets.

However, there are some things to keep in mind that can help create a truly positive environment.

So, what are the four essentials that will help you create an exceptionally successful sales team?

smart-goals1. Goals

It’s tough to do your job when you aren’t exactly sure what you should be doing most of the time. A monthly revenue target is just one piece of the puzzle. Having a range of goals is key.

A seller should establish personal goals for themselves. If cold calling is a bit of a struggle, maybe aiming to increase their current average by a dial a day until they reach x dials each day can be a realistic goal.

If nailing down first appointments is tough, perhaps aiming for establishing x appointments for the next week can be a priority.

Maybe a seller has realized that they lose a great percentage of the deal in negotiations. If this is the case, consider setting a goal to work on the part of negotiating that challenges them the most and then try to find an alternative way of approaching the table.

Managers should check in regularly with sellers to help reiterate broader team goals, as well as, see which personal sales goals sellers are establishing for themselves and focusing their attention on.

Without something to work towards, work can become monotonous and can quickly drain all motivation out of the team. Creating challenging, yet attainable goals adds some inspiration back into the daily routine.

2. Accountability

Since everyone on the team should be creating goals for themselves, in addition to  working towards their group objective, they are all accountable for something.

Giving everyone a true sense of responsibility will ensure they’re consistently putting in the effort required to succeed.

Should someone lose their job over not meeting their goal? No, but it should foster some discussion.

Goals and staying accountable create an early warning system for issues that can pop up.

Maybe someone’s having a tough time personally and it’s beginning to affect their work. Perhaps someone’s on the outbound sales team when they’re true talent lies in inbound sales. Or possibly the majority of the team needs training in how to handle objections.

Accountability from all sides helps keep problems from being swept under the rug and ignored. It allows issues to surface almost instantaneously and in turn be dealt with promptly and more effectively.

3. Communication

Communication between managers and their teams is absolutely crucial to success. With managers and their sellers trusting each other and speaking openly about current goals, issues, and solutions, it’s much easier to cultivate a prosperous team.

However, sellers shouldn’t only rely on having an excellent communication channel between themselves and their manager. The team should also focus on having strong communication amongst themselves.

Trusting each other is key, but can be difficult. Many sellers are extremely competitive, but keeping the competition friendly and truly looking out for the team’s best interest is what every salesperson should strive for.

Sharing success stories and pain-points with one another can help build solid relationships and trust. Taking time to discuss and even role-play sales scenarios will help everyone become a better seller and make the entire group more successful.

4. Fun

It’s business first and foremost, but that doesn’t mean all fun needs to be taken out of the equation. Company culture can sometimes make the work atmosphere too formal, “corporate”, and stifling.

Breaking out of the box a bit and thinking of different ways to help change up the ordinary day-to-day can be refreshing and will help infuse some fun back into what’s probably become a drag for some.

Maybe it’s as simple as adding some time for role-plays during the week or sharing one success story during each sales meeting. Maybe it’s setting some kind of challenge for the team that has a prize as a reward.

There are many definitions of what’s fun, but valuing the idea that shaking things up can be a good thing is important and will definitely breathe life back into your team.

What has been an essential part of making your team successful?

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About Anna Adamczyk

Anna is a freelance writer for DMTraining. She creates exceptional content related to sales, marketing, and advertising. In her free time, she can be found reading, writing, running, and taking on a variety of new creative pursuits.

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