Sales teams are the backbone of any business. But how do you know if your current sales team is doing a good job? How can you build the best sales team possible?
This article will help answer these questions and more with five tips for building the best sales team. These tips include interviewing, training, delegating responsibility, incentivizing commitment, and rewarding performance. This article will also explain what motivates different types of people so that you can find someone perfect for your company’s needs.
1. Interviewing
The first step to building the best sales team is to interview potential candidates. The goal of an interview is to see how a person responds under pressure and their greatest strengths. Like filling your other roles, you’ll need to screen each candidate properly. You can ask them to complete a set of pre-employment skills evaluation exams. This evaluation should include assessing their basic communication skills, IQ/EQ tests, and other skills test you think are necessary for the role.
For example, you might ask a question that the candidate can only answer with a simple yes or no, but then follow up with more questions if the candidate doesn’t respond appropriately. This can help determine if the candidate is genuinely interested in your business or just trying to get their foot in the door. Others might use this as leverage for another job opportunity down the road.
2. Training
To create a successful sales team, you need to ensure that every member understands what you expect and how you expect them to perform. Failing to train new employees on how your business operates appropriately is one of the most common mistakes. One reason small-business owners fail is that they rarely conduct additional training after building their team.
Training new members on how your business operates is one of the most critical steps to building a successful sales team. When potential candidate interviews with you, they might be excited about joining your organization and tell you that they’re willing to do anything for the company. If this is their attitude, you should make sure they understand everything from what products or services they’ll be selling to how you prefer team members communicate with each other.
3. Delegating Responsibility
One essential skill your candidates should possess is the ability to work independently. Sales associates must understand that they are responsible for their success and that it’s not your job to babysit them or remind them of their responsibilities daily.
It helps if you also give them the chance to make mistakes on their own. More importantly, they should learn how to overcome those mistakes without your assistance on their own (unless they ask for it). You want your potential candidates to be able to think outside the box and find solutions by themselves instead of waiting for you to tell them what to do.
4. Incentivizing Commitment
Incentivizing your team members is a great way to keep them motivated to perform at peak levels for your business. You might have the highest-performing sales team in the industry. Still, if they aren’t committed to doing their job, you might be wasting money by paying the highest salaries possible.
Incentivizing your team members is a great way to keep them motivated to perform at peak levels for your business. One of the most effective incentives is to give your team bonuses or commissions after hitting certain goals, such as selling a specific number of units within a set period. But remember, you don’t always have to incentivize with cash. You can provide them opportunities to join the leadership team or give them time off.
5. Rewarding Performance
Rewarding your team members for a job well done is another great way to keep them motivated to perform at peak levels. After all, who doesn’t like getting praise from their boss after they’ve worked hard? You might reward your employees with bonuses or commissions. Still, you can also find other ways to show your appreciation as well. For example, you might give special recognition to an employee who assisted a customer in need or helped fellow employees complete a tough project.
An effective way you can keep your team members motivated is by providing rewards for top performance. Rewarding your top performers by promoting them within the organization, giving them larger territories with more clients, and allowing them to work from home are also great ways of recognizing their efforts for your company.
It doesn’t matter if you are building a national sales team or hiring people to work on an in-house sales force; planning how to build the best team begins with the recruiting process. You should always use each interview as an opportunity to determine whether potential candidates fit into the organizational culture and will display the skills needed to perform in their assigned roles. Once you’ve hired your new sales associates, you’ll need to train them on how everything works within the organization.
They should know how to work on their own. And when they’ve exceeded your expectations, reward them for their commitment to your team and their performance. With these simple tips, you can build the best sales team for your business.