Putting together a good remote sales team might seem like a challenge, but it is certainly manageable if you follow the steps below. Once you’ve established a process for hiring and managing your team, you'll find the benefits of having a good remote sales team makes the upfront investment well worth it.
Organizations that have gone remote report increases in productivity of up to 43% and have found that their remote teams outperform in-house teams. Not only that, but remote teams can save you money because you’re not paying for office space and the other expenses associated with an in-house team.
Let’s take a look at how you can build the best remote sales team.
Set clear expectations
The clearer you are about your expectations upfront, the more likely you are to find sales people who are a great fit for your company.
This is true for all jobs, but is especially critical when you’re putting together a sales team. Provide potential hires with a clear understanding of your processes, compensation, quotas, and company culture. Look for candidates that resonate with your company's ways of working, and avoid candidates that push back. The more time you spend setting those expectations upfront, the more likely you are to recruit a team that gets the job done. 38% of managers who set expectations find their employees are more engaged on the job.
Promote employee engagement
Once you have hired your team, it is critical to keep them engaged. This is especially true for remote workers that don't benefit from the day-to-day camaraderie of being in an office. Create recurring meetings and online spaces for your team to chat, trade tactics, and have friendly competitions with one another. Ensure your sales management is checking in with the team frequently in formal 1:1s and informal chats.
As much as remote workers value independence, they also benefit from developing relationships with their co-workers. In fact, 46% of remote workers feel that the best managers are the ones who check-in often.
Not only does this help current employees, but it helps you attract employees who want to work in this setting - people who thrive in highly engaging environments and actively seek them out.
Provide the right tools
A high-performing remote sales team needs access to modern software and tools to accomplish their work. Providing access to these tools ensures you will attract and retain the best talent.
This doesn’t just mean providing a good laptop and a CRM. Tools like video conferencing software, sales enablement platforms, and sales intelligence software are all a huge factor in making sales in 2020. Sales commission software will help your team track and monitor their compensation and reduce shadow accounting. Communication platforms like Slack can go a long way in helping remote sales teams collaborate and work effectively.
Let prospects know what tools you’ll be providing them to enable their success. The better they understand what tools they’ll be provided, the more likely you’ll be to get them on your team.
Offer a great compensation package
You can provide all the tools and perks in the world, but if you’re not offering a great compensation package, you’re not going to build a rock star sales team.
A great compensation package will be competitive for your industry, provide a good mix of salary and commission, and have attainable quotas. Use an On-Target Earnings plan to provide potential hires with a clear picture of what their compensation package will look like if the salespeople hit their targets.
And then take it one step further by providing software that makes tracking and managing sales compensation easy for your remote sales team.
Partner with a sales performance management expert
A good way to let prospects know that you’re serious about remote sales is partnering with an expert who understands the ins and outs of measuring sales performance management.
At Performio, we provide you with tools to help your remote sales team track and manage their earnings. This leads to more transparency and increased productivity. We can also help you automate SPIFs and competitions that keep your team engaged. If you’d like to find out more about how we can help you with your remote sales team, contact us today.