20 Sales Management Strategies To Lead Your Sales Team To Success

2/27/2021 20 Sales Management Strategies to Lead Your Sales Team to Success
20 Sales Management Strategies to Lead

Your Sales Team to Success [Infographic]
Is your sales team underperforming?
Are they lacking the motivation to improve their performance?
If the answer to these questions is “yes,” then know your team is not alone. According to a
survey done by Hubspot, 66% of salespeople are not reaching their quotas.
There are a number of reasons why your team is not performing at its peak level. Here are
some of the top ones:
They do not like their job and should not be in sales

They do not feel like they have a mentor or coach to guide them
They have not been properly trained
They lack prospecting skills
They do not have Drive
They do not properly understand your company’s service or product
The list goes on and on.
There are a seemingly infinite number of reasons why your sales team is struggling to reach the
success that both you and they want. Not only is this frustrating to Sales Managers because
they need their team to reach sales goals, but it can result in high employee turnover. Further,
this has the potential to cost your company a great deal of money.
In fact, some estimate that losing an employee and hiring someone else to fill the position
can cost your company 200% of the employee’s annual pay.
We are guessing your company would like to do without those costs. And that is where you
come in. Ensuring that you are a good Sales Manager will help you avoid the problems
associated with an underperforming sales team.
However, there is more to leading your team to success than you may think. While you need to
meet your quotas and always adhere to company policies, there is a great deal more that
happens behind the scenes. This includes inspiring your team, motivating them, leading them to
better sales performance and guiding them to success in their careers.
So how do you help your sales team find success?
https://salesdrive.info/key-strategies-for-successfully-managing-a-sales-team/ 1/17
Read on to find out the effective sales management strategies you need to adopt today to get
your team on the right track and avoid sales management mistakes.
Contents hide
1 Top Sales Management Strategies for Sales Teams
1.1 1. One-on-One Coaching
1.2 2. Encourage Continued Learning
1.3 3. Use Technology
1.4 4. Streamline the Sales Process
1.5 5. Establish a Good Company Culture
1.6 6. Understand Your Sales Team’s Differences
1.7 7. Inspire Your Team
1.8 8. Drive Competition
1.9 9. Get to Know Your Team
1.10 10. Build a Winning Sales Team
1.11 11. Cultivate a Winning Sales Team
1.12 12. Identify Sales Team’s Barriers to Success
1.13 13. Help Your Sales Team Create Effective Sales Plans
1.14 14. Start Early to Stay Ahead of the Curve
1.15 15. Pay Attention to Seemingly Small Issues
1.16 16. Give Your Team Detailed Feedback
1.17 17. Identify and Communicate Both Team and Individual Goals
1.18 18. Make Sure Your Sales Team Knows Competitors’ Offers
1.19 19. Celebrate Individual and Team Wins
1.20 20. Set High Goals that Are Realistic
2 In Closing
Top Sales Management Strategies for Sales Teams
Click to Enlarge
1. One-on-One Coaching
We understand: Sales Managers are busy.
This makes it tough to stay on top of everything on your to-do list, and most often, one-on-one
coaching falls through the cracks.
But, in order to help your sales team reach peak performance, that needs to change. Regular
coaching is integral to your team becoming more productive, more confident and more skilled at
sales.
In fact, companies who provide solid coaching to their team see a 16.7% growth in their
annual revenue.
If your sales team is properly coached through a variety of customer interactions, they will be
better prepared to handle difficult situations. And this means they will be able to close more
deals.
In addition, one-on-one coaching allows your reps to feeling more confident in their approach to
sales since they will have input from an expert (you).
Your best salespeople will appreciate any help you can offer, as long as you are still allowing
them certain freedoms and flexibility.
And, if worse comes to worst and you are hard-pressed to find time to work one-on-one with
each of your salespeople, at the very least provide regular input.
2. Encourage Continued Learning

Starting your salespeople off on the right foot with comprehensive sales trainingensures
you avoid many common problems that plague the sales industry.
However, a study by Harvard Business Review found that 87% of what people learn in a live
training is forgotten in a mere 30 days.
So get your effective training in place, and watch your middle performers become top performers
that can generate more revenue for your company.
It is important to train your team regularly to keep the information fresh in their minds.
A great sales management strategy to help you do this is to create a strategic training plan for
the next year and make sure your team sticks to it. This training should reinforce previously
taught lessons, while also adding in new strategies for them to continue building their skillset.
Further, you also encourage your team to pursue continued education on their own to perform at
their best and stay ahead of the competition.
3. Use Technology
Thanks to constantly improving technology, many parts of the sales process are becoming
automated, thus quicker and easier for your salespeople to complete.
One such example is cloud-based CRM.
A good CRM makes collaboration much easier, as well as eases the difficulty of keeping track of
calls and clients.
Further, tools such as tablets and headsets allow your salespeople to effortlessly multi-task,
allowing client meetings and calls to be well-documented without taking your salespeople’s
focus away from their clients.
The key to bringing technology into your sales team’s efforts is to ensure it works seamlessly
with the tools and systems your team already has set in place.
Also key is to always be on the lookout for the latest developments to ensure your team
continues to be as productive and efficient as possible.
You can even take this one step further by asking your team their input — find out if there are
any tools they think would help them better execute their job.
4. Streamline the Sales Process

Though the sales process will not always be one-size-fits-all, you want to have a general sales
process in place that provides your team with the tools and information it needs to reach its
sales goals.
One of the best ways to develop an effective sales process for your team is to create playbooks.
Playbooks take the processes of your best salespeople and share those tactics with your
underperforming sales reps.
This results in a more efficient, productive and consistent sales process across your entire team.
It is crucial to keep in mind when using playbooks, however, that they will not fit every situation.
Instead, they act as a flexible guide that will take your sales reps through the journey of the
buyer.
5. Establish a Good Company Culture

Though having a strong company culture has always been important, its importance has
become increasingly important to employee satisfaction lately.
Why is that? Millennials.
Millennials, according to the Pew Research Center, rule the U.S. workforce. In fact, there are
nearly 54 million of this generation’s people working, and they place a lot of importance on a
company’s culture.
Thus, it is in your best interest to find ways to improve your company culture and provide your
employees with some key things, including:
Flexibility. This can be flexibility in scheduling, in the location they work from or the way
their office is set up.
Professional development. Millennials are looking at how to advance in their careers,

and want positions at companies that will help them develop and grow.
Reputation. Reputation is important not only within your industry, but also when it comes
to being a socially responsible company. Make sure your company is donating,
volunteering and practicing sustainability.
Other powerful sales management strategies to improve company culture include:
Creating a positive physical and social environment

Celebrating employee achievements
Showing appreciation for salespeople on a regular basis
Organizing events and competitions to keep salespeople engaged and excited about
coming to work
6. Understand Your Sales Team’s Differences
Though many successful salespeople have similar personality traits, including Drive,
recognize that does make everyone a carbon copy of each other.
Your salespeople will have different personalities, learning styles and coaching preferences. So,
be sure you do not treat and coach everyone the same way.
Instead, take each individual’s unique personalities into account and adjust your management
strategy accordingly. This will increase the chances of each of your salespeople performing to
their full potential.
If you are looking for assistance in better understanding your salespeople’s personalities or
preferences, consider using an assessment, like The Production Builder™, which is designed
to give you coaching and mentoring guidance, based on each salesperson’s unique personality
profile.
7. Inspire Your Team

Successful Sales Managers understand the importance of inspiring their team.
In fact, they use inspiration as one of their top sales team management strategies. They do so
by helping each salesperson see how successful they can become, and motivating them to
maximize their potential
Inspiring Sales Managers are often described as:
Energetic. Having a positive, uplifting attitude that is contagious

Appreciative. Truly showing gratitude for the hard work of the sales team and
recognizing/rewarding them accordingly
Servant-hearted. Caring about the success of the sales team more than personal gain
Accountable. Taking personal responsibility for what happens, even when the
consequences are unpleasant
Honest. Always telling the truth to both co-workers and customers
Creating an environment in which your team feels inspired will motivate them to excel at work.
And you know what that means — better sales results and greater revenues.
8. Drive Competition
If you are looking for a powerful sales management strategy to boost your team, creating a
competition is a great option.
Here are few tips on how to create a successful sales competition:
1. Define a clear goal. Whether you want to improve customer service, increase sales
volume or simply survive a seasonal slump, you must first clearly communicate the
objective of your contest to your sales team.
2. Keep it simple. Try to focus on one goal during your competition. Also, make sure the
rules are easy-to-understand so your salespeople can easily participate.
3. Have fun. Chances are most of your salespeople have a natural Competitiveness.
Encourage friendly banter around the competition to make it more fun and interesting.
Keep hype up about the competition by posting news and sending out updates via email.
Whoever ends up winning the competition, be sure to recognize and reward them for their
accomplishment.
9. Get to Know Your Team
How can you expect to be successful in your sales management strategies if you do not know
your team?
Knowing the team you are working with is an absolute necessity in the world of sales. Not only
do you need to know the obvious things — your salespeople’s names and faces — you also
need to take the time to get to know sales-specific things about them, including their:
Selling style
Learning style
Motivators
Strengths
Weaknesses
All of these things will allow you to truly connect with your salespeople, which brings with it some
great benefits.
When salespeople feel connected to their Sales Manager, they are more productive. In fact,
according to a Gallup poll, companies whose employees are more engaged have 21% higher
productivity rates than those who are disengaged and disconnected.
So take the time to get to know your team and you will see your sales soar.
10. Build a Winning Sales Team

As a Sales Manager, you are no longer able to ensure sales by going into the field yourself.
Instead, you need to place your trust in your sales team to do the job.
So, what sales management strategy do you use to reach that level of trust?
Trusting your team begins with building a winning team. If you want to have a strong team, you
must hire strong salespeople, people who have Drive.
You can determine whether your candidate has Drive by implementing a sales aptitude test
such as The DriveTest® into your hiring process. This test will filter out those who are not built
to be strong salespeople.
Using The DriveTest® will save you both time and money — a lot of money. In fact, DePaul
University reported that you can count on waiting six months and spending an average of
$110,000 to replace a lost sales rep.
No company wants to waste that kind of money. Instead, work to build a great team from the
start. The extra money you spend up-front will be well worth it in the long run.
11. Cultivate a Winning Sales Team

Beyond building a winning sales team — you also have to nurture it for continued success.
Here are some of the top ways to lead your sales team to success:
I. Invest time and resources to help your team hit their quotas.
Even highly Driven salespeople still need supportive tools to help them maximize their full
potential. Provide your team with the resources they need to do the best job they can, whether
that is a certain software program, presentation material or even administrative assistance.
Check out Sales Psyched! as a resource to help your salespeople take their selling to the next
level with psychological selling tips sent directly to them twice per week.
If a small investment can help your salespeople close valuable leads more efficiently, then the
investment will be well worth it.
II. Ensure your approach is best for your team.
The way you approach sales and quotas may not actually work for all of your salespeople. It is
important that you work with each individual rep to provide them with the approach and support
they need to be successful.
III. Create your own goals and track your progress.
Though it is your job to keep track of your sales team’s progress, you need to keep track of
your own goals and progress as well.
12. Identify Sales Team’s Barriers to Success
Your team may be struggling with some barriers that are keeping them from reaching their goals.
And, it is your job to identify those barriers and help your team overcome them.
Here are the top three sales barriers holding many sales teams back, and how you can break
through them:
I. Fear of being rejected
Work with your sales reps to change their perspective on rejection. Do not let them assume that
a cold call will result in a rejection. Rather, help them be hopeful that a cold call will result in a
sale.
Another way to help salespeople overcome their fear of rejection is by ensuring your
salesperson thoroughly understands how your company’s product or service can help the
customer and is able to communicate that.
Further, providing your salespeople with scripts addressing common customer concerns will help
them better anticipate objections and prepare solid responses.
II. Poor communication
Did you know that 92% of all customer interaction happens over the phone?
This statistic shows the importance of communication in sales.
The key to your salesperson having a successful sales call lies not in them doing all the talking,
but rather in them doing a lot of listening. Listening connects salespeople with customers and
makes the phone calls more of a conversation rather than a pitch, which helps build a longer
lasting relationship.
III. Lack of content and/or social media marketing
With 90% of marketers stating that social media has increased exposure for their
business, there is no denying its importance.
And why is that exposure so important to your sales team?
First of all, it establishes credibility. It is easier for your salespeople to sell when the potential
customer has seen your product or service advertised on social media. It provides a level of
knowledge and comfort for the prospect.
Secondly, it allows your team to see where they are positioned in comparison to your
competition. Social media marketing typically warrants feedback, and that feedback helps your
team understand their place in the industry, and what they can do to improve their sales tactics.
Thus, you are missing out on a number of potential leads if you do not have a strong social
media strategy in place.
In fact, sales teams have been shown to improve their closings by 67% when working
together with the marketing team.
13. Help Your Sales Team Create Effective Sales Plans

Successful salespeople do not get to where they are simply because of luck.
Instead, they used sales plans. And, because each of your salespeople is different from the
next, you need to work with them to create sales plans that work well for each person on an
individual level.
Make sure each member of your sales team includes the following in their sales plans:
Define their own goals

Create easy-to-follow plans to ensure consistency and progress
Improve time management
Improve prioritization strategies
When developing prioritization strategies, your salespeople should base their decisions on the
following considerations:
Which activities will close the most leads

Which activities will generate the most prospects
How and when to nurture their leads
14. Start Early to Stay Ahead of the Curve

This is one of the most effective sales management strategies for you to implement into your
company.
Similarly to how your salespeople should anticipate customer objections, you should anticipate
potential issues that could arise within your sales team and have a plan to address them before
they become a problem.
Hiring a strong sales team is the best way to get your team off to a promising start, and
minimizes the chances of bad hires slowing down the team’s progress.
From there, you will want to provide your new salespeople with the proper coaching and skill
teaching they need to do well right out of the gate.
Do not wait until they show obvious signs of a struggle to bring them in for additional training or
coaching.
15. Pay Attention to Seemingly Small Issues
After your sales team is trained, regularly check in with them and pay attention to their numbers
to see if you start to notice any negative trends with specific individuals or within the team
overall, however small.
This could be an indication that part of the sales process needs to be improved.
Say one of your salespeople has a few bad calls in a week. They could be having a rough week,
or they could not be using their skills in the right way to close deals. Though a week of struggle
may not seem like a big deal, it could become a bigger issue if they do not tackle these issues
early on.
Doing so is important for not only the company goals, but also for the individual salesperson.
They could be having more trouble with sales calls then you realized, so you want to address
this problem before it becomes something larger.
16. Give Your Team Detailed Feedback

In order to create a culture that promotes growth and success, you need to give feedback to
your sales reps.
Research has shown that when a manager places focus on employee strengths, workers are 30
times more likely to remain engaged in their work.
Further, 65% of employees have admitted they wish they got more feedback from their
managers.
However, it is important that you not only provide feedback about what your employees are
doing right, but also the areas in which they could improve. In fact, many high-Drive salespeople
look forward to constructive criticism, because it helps them get one step closer to closing more
deals.
So, make sure you are giving your sales reps the feedback they want and need.
The best way to do this is to be specific. Avoid micromanaging your employees and, instead,
provide them with new things to implement that they can track and report back to you on, rather
than you checking up on them.
17. Identify and Communicate Both Team and Individual Goals

Numbers are a crucial piece of sales.
And, to increase your chances of meeting the numbers the company has set, you need to clearly
communicate the goals you expect your team as a whole to reach, as well as the goals of each
individual person.
Not only do your goals need to be clear to your team and each salesperson, they also need to
be realistic.
If you have a new sales rep on his first week of work, do not give him the same goals you give
your veteran superstar salesperson. Instead, adjust his goals to fit his individual skill set, and
give him a chance to succeed. Also, keep in mind that while numbers in sales are certainly
important, they are not everything.
It is important that you also set developmental goals with your salespeople. These goals are the
key to building a strong sales team across the board.
18. Make Sure Your Sales Team Knows Competitors’ Offers

A good salesperson does not only know their company’s product and service inside out, but they
are also aware of what the competition is offering.
One of the best ways to do this is to have your salespeople complete a SWOT analysis for
your company. By learning your company’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities
and Threats, your rep will be well-equipped to handle nearly any situation that may come their
way in a call.
Customers want to know what makes you different from the competition, and your sales team
needs to be able to answer with a solid response.
By knowing the competition well, your salespeople will be able to anticipate any objections that
the customer may have to the product or service, and will also know how to sell your company’s
product better.
19. Celebrate Individual and Team Wins

It is a sad fact, but many Sales Managers do not celebrate their sales team’s wins, and probably
do not realize the negative effect this has.
Taking the time to recognize and celebrate wins in your sales team can yield major benefits,
including increased job satisfaction, productivity and motivation.
In fact, 78% of employees say that recognition makes them more motivated in their work.
Sales can be quite stressful, so you want to keep things positive and happy whenever possible.
Plus, seeing the recognition of other salespeople’s success will continue to motivate your team
to strive for more.
Part of that recognition and celebration is also taking the time to sit down with the sales reps and
asking them what they feel went well in the sale and how they can implement their successful
strategies into future calls.
20. Set High Goals that Are Realistic
Stretch goals are a great tactic to use with your sales team, as long as you are giving them the
guidance they need to get there.
By setting stretch goals that are high, yet realistic, you are giving your team a chance to
seriously boost their confidence.
However, you have to be careful not to set stretch goals too high, to the point of where it is
impossible to reach.
The best way to keep your stretch goals realistic is to set ones that around 60-70% of your team
can, without a doubt, reach. Any lower than that, and you risk the goal being too hard to reach,
and the team’s confidence plummeting. Any higher than that, and your team will not feel the
same level of achievement when the goal is reached
In Closing
Though it may feel at times that leading your sales team to success is impossible, as you can
see, it is not.
By simply taking the time to plan and implement the sales management strategiesoutlined
above, you should start to see a noticeable improvement in your sales team.
Have you tried all of the above strategies, but still are not seeing an improvement in your team’s
performance?
It is important to keep in mind that a strong sales team begins with hiring the right salespeople. If
your sales team is comprised of a number of low-Drive salespeople, you will likely see your team
continue to struggle to find consistent success over time.

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2/27/2021 20 Sales Management Strategies to Lead Your Sales Team to Success

20 Sales Management Strategies to Lead

Is your sales team underperforming?

Are they lacking the motivation to improve their performance?

They do not like their job and should not be in sales

The list goes on and on.

So how do you help your sales team find success?

2. Encourage Continued Learning

One such example is cloud-based CRM.

4. Streamline the Sales Process

5. Establish a Good Company Culture

Why is that? Millennials.

Professional development. Millennials are looking at how to advance in their careers,

Creating a positive physical and social environment

6. Understand Your Sales Team’s Differences

their full potential.

7. Inspire Your Team

Inspiring Sales Managers are often described as:

Energetic. Having a positive, uplifting attitude that is contagious

Here are few tips on how to create a successful sales competition:

9. Get to Know Your Team

productivity rates than those who are disengaged and disconnected.

10. Build a Winning Sales Team

11. Cultivate a Winning Sales Team

II. Ensure your approach is best for your team.

III. Create your own goals and track your progress.

12. Identify Sales Team’s Barriers to Success

I. Fear of being rejected

II. Poor communication

This statistic shows the importance of communication in sales.

III. Lack of content and/or social media marketing

And why is that exposure so important to your sales team?

13. Help Your Sales Team Create Effective Sales Plans

Define their own goals

Which activities will close the most leads

14. Start Early to Stay Ahead of the Curve

15. Pay Attention to Seemingly Small Issues

16. Give Your Team Detailed Feedback

17. Identify and Communicate Both Team and Individual Goals

18. Make Sure Your Sales Team Knows Competitors’ Offers

19. Celebrate Individual and Team Wins

20. Set High Goals that Are Realistic

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