When it comes to being a manager, the hardest part is, well, managing. With so many changes in team structures over the last few years due to the advent of remote work, managing has reinvented itself. One has to consider in-person employees, remote workers, and hybrid colleagues all at the same time. There’s a whole slew of new technology to incorporate, and expectations from clients and customers alike have changed. It’s easy to forget to invest time and effort into your team directly with so much to do.

But that’s going to come back to bite you. Teams suffer when managers don’t invest. Especially sales teams, which are more prone to volatile changes when a company scales up or down. The key to keeping a great sales team? 

Invest in them from the beginning

Everyone wants to be successful, whether that’s your sales team, your marketing department, or your assistant. People who are invested in the work they do want to know their employer is similarly doing all they can to unblock barriers to success. 

Your sales people want to bring in great numbers (and get the commission that comes with it), and you want to grow your business.

Your goals are aligned; so why wouldn’t you want to invest in them?

Give them the support they need, and they’ll be able to bring in big numbers from anywhere in the world. 

Don’t, and they’ll start looking for someone who will.

What does that investment look like?

Investing in your team involves tried and true management techniques and taking a “white glove approach” to supporting your reps through the pipeline. Focus on specific ways to help them succeed. 

Set realistic goals together

There are three important words there: “realistic,” “goals,” and “together.” 

All three need to co-exist. You first need goals to help the sales rep assess whether or not they’re making progress. Goals like targets and following process set expectations and establish a benchmark of success.

Keeping goals realistic but ambitious keeps the sales rep motivated. It’s a delicate balance. Make the goal too aggressive and the rep will get discouraged and lose steam. Make it too easy, and the rep will coast and not give it his very best. 

Last point, is do it together. Working together gives the sales rep the agency to influence their own career path. This is incredibly motivating and will provide more benefit to you and the company in the long run than the dollar value of their goal. 

Train your team

I’ve said this before elsewhere, but it seems I need to keep saying it. 

Your sales reps need training to succeed. 

Give them the tools and knowledge they need to thrive in their outreach. Give them information about the product and about your company, but don’t just dump a bunch of brochures on them and expect them to soak it all up. 

Guide them. Give them the opportunity to ask questions. Test their knowledge. 

When it comes to actual sales training, lead by example. Be a coach, not a critic. Take the time to show them what you want and the procedures you expect them to follow. 

Keep training your team over time

While managers do remember to give remote reps their initial training, they almost never continue after the first few weeks. 

The effect? Gaps in their knowledge that can seriously affect current and future performance. Lack of follow-through that fails to catch bad habits, which grow and fester. 

Use monitoring tools and other software to track your remote sales reps’ growth and to address any weaknesses in their performance. Evaluate their progress over time, and you’ll be surprised at the amount of improvement they show. 

Be involved and available

Sales reps talk to others all day, but every rep needs someone they can talk to; and who better to talk to about their day than their manager?

Don’t wait for your sales rep to ask to talk to you. By then it’s too late. Instead, be proactive and schedule regular 1:1s. Have daily group check-ins so that the team knows you’re invested in their success. And while it’s hard to have an “open door” policy in the age of technology, give them unfettered access to your calendar and give them the link to your personal Zoom account. 

Give your team agency

Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to manage a sales team without micro-managing. When you micro-manage, you remove any sense of control or agency that a sales team has over their own performance, goals, and even daily schedule. 

If you trust your team enough to hire them, then you should be able to trust them enough to give them room to operate. Let them come up with their own scripts. Let them set their own priorities. More importantly, give them the liberty to make their own mistakes—and learn from them.

Compensate them fairly

Being a team means sharing in both challenges and successes. 

Provide fair compensation for your team, and always deliver on promised commissions, bonuses, and incentives. They will be more encouraged to do their best for you if they know that their efforts will be rewarded. 

Managing sales reps isn't that different from managing other teams.

When you really stop to think about it, sales team management isn’t all that different from other types of management. 

Like other departments, sales team members want to be included in your plans and make an impact on the organization. 

Like other workers, sales reps need goals and direction in order to properly focus their efforts.

Like other teams, sales employees need to be properly trained--both initially and continuously--in order to grow in both skill and effectiveness. 

And, like other employees, a sales rep who is given all of the above will be more likely to stay with the company and provide greater and greater value to your organization. 

Have you adjusted your management style for your sales team? What changed or stayed the same? Share your thoughts with me on LinkedIn.