5 Ways to Motivate Your Remote Sales Team
Guest Author
Here’s a common misconception when it comes to managing a remote sales team: they don’t need much engagement and motivation. After all, they get to enjoy more autonomy and flexibility, and thus, have a better work-life balance compared to traditional employees.
However, we must remember that remote workers are employees all the same and still, therefore, appreciate proper coaching and motivation. This includes your remote sales team.
In this article, we will share five different ways to motivate your team.
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- Build a strong, professional relationship
- Invest in better employee training
- Create an ongoing training strategy
- Provide a reliable toolset
- Manage goals and incentives better
Let’s get started!
1. Build a Strong, Professional Relationship
Forging a meaningful connection is essential not just for the social wellness of your employees in general but all the more when you’re managing salespeople. Without this trust-based relationship, you will not be able to encourage your team members to share strategies and resources that are vital in maintaining quotas, overcoming challenges, and hitting sales goals.
Working side-by-side and seeing each other face-to-face certainly have their perks, especially when you’re trying to build meaningful working relationships with your employees. However, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any methods to connect with remote workers.
Here’s a pro tip: Use technology to your advantage. There are a lot of online platforms and mobile applications that you can use to communicate better with your team beyond just text or email.
Zoom is one of the most popular video conference programs right now. The base program is free to use, but we highly recommend getting any of their paid businesses plans for more features such as transcript recording and branding.
2. Invest in Better Employee Training
Nothing beats live training, but fortunately, live demonstrations aren’t that essential when it comes to sales courses.
It is ideal to supplement your live training sessions with pre-recorded courses that your remote workers can access at their convenience.
This method also allows any employee to review essential concepts whenever necessary.
There are other forms of employee training that you can explore. You can even schedule seminars, workshops, and conferences online.
3. Create an Ongoing Training Strategy
Important sales concepts, strategies, and case studies will always take precedence, but it wouldn’t hurt to give your remote sales team a more holistic training program that goes through other aspects of your business as well.
Here’s a pro tip: We have found that training courses involving other aspects of your employees’ life can significantly boost job satisfaction and improve financial literacy.
For instance, you can also consider offering courses on customer service or customer retention. Business-to-business communication should also consider if your sales team caters to high-profile clients instead of average consumers.
All of these lessons can provide holistic expertise to your team that can all contribute to higher conversion rates, decreased sales cycles, and lower marketing costs.
4. Provide a Reliable Toolset
One of the most common frustrations that remote workers face is inadequate tools. It’s easy to do your job at an office where proper guidance and tools are readily available. It’s an entirely different thing when you’re working independently at home and are unsure of whom to ask.
Thus, give your employees added confidence by equipping them with access to communication, data sharing, and collaborative platforms. We highly recommend getting an all-in-one CRM that involves most of the required daily business processes. You might want to look into software and programs that are specifically designed for sales teams.
We personally prefer Zoho CRM. It comes with helpful features such as smart sales forecasting, territory management, and sales process automation. You can even integrate it with your existing programs and platforms such as MS Outlook, Facebook, and G Suite.
Of all its features, our favorite has got to be its sales reporting. Their intelligent reporting organizes data into key metrics such as sales trends, team performance, marketing campaigns, and more. You can even customize your reports according to your needs and preferences.
5. Manage Goals and Incentives Better
Finally, we can probably all agree that there’s something profoundly motivating and satisfying when you see the results of your hard work and get recognized for it.
It is the team leader’s responsibility to keep everyone on track with their quotas and performance quality. Task and goal management programs can help.
Related Content:
What is Sales Process Management? How Top Sales Managers Lead Winning Sales Teams
There are various platforms you can choose from, such as Ambition. It’s a sales tracking software designed explicitly for goal management. You can set various targets and manage your team with a variety of customizable trackers. They have gamified the system, which adds fun and motivation.
You can even create an entire web of interconnected goals that shows project managers, team leaders, and sales team members both the smaller objectives and bigger picture一a feature that many other platforms don’t have.
Regardless of your chosen platform, we highly recommend getting one with AI integration and analytics. These features will help you keep track of each employee’s performance better and more accurately determine incentives.
Here’s a pro tip: Utilize newsletters and social media platforms to announce top performers. Don’t be afraid to publicize and reward excellent performance. This will let your remote sales team know that you value them just as much as any other employee.
Final Thoughts
Motivating your remote sales team shouldn’t be a challenge. You can take various steps to ensure that your employees stay productive and motivated even if you rarely see them face to face.
We are also very fortunate to live in a digital age when various technologies are extremely accessible. We have shared some of our favorite digital tools and applications, but feel free to explore others that might better suit your needs and preferences.
By keeping the tips we have shared with you in mind, we are confident that you will be able to increase not just the motivation and job satisfaction of your sales team but their skills and productivity as well.
About the Author
Mike Austin is a marketing and creative content specialist at Adrack.com and has been working in the Digital Marketing industry since 2009. As a conversion-driven marketer, he is passionate about helping businesses expand their online visibility and reach their goals.