Hannah Simons
For sales leaders, recruiting and training your sales team to become a successful business development function is a key objective. But, how should sales leaders approach building a target-focused, high-performing sales team?
In this blog, we discuss some of the key elements sales leaders should consider when looking to build a sales team that can increase productivity and ROI in-line with business growth objectives.
Recruit the right talent
An important first step in recruiting top sales talent is to ensure your business offers a competitive salary and bonus structure, as well as the correct job title for the role. Providing further information about the working environment, company culture and opportunities available within the team structure will further help to attract the right-fit employees for your business.
A thorough recruitment process can make the difference between a high-performing sales team and an average one. The key to hiring for sales roles is to look for individuals with potential - who have the attributes necessary to succeed in sales such as good communication, confidence and ambition, are coachable, enthusiastic, and have a positive attitude. These qualities are not typically demonstrated on a CV, which is why a comprehensive interview and assessment process is essential to building the foundations of a successful team.
Provide effective onboarding and training
The working environment is extremely important to sales starters, who with a lack of support and guidance can quickly suffer from a low sense of morale, leading to low confidence and therefore minimal drive.
Ensuring each member of the team is welcomed into a supportive work environment, where collaboration is encouraged and challenges are shared, can help to build cohesion, confidence and resilience – all vital to the success of your sales team.
Onboarding your sales team should include training, providing them with the hard and soft sales skills required, and information about your business’s products and services to give them the fundamental knowledge and skills to undertake their roles. To get the most from your team, more in-depth training and ongoing coaching and guidance should be provided, helping your team to improve and excel.
Implement a sales process
Whether you are an established business or a start-up, formalising your sales process so that it is clearly defined will provide the foundation of success for your sales function.
This consistent and clearly defined process can help your team feel empowered and in control of achieving their targets, deriving tangible results from each task rather than relying solely on the peaks of the motivation oscillation, which can set salespeople up for failure.
In turn, this process-driven approach creates predictability in achieving results, and when this is not succeeding, provides your team with a framework to follow and rely on, helping to determine where something may be going wrong so changes can be made.
Developing an effective and clearly-defined process takes time and discipline, but once implemented, empowers your team to proactively work towards specific tasks and activities, enabling them to consistently deliver.
Develop a winning culture
The culture of a sales team can affect overall performance positively or negatively.
A successful sales team is more than a group of individuals. While each salesperson may have their own goals, targets, and approach, there must also be a shared team objective and a common culture that promotes collaboration and progression.
Sales managers who communicate and role model the company’s broader purpose can help to create a cohesive team that embodies a winning culture, working with, instead of against each other, and leveraging best practices to increase overall efficiency, helping to keep employee churn low, morale high, and the team motivated to hit targets.
Ready to build your high-performing sales team?
If you’re planning to recruit, develop or scale an existing sales team, you’re likely looking for the best ways to implement a sales team that can deliver results for your business.
At Furza, we specialise in building, training and developing sales teams around the needs of today’s target-driven businesses that operate in highly competitive markets. Our rigorous and comprehensive assessment process is managed and supported by our expert team, working in partnership with you to understand what it takes to deliver successful sales professionals within your space, and support you with an end-to-end solution to forge a right-fit sales team for your business.
With a commitment to in-depth sales training, our 3-month Furza Academy is tailored to your business to build cohesive teams who have a solid grounding in your solution and product set. Endorsed by the Institute of Sales Professionals, our 3-month Furza Academy is tailored to your business and develops graduates into ramped and immediately effective salespeople.
To find out more about how Furza can help you in the development of your sales team, speak to one of our specialists today.
