Dispersed Sales Team Management

Traditionally, sales leaders have gained their field intelligence from monthly reviews, ad hoc check-ins, and possibly inaccurate CRM data, but a rise in mobile communication is causing workforces to become increasingly dispersed. The number of telecommuters has increased 800% in the last 5 years, but recent advances in internet and telephony technology allow managers to view their team’s phone-based interactions in real time, enabling them to locate any problem areas their team may have and have access to the tools that will make their team most efficient.

Eliminating forecasting inaccuracies is one of the top challenges managers face today. A recent article by Selling Power reports that sales managers spend a generous 37% of their time forecasting sales. Traditionally, many managers use CRM alone to process lead activities and opportunities, but CRM is not always the most accurate tool to use on its own. General adoption and usage of CRss team performance.

While CRM can be effective when used to track and organize pipelines, sales managers should constantly be on the lookout for new ways to project sales wins and losses while getting their team to adopt the same processes and principles across the board. It is incredibly important for managers to have historical and/or comparative data at their disposal to better coach and uncover issues. Having access to rich data enables sales managers to set expectations—and it also provides them with loads of information to further coach and train the new hirers.

Recording and applying smart analytics to customer calls will help managers track the important patterns of their agents’ behavior and the specific techniques used can be highlighted. Smart analytics help managers quickly identify the strengths and weaknesses of their reps that indicate long term competence and reduce sales training by 30%. Analyzing phone conversations also takes away the constant guessing and shines a light on your team’s top performers.
The Bottom line: to alleviate and overcome the top challenges of managing a dispersed sales team, you need to mold new hires into stand-up employees, ensure that the team is working towards a common goal, and instill the importance of challenging existing internal processes.