According to the New York Times, more people are working remotely than ever before, and hiring and managing remote sales teams has become more commonplace. As with managing any team, managing a remote sales team can come with many unique challenges, which is why we’ve created this blog. We’ll show you how to effectively manage a remote sales team.
Invest In Cloud-Based Software
Nowadays businesses of all sizes are moving to the Cloud. Use of cloud-based storage or applications means that your salespeople can access company data from their computers, smartphones or tablets.
Take Commercient SYNC, the #1 data integration platform for business for example. It allows you to integrate your CRM and ERP system, which enables your sales team to see inventory in real time, search and update customer records, invoicing, and complete orders for a simpler and more efficient sales process.
Your teams will be able provide premier customer service no matter where they are located. They’ll have important data like customer records, line items, invoices, payment records, and more, always available at their fingertips, thanks to SYNC.
Using cloud-based apps, like SYNC, Google Apps, Basecamp, project management tools, and others, ensures that every member of your remote sales team has the information they need, exactly when they need it.
Establish A Culture Of Collaboration
When managing a remote sales team, you must also build a collaborative working environment, so it is imperative that you deploy the right collaboration tools. Today, there are many tools that can help you establish a culture of collaboration, including Slack, Zoom, Skype, and SYNC, to mention a few.
Commercient SYNC, in particular, helps to keep all your sales reps on the same page by filling your CRM system with data from your ERP system allowing for better collaboration amongst your team members. Encouraging collaboration with other teams and departments (e.g. marketing) within your company will also help your sales reps – it will help you in bringing about innovation, creativity, and workflow improvements.
Keep Each Salesperson Engaged & Build A Level Of Trust
To manage your sales team effectively, one of the most important things you must do is to make sure your team is having fun and feels engaged with other team members, even though they may be a thousand miles apart. You should also make sure you build a level of trust as trust essential.
According to Gallup, “when employees don’t trust organizational leadership, their chances of being engaged are one in 12. But when that trust is established, the chances of engagement skyrocket to better than one in two.”
You can build a level of trust and engage your employees by creating interactions within the team so that everyone can all get to know each other. In addition, providing regular feedback on performance, opportunities to help them learn and grow, and regularly communicating the work that is being done on current and upcoming projects. This will help you build a high level of trust to keep your employees always engaged.
Track Work With Project Management Tools
In order to successfully run a remote sales team it is important that you also use the right project management tools. These tools (e.g. Asana, Basecamp, Trello, and JIRA) will help you in keeping track of each salesperson’s time and tasks across different time zones and locations.
The best part is that you can connect many of these tools to your ERP system to Commericient’s IoT Pulse, and automate all your business tasks. Considering integrating all your business apps with your ERP system, check out our IoT Pulse page.
Are you ready to help grow your business with Commercient SYNC and IoT Pulse? Contact us today!
