How do you manage a remote sales team?

Our five practical tips based on field experience

It's not easy to manage a remote sales team. Sales is the kind of job where you have to see each other every day, pass on information and compare strategies, share successes and recover from failures.

In short: managing salespeople who work from home is almost unnatural. However, it can be managed very well if you adopt a few good habits. At Modjo, we've looked into the matter and compiled a short list of 5 practical, easy-to-use tips based on our experience in the field.

Our aim: to make you the Didier Deschamps of your team. Or the Claude Onesta, if you prefer handball. We don't judge.

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#1 Manage yourself

To put it simply and without pressure: your team's success depends... on you. It was true in person, it's even truer at a distance. Especially in an uncertain environment where everyone is looking for their bearings.

To transmit energy to your team members, you first need to know how to manage yourself. In other words: set yourself the clearest possible framework.

Here are some questions to think about:

• What are my working hours, given my distance learning constraints?
• Do I tend to make extension cords or never cut them?
• Are my work tools in order?
• What breathing space can I give myself?
  

With these foundations in place, you can turn to your team with a clear mind and full of energy.

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#2 Communicate your expectations clearly

It's natural: a change of context generates doubts within your team. What are the working hours? Is there any flexibility? What about objectives?

Your role is to define the new rules and communicate them clearly.

Beware: some managers may be tempted to fall into the "nothing has changed" trap. Except that a lot has changed: the work environment, the economic climate and the lifestyle of your team members have all been turned upside down. So forget that and ask yourself the right questions.

For example:

• Are the objectives tenable? Is a short adaptation period necessary?
• Do team members have constraints that will make them less present at certain times (such as with children, for example)? How do you manage these schedule variations?
  

To get the new messages across, here's our little inner speech, to be adapted to your style:

I know this is a complicated time. I look forward to the time when we can work together again.

In the meantime, I'd like us to continue to give our best in this new context.

But if you have any difficulties working from home, or if you encounter any new constraints concerning your installation or your environment, I'm at your disposal to discuss them.

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#3 Keep information flowing smoothly

Perhaps the biggest problem with working remotely is communication. Your team members can no longer pass on the latest news over their morning coffee. Nor can they catch up on the latest news by visiting your office. In the long run, this can be detrimental to everyone's efficiency.

So make sure you keep everyone in the loop.

To do this, you can consider implementing new tools and updating existing ones.

Preach the good word: encourage everyone to keep colleagues up to date with the latest happenings. Slack offers instant messaging and communicates the latest results. Aircall, Zoom or Life Storm for your calls and video conferences, and Modjo to help your colleagues improve their sales pitches and ask you for help on certain opportunities.

Make communication a habit. In this field, it's better to do too much than too little. For example, you can use a solution such as Kannelle, which helps you produce professional videos in 15 minutes with ready-to-use scenarios. Combine real-life interactions with practical advice in videos that your employees can watch whenever they like, and as many times as they like.

Note: Smooth sharing of information is as useful for you as it is for your team members, as it makes it easier to manage the pipeline without having to search for news from each supplier.

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#4 Focus on face-to-face exchanges

You were certainly updating regularly with the whole team in person. Remotely, it's the same, but on Zoom. With the little adjustments that go with it.

The regularity of these meetings depends on your management style and the way your team operates. In my opinion, it's unplayable not to have a minimum weekly review, and I recommend at least one a week.

In terms of content, it's useful to start by making contact with everyone. A quick "How are you?" puts everyone at ease and can help you spot problems.

Then discuss collective topics: context, objectives, KPIs, etc. You can also organize meetings focused on a particular topic, illustrated by a replay of the week's calls.

Encourage group reflection with open-ended questions:

• "How can we better respond to objections, negotiate or close?"
• "Are we in top shape?"
  

As a manager, avoid standing out. You're part of the team. Your job is to coordinate and propose, not assert your authority. Instead of saying, "You're not doing enough," use phrases like, "We're not doing enough, even though we all have the ability to."

Finally, use these team points to highlight victories and congratulate those involved. Remote working limits opportunities to celebrate successes, so do it on video!

Generally speaking, be prepared to accept that virtual communication is different from face-to-face communication. It may seem a little awkward at first, cutting you off, changing the subject... Remain open and flexible on this point, without going overboard of course.

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#5 Reinforce personalized feedback and coaching... and stay more positive than ever.

Your team members may react differently to remote working. Some may feel uncomfortable and lack direction. So it's important to keep providing them with feedback and advice.

A good practice is to organize weekly individual evaluations. This is an opportunity for each employee to tell you how he or she feels, and for you to validate, encourage or challenge the week's performance.

During these moments, be sure to let the person you're talking to speak for themselves: what problems did they encounter, how did they react, what needs to be changed? Be constructive and use positive language: for example, talk about "points for improvement" rather than "negative points". Reassure the person that you trust them.

Here are some examples of sentences to use:

• "Where are you in relation to your goal? How are you feeling? Do you think we'll get there?"
• "How can I help you?"
• "I'm convinced we're going to make it, you're more than up to the task and you've already proved it. Let's take this opportunity to excel.
  

Our inside tip: keep these points on Friday as much as possible, because that's the best way to get everyone off to a good start on Monday!

Finally, be sure to follow up on the actions taken by everyone and collectively the following week.

=>AtModjo, we use our own tool to track our latest coaching initiatives.

Is everyone applying the new way of presenting our product? Is everyone using the right practices to respond to price objections? If some are lagging behind, we take the opportunity to coach them individually, showing them every week how fast they're progressing!

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In conclusion:

👉 Manage yourself :

What are my main priorities, what can I delegate, what do I choose not to do?

👉 Force yourself to be as clear as possible about the objectives :

Are your objectives clear? What do you think?

👉 Set yourself a weekly goal and put on the trainer suit:

How do you feel? How do you feel about your goals? If you're feeling behind, I suggest this action plan.

👉 Equip yourself with the right tools:

• Slack: for communication 📬
• Airtime calls: for telephony ☎️
• Zoom: for videoconferencing 💻
• Modjo: for coaching and data 🍍

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Better.