A high-performing sales team relies on a variety of factors, and each of these is important in making the most successful sales team possible.

If you don’t put enough time into your sales team, this won’t only affect company morale but will also impact how much your business can thrive. For example, you may struggle to meet your business’s overarching goals.

According to a McKinsey sales team report, they state that the general sales experience is one of the crucial factors in a customer’s purchasing. So, making a high-performing sales team is pivotal to success.

Within our blog, we’ll look at the 6 ways you can build a high-performing sales team:

What makes a high-performing sales team

You can achieve a high-performing sales team by cultivating these characteristics in the workplace:

  • Goal-oriented: Have a goal-orientated team who constantly strive to better their KPIs. KPIs are a great metric for success because they provide valuable insights into how a business is performing holistically.
  • Self-motivated: Cultivate a team that wants to take pride in producing their achievements for themselves and the wider team.
  • Customer-focused: Ensure your team knows how to create strong customer relationships as this creates a trustworthy brand that is equipped to promote sales.
  • Team motivated: Make sure that your team know how to support other members of the team, helping them to leverage other member’s skills and strengths.
  • Flexibility: The selling environment can quickly change course, so being flexible in approach is necessary.
  • Resilience: Your team constantly being able to better themselves in a pressured environment means that they will be able to produce the most focused and determined version of themself.  
  • Strongly led: Having clear set goals means that your team will be able to progress with the help of guidance, support, feedback, and accountability.

Clear definition of roles and goals

When managing a sales team, it’s vastly important that you define your sales team structure so each member of the team understands their role and can perform to their highest capabilities.

By setting clear definitions and goals, everyone will understand the sales department’s responsibilities and individual roles, so no one is left wondering, what does the sales department do?

When planning how to manage a sales team, the first step is to ensure that your team know and understands their roles to the fullest extent.

This can be done by outlining these responsibilities to each team member. For example, some responsibilities you may outline to your employees is that they are specifically in charge of retainer management.

After setting these responsibilities in stone, your employees will be able to find their feet and pave their way to success in their role.

Targeted recruitment strategies

Targeted recruitment is a great way to help you find applicants who will be a real asset to your high-performing sales team. Recruiting this way will enable you to find candidates with specific skills or characteristics.

Targeted recruitment strategies must also be focused on where the applicants or general candidates live, work, and search online. By doing this you can create the most tailored candidate search as possible.

Incentive and recognition

Having incentives and recognition is a great way to boost company morale and this can be done by promoting a high-reward commission-based sales programme.

All in all, this can lead to a meaningful culture which is driven by outstanding results. Not only this but incentives and recognition can help to nurture a productive work environment.

Make note that these incentives don’t become too competitive and that these incentives still align with the sales culture and the company values, so a sense of community still exists.

Data-driven decision-making

Sales shouldn’t be based on gut feeling; they should be based on data so the choices you make are informed.

When planning the best strategies for your sales team, you should track all levels of your team regardless of whether they produce high or low sales. Having a cohesive team will be the best way to build the highest-performing sales team.

To identify where your team can improve, engage with the data. Make sure you know what is causing certain issues so you can prioritise your performance correctly.

Continuous performance evaluation/feedback

Time is precious, but being able to give timely feedback is the best way to enable your sales team to progress.

Without feedback, your team won’t know if the work they’re doing is positive or not. They won’t know if they should repeat the new method they have tried out or whether they should stick to what they know.

Knowing what is exactly right or what is exactly wrong is crucial for improvement. Making the time for these conversations in your work on a day-to-day basis will mean that you’ll be able to dramatically improve your sales performance. All in all, feedback will help your team improve.

Promotions

Promotions are a great way to improve sales in your team because offering new job titles or general promotions is a tangible way to celebrate hard work. This doesn’t only offer great incentives but also provides great career development opportunities meaning you’ll be able to build sales.

Hire the best-performing sales team

From incentives and recognition to feedback, utilising these 6 tips will help you create the best-performing sales team possible.

If you’re unsure whether you have the time or the resources to recruit new salespeople, it’s not uncommon for companies to hire someone externally to recruit strategically.

We are a specialist recruitment agency for sales, marketing, and engineering. We use our expertise to source the best talent for our clients.

If you are looking to recruit the best sales people, get in touch with us today.