How to build a sales team from scratch? The management of the company decides to enter a new market segment and founds a new business unit. Then, hire a Commercial Manager to lead the project. Now, how to assemble a team that achieves the objectives.

Once in office, the Commercial Manager must assemble a sales team from scratch. And, for this, you will have to answer a series of crucial questions.

Hire experienced vendors who know the product, or take people without technical skills who know how to sell? The key lies in finding a balance between the market to serve and the objectives of the team to be formed.

In highly professional segments it is often difficult to prepare an inexperienced salesperson. Consider, for example, a business that sells computer or communications services to corporations specialized in these areas.

In these cases, the seller’s interlocutor will be the Customer’s Systems or Communications Manager. So, it is very difficult to train an inexperienced salesperson in a short time so that you can speak as equals with customers.

Now, it would be very different to sell communications or IT to small and medium-sized companies where the interlocutor is the owner. In this case, the customer knows his business very well but is probably unfamiliar with the technology that the seller proposes.

So, in this situation, it is advisable to form a sales team with people who have very good commercial skills who will be trained in the products or services that the company offers.

CX Training is the main option when it comes to specialists offering tailored solutions that fulfil your customer’s requirements through customer training in Australia.

How to train the new team?

Currently, many potential customers come to the purchase act with extensive knowledge of the product and its substitutes. So traditional selling, based on the seller’s knowledge of the product or service and their ability to communicate their benefits to the customer, is not enough.

Within this framework, more and more companies are opting for a different marketing model: consultative selling.

The greater added value and customization the products and services have, the more advisable is the use of this method and the training of the sellers in it.

Are the functional units of the organization adapted to the commercial operation scheme that you want to put together?

Consider, for example, that a company that markets services to other companies decides, due to strategic and / or technological factors, to also reach the end user. Thus, in the new business unit, mechanisms must be implemented to administer clients on a massive scale.

1) Sales administration

2) Commercial tools (contracts or membership applications, presentations, brochures, etc.)

3) Customer service (systems and personnel for mass inquiries and complaints handling)

4) Billing and collections (systems that allow paying with credit cards and other payment systems without personalized collection)

5) Logistics (programming of new mechanisms that allow mass delivery of the product or service)

Now, is the organization prepared for it?

The negotiation skills of the Commercial Manager will be tested in this instance, where he will have to ensure that the organization accompanies and adapts to the new commercial operation that he intends to establish.

6 tips for meetings with your sales team

When meeting your vendors try to be concise, fun, motivating and offer something of value. This will impact your productivity and results.

Meetings with your salespeople are a critical component of a great sales culture – they are an opportunity to motivate and build the skills of the entire team. At each meeting, if you provide your team with an idea, strategy, or technique that improves their game and motivates with some positive reinforcement or reward, you will see growth in your productivity and sales results.

Here are six keys that guarantee that your next meeting with your sales team will have the results you expect:

1. Start with something energizing. Start your meetings on time and with something fun. Reward those who are punctual to help eliminate the late factor.

At my company, every week you will find me with my team playing trivia games, telling funny stories, sharing the outstanding sales data in the last days and discussing the strategy for the next ones.

2. Keep it simple. Always ask yourself: Does this topic need to be addressed at the meeting or can it be discussed outside of it?

Keep things simple with four steps: Make sure the pace of the meeting is fast, create the right atmosphere for fun, add value by helping your team improve their skills and close deals, and share the word, which means that motivate your collaborators to share content regularly.

3. Have three rules for individual updates. When discussing each member’s updates make sure topics are short and answered on time, so they don’t dominate the meeting or affect the energy of the rest of the team.

To make sure individual updates don’t take many minutes, follow these three rules: Set time limits, create different themes around successes (such as key learnings and future focus), and know when to touch on individual topics outside of the meeting.

4. Motivate and reward. You must build motivation at every meeting. The sales team has a difficult challenge and needs to feel supported and recognized. This is not about giving great gifts, a simple “thank you” can be key.

Think about dividing the rewards into different categories. You can make them fun, competitive, based on teamwork or even external, recognizing the work of someone outside the team.

5. Encourage capabilities building activities. Every sales meeting must challenge the salespeople’s skills to keep them at the top of the game. Capacity building activities can focus on prospecting clients, networking, generating leads, meeting clients, presenting solutions, and closing deals. It’s about developing the key salesperson skills, adding value to every meeting.
6. Have a standard agenda. If you follow your format, you have a standard, consistent, and easy-to-follow agenda that will help you stay focused. With it, you can reduce meeting preparation time considerably. Keeping your schedule in a reference folder will also ensure that you don’t repeat fun and creative activities.

With these six keys, my sales managers have figured out how to reduce meeting preparation time by as much as 10 minutes, while focusing on adding value. This constant and focused investment of your time will guarantee gains in the productivity and results of your team.

With CX Training on your team, offering second to none conflict resolution training in Brisbane, we can help you achieve your goals and build a cohesive team to maximise your efficiency in the workplace.