4 Tips for Building an Effective Sales Team as a Small Business

It’s an obvious fact that all businesses need salespeople because if you’re not selling, you’re not making money. Effective salespeople are key for generating revenue, building ongoing relationships with customers, creating a good reputation for your company, and leading ultimately to the continued growth of the business. Here are four tips to help your small business establish a team built for success.

You’re unlikely to get anywhere on your path to growth without effective people as your foundation. Obviously, it’s important to look at people’s experience/qualifications when hiring for sales roles, as it will require some basic sales knowledge and abilities to perform the tasks of the job. But just as important are key personality traits that can take your sales to the next level:

• A strong work ethic: Sales can be demanding, so being diligent and self-driven is crucial.
• Attitude: Hire for a positive attitude, and a personality that is likely to mesh well with you and your teams.
• Excellent communication skills: The ability to articulate value and develop rapport is essential, both in verbal and written communication.
• A focus on customers: A focus on fulfilling customer needs, actively listening to concerns, and solving problems leads to long-term success.

After you have hired the right people for your sales roles, it’s important to invest time and effort in development. Without good training, you may be setting up talented people for failure. Regardless of how much previous experience a person may or may not have in selling, they are still going to require training on the specifics of the products/services you’re offering, best practices, and the processes of your business.

• Product knowledge: An expert-level understanding of your offerings is crucial for any salesperson to be effective.
• Sales techniques: Give your team proven tactics and methods for prospecting new customers, pitching the product, and closing deals.
• Systems/Tools: Ensure that your people know how to use the tools your company uses including IT systems, sales resources, etc.
• Company culture: Show your business’ values and mission to ensure a unified approach and help them catch the vision and how they fit into it.

For a sales team to meet a standard of success, they need to have a clear target for what they’re working towards. Whether you’re just starting a business, or you have a long-established sales operation, you need to set reachable goals for your sales reps to work towards.

• Sales targets: Define specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals.
• Performance metrics: Keep track of indicators such as customers contacted, conversion rates, and sales growth rates (month-over-month, year-over-year).
• Consistent reporting: Follow up with salespeople regularly to review their progress.

Developing a positive culture for your salespeople to work in is going to create teams that are more motivated to achieve. Not only does it help fuel their drive, but it makes work better for everyone, and ultimately increases your bottom line too!

• Encourage collaboration and open communication: Promote teamwork and knowledge sharing.
• Recognize wins: Celebrate successes and reward your top-performing people.
• Provide growth opportunities: Offer ongoing ways to broaden skills/knowledge, and career advancement opportunities.
• Value feedback: Encourage your people to give you their honest feedback, and actively listen to it.
• Use mistakes to improve: When setbacks happen, learn from them and then move forward.

Building an effective sales team for continued growth in a small business is a constant process. But by using these tips you can have a strong framework from the outset, and refine your own individualized approach over time to make your business thrive. At RS&I, we partner with small businesses all across the US to sell the best brands in wireless phone service, fiber internet, satellite TV/internet, and home automation technologies. If you’re an entrepreneur looking for reputable products to sell, get in contact with us today to learn about becoming one of our Authorized Dealers!