As a leader, how many times have you found yourself without the time or energy to coach? The result of this can be not only a temporary dip in performance, but can lead to a sales team that lacks direction, and ambition.

Coaching a team of individuals is hard work. Each person has a different personality, different motivating factors, and different workstyles. So, what can you do differently to make sure each person on your team is achieving the best outcome they can? We have accumulated the 5 best coaching methods to effectively deal with a remote and field sales team.

1. Implementing the Processes

Implementing appropriate policies and procedures are the most critical thing you can do when dealing with a remote sales team. Structure and best practices should be clearly defined throughout the entire sales process, so that everyone on your team knows exactly what is expected of them each step of the way – from scheduling an initial demo to closing the deal and on-boarding the client.

How do you get your sales team to follow the procedures?

Make sure your procedure documents are well organized and accessible to everyone on your team. Encourage everyone to read through them and show them, that by using the tools you have provided, they will not only save time, but increase their chances of success. Also, encourage feedback and implement the good ideas that come from the team!

Encouraging Accountability

Utilize Salesforce to its max! Make sure each team member updates their accounts, sets follow up appointments, and accurately tracks progress so that nothing falls through the cracks. Also, you, as the coach, should regularly pull reports and ask team members about both their wins and failures to see what procedures are working and what may need to be revisited. Remember, diligence = success. 

2. Sales Activities: Manage Now

The best team leaders keep a close eye on what their team is doing each step of the way. This is even more important with a remote team, where you are not physically present to see what your team is chipping away at, or mentor them 1:1.

Overseeing Time Usage

It is important that your sales team uses their time wisely and invests their energy on prospects that will yield the greatest results. This means, knowing when to say no and walk away from a lead that has a low likelihood of success.

Utilize a time-tracking tool such as Tool Doctor to monitor the activities that your sales team is spending the most time on and discuss with them on an as needed basis. Time Doctor will also allow you to set up steady work hours for your remote team.

Improving CRM Adoption

Utilizing your CRM will help you see what your sales people are up to but will also help them see what is working and what is not. Utilizing a CRM system will virtually eliminate the need for manual entry, and can also pull data from Office 365, Twitter, etc., to give your team a total record of email and social discussions.

3. Build Trust

Trust is something that happens over time, and typically takes longer to build with a remote staff than one that is together in a physical office.

Teamwork

A team that does not believe in each other is probably not going to team up or help one another. As the lead, you should find a way to advance and encourage collaborations among your remote sales force. You can do this by identifying each individuals’ strengths and weaknesses and pairing them with someone on the opposite side of the spectrum. Better yet, ask individuals to identify their own strengths and weaknesses and identify the areas they need help with. This will give people 1) a reason to work together, 2) learn from someone who has mastered the skill, and 3) help someone improve on a skill that they have already mastered.

In addition, you should urge colleagues to get in the habit of talking with one another. Utilize video chat through Skype or Slack, instead of always forwarding emails back and forth. Fundamentals such as these go a far way toward building trust and lessening communication barriers.

Convey Internal Communication Tools

Utilize an internal content hub such as Smarp, which allows team members to share relevant content and improves employee engagement. Employees can also share industry content with prospects, as well as grow their thought leadership and credibility.

4. Promote Employee Engagement

Make sure your employees are engaged, connected, and feel valued within the team and organization.

Diminish Frustrations

Make it simpler for your team to carry out their responsibilities. For example, one of the most important, yet most disliked tasks sales people are faced with is prospecting. You could consider hiring a group of novice sales people to prospect and set up meetings that are then passed to the more successful closer. You could also utilize a tool such as Interseller, which can mine for prospects and find their email. It won’t do all the legwork for you; however, it will save at least 20% of their time – and time is money.

Offer Accomplishments and Provide Support

Hold regular video calls to share achievements! Discuss how somebody closed a big account and what strategy they used to convert a hesitant prospect. Humans naturally draw inspiration from others, so the more you share achievements, the more enthused everyone will be. Gatherings like this will not only boost morale but will create framework on how to overcome complex deals or difficult situations. Create an environment that encourages communication, collaboration, and teamwork.

The Water-Cooler

Encourage non-work-related discussions via email or Slack. For example, a bracket for March Madness, posting ugly sweater pictures for the holidays, etc.

Hold Meetups

Just because the team is remote doesn’t mean you should never see each other! Hold quarterly meet-ups or yearly social gatherings. These are invaluable for building connections and a sense of comradery among your team.

5. Set Clear Expectations

Communication can be challenging in a traditional work environment but is even more challenging when everyone is working remotely. Set clear expectations with everyone on your team to limit miscommunication as much as possible and assign who does what within each step in the sales process. If the main method of communication is email, you can utilize Dragapp to organize emails and manage tasks automatically within the sales process.