Kestio

Webinar

Managing a sales team in the current context

Fabien Comtet, CEO of Kestio

Hosted by Fabien Comtet,

CEO of Kestio

 

A complicated context for managing a sales team

Since the beginning of the COVID crisis it has been difficult to manage a sales team, to know how to allocate their efforts.

Indeed, customers are less available, harder to reach, they have other priorities.

Salespeople are therefore faced with a feeling of powerlessness or even uselessness.

Managing your sales team therefore also means facing these questions: 

  • "This is not the time to sell
  • "We're disturbing"
  • "Let's wait until it gets better".

Our keys to managing a sales team

Here are our recommendations for managing a sales team in these complicated times.

Mindset and focus

To manage a team well in these difficult times, you have to focus on the possible, even if it is small.

As a manager, we have to take responsibility for the messages we convey to those around us. We must also be aware that saying or doing nothing is also a form of communication.

It is essential to stimulate and manage a sales team to create regular collective meeting points to share and inspire.

The rationale

In order to be able to manage a sales team at its best, it is essential to refocus on the fundamental role of the company.

It may therefore be worth asking the following questions: 

  • if the company were a non-profit company, what would its purpose be? 
  • what does the company bring to its customers? 

It is essential to assert the fundamental role of one's company in such a context.

 
The expertise and added value of a company does not change, whatever the context. The way it is offered and delivered probably has to change.
 
It is possible to change the axes of movement without changing its purpose:
  • the support and service phase: further upstream, more in the reflection phase, study
  • the intervention channel: digital, video, telephone
  • the types of products supplied: products of greater need
  • customer targets: customers with the capacity to buy or who are more quickly resilient

The micro and the macro

Macro information affects us, but all the levers are at the micro level. 

Differences and variety

To manage a sales team and make the right decisions regarding the reorientation of sales efforts in the current context.

It is essential to carry out a review of the client portfolio by cross-referencing with the sectors to assess risks and rebound paths.

This means identifying the criteria for stability and resilience to assess each client: financial strength, customer base, seasonality, deliverable service or product in the current circumstances.

The multitude of possibilities for action

In order to optimise the sales force in these complicated times, it is important not to forget any interaction channel: telephone conversations, video meetings, webinars, chat, social networks, advice emails.

To go further, you can dig deeper with an article on the engagement of salespeople outside the compensation lever, as well as an article on management to optimise the performance of sales teams.

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