How to manage a sales team without unnecessary pressure?

As a manager, you are aware that the pressure felt by your sales team regarding sales targets can be difficult to manage, but you don't know how to deal with it?

Our General Manager Dominique Seguin gives you concrete ways to maintain high and motivating energy within your team, even when results are not up to par!

What are the sources of pressure within a sales team?

For a member of a sales team, sources of pressure can be of two main categories:

Internal sources:

Sales objectives
The expectations of the N+1 and the views of colleagues
The physical and mental state
The level of preparation
The level of subject matter expertise

External sources:

The customers
Prospects
The competitors
The market context

A key element: your mindset

A large part of the sources of pressure presented above come from the person's state of mind.

Therefore, a primary action to initiate as a manager to effectively lead a sales team is to focus more on successes and learn to celebrate and acknowledge the key milestones of your salespeople!

During your individual meetings with members of your sales team, focus more on the progress made and the improvements. While it is certainly necessary to highlight points of friction, also highlight the small daily victories!
If your salesperson has not had a conclusive proposal this week, look at the qualifications they have made; if their contacts do not answer the phone, highlight the incoming email from a prospect they received to start a new project.

One of the keys to success lies in your mindset!
When faced with an employee stuck in a less-than-positive mindset, question them, seek out what they are not saying, and focus on concrete actions to turn the situation around and reduce this source of pressure.

Your sales strategy as the guiding principle for your sales team.

Very often, discussions between managers and sales representatives revolve around the sales representative's results.

However, we cannot act on the results! The results are only the visible part of the iceberg. The aspects you can act on as a manager are the sales activities.

The Sales Action Plan plays a key role in managing your sales team. This plan guides your strategy and your sales team's actions, focusing on three core areas: direction of activity, quality of actions, and quantity of actions.

To learn more about building a high-performance Commercial Action Plan, watch our dedicated Webinar!

And to further improve your manager coach approach, discover our dedicated training.