Exciting news! You’re taking over an existing sales team. You’re feeling optimistic and ready for the challenge. But what are the best practices that will help you and your team succeed?
Whether you’ve been brought on board to turn around an underperforming sales team or you’re moving due to a reorganization, this is your opportunity to make an impact.
You may be new to the company, new to the sales leader role, or joining the team from another division or region. In any case, there’s a lot to learn.
Use these seven tips to make your transition as smooth as possible, start off on the right foot, and get the best results for your organization.
1. Understand Responsibilities and Goals as a Sales Manager
The first thing you must do as the newly appointed sales leader or sales manager is understand exactly what is expected of you. The responsibilities of the role were likely outlined before you took the position, but it’s important to get clear on both the sales goals and management objectives of those you report to.
What are the numbers you need the sales team to hit? What sort of changes are the leaders of the organization counting on you to make? Are there issues you should address or conflicts to resolve?
Meet with company leadership, your manager, and the members of your team, both individually and as a group, to get key performance indicators (KPIs) and the inside scoop on this information. Use your emotional intelligence to read between the lines if needed. Then you can start planning around these goals.
2. Set Expectations with Your Sales Team Early On
Define expectations and behavioral norms with your new sales team right away. If you’re not intentional about this from the beginning, your team will set the standards or fall back on old habits—which may or may not be a good thing.
You’ll want to communicate standards for sales process adherence, sales productivity, CRM compliance, reporting, meetings, and more.
Set a regular cadence for holding sales team meetings as well as one-on-ones with each sales professional. For example, you might have your sales team meet as a group (in person or virtually) every Monday at 1:30, and schedule recurring one-on-ones with each team member individually.
Structure your huddles and use a sales meeting agenda to make the best use of the time and keep your team engaged and on track.
3. Gather Input from Your Sales Professionals
Your sales professionals are a great resource for you as you navigate your new role. Tap into their knowledge about processes, people, and products with these questions:
- What are their biggest challenges?
- Which systems, procedures, and approaches seem to be working well?
- What kind of resources would help them perform better?
Remember, the sales professionals you’re now leading may have more industry experience than you. Seasoned team members will be much more receptive to coaching from a new sales leader if you’ve asked them to share their insights and expertise.
4. Understand What Makes Each Team Member Tick
To motivate and influence the members of your new team so you can improve their performance, you need to understand them on a human level. Get to know each sales professional’s style, likes, dislikes, and driving forces—beyond just learning what they like to do on the weekends.
If you aren’t new to the sales leader role, you know you need to understand the behavior style, motivators, and communication preferences of each of your team members to be an effective coach. New sales managers may need to get up to speed on the benefits of using sales assessments to “look under the hood” and see what makes each of your people tick.
This knowledge will allow you to adapt coaching and development to match team member preferences, speak to them in a way that hits home, and drive them to act.
5. Implement a Consistent Sales Process
Depending on the situation you’ve walked into, your sales team may or may not adhere to a sales process. Perhaps they are using some sort of steps, but the execution isn’t as effective as it could be or the methodology isn’t aligned with what your market demands.
A sales process is an organization’s standard approach to closing deals. It’s a series of repeatable steps to move a prospect from the early stage of awareness to a sale. Here at The Brooks Group, we recommend a six-step process known as IMPACT Selling®.
Changing sales leadership is an excellent time to start fresh and train the sales team in a common sales process. Following a new process under new leadership will clarify objectives and best practices, align your team, streamline communication, and lead to higher performance.
6. Evaluate Your Sales Hiring and Onboarding Process
As you build and develop your new team, you’ll want to bring on new hires who can perform at high levels—and onboard them correctly.
Review the team’s current hiring and onboarding process to see if it meets your expectations. Before you begin hiring, make sure onboarding programs are built to allow new hires to be successful as quickly as possible. Take a look at Successful Onboarding for Sales Professionals in 2024 to get tips to improve your process.
Then define the skills and qualities each candidate needs to succeed in your open roles. It will be much easier to find the right new hires once you’ve defined the position benchmarks of your ideal candidate profile.
Job benchmarking takes the guesswork out of hiring by identifying exactly what a position requires so you can compare candidates to that profile. When creating a job benchmark, keep in mind both what the job requires today and what it will require in the future.
7. Apply What’s Worked in the Past
You were chosen to lead your organization’s sales team for a reason. Take the lessons you’ve learned over your career—from organizational skills to processes and procedures, to the way you connect with salespeople on an individual level—and apply those best practices with your new team.
At the same time, keep a growth mindset and commit to continually improving your leadership skill set.
Managing a New Sales Team
The Brooks Group is here to help you navigate the challenges that come with sales leadership. Find out more about our Sales Leadership Accelerator, a comprehensive sales manager training program that will equip you with practical sales leadership skills, strategies, and insight.
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