Building a sales team is important for you as an entrepreneur. You put so much effort into product development, business development, marketing strategies, etc. However, if your business doesn’t generate sales, you can not succeed. So, you must build a sales team by hiring salespeople for different sales-related positions.

This article will describe seven important steps to build a sales team, and not any type of team, but a successful team.

Step 1: Define Your Sales Team Structure

The first step to build a successful sales team is clearly defining your sales team structure. This involves understanding your unique business model, growth trajectory, target market, and your products or services.

Now that you understand these elements, you can start building your sales team structure, paying special attention to the following elements of the structure:

Define Your Sales Team Positions and Roles

Like with any other function in your company, the sales function will also have different positions and roles for each position. You need to define the specific position within your sales team structure. Will you have sales managers, account executives, sales development representatives, or customer success managers?

Each role should have clear responsibilities that align with your overall sales strategy.

For example, the roles of the sales manager will be different from those of the account executives. The sales manager may be responsible for overall sales team management and strategy, while the account managers are more focused on closing deals with individual customers.

You can simply record each of these information inside a spreadsheet because, in the end, you really want to build a high-performing sales team, so you must clearly define every aspect of each sales position inside your company.

Identify Required Skills, Background, and Experience to Build Sales Team

It doesn’t matter what industry your business is in, you will always require specific skills from your sales teams. So, think about the skills that will align with your sales strategy. For example, you can define the following required sales skills: communication, negotiation, prospecting, relationship building, closing deals, and product knowledge.

Once you have identified the required skills, think about the background and experience that would be beneficial for your sales team members to possess. This could include past sales experience in a similar industry or with a specific product or service.

Also, you must consider the background and experience you will require for your sales professionals. Are you looking for individuals with extensive experience in your industry, or do you prefer those with a track record in sales but who can adapt to your market? Or will you build a sales team without experience but implement comprehensive sales team training?

In my experience, hiring a mix of seasoned professionals and fresh talent often brings innovative ideas while ensuring you have the expertise needed to navigate more complex sales scenarios. I have seen in many cases those without limitation of their previous background and experience can bring innovative ideas for improvement of sales process, sales approach, prospecting, etc.

However, sometimes, such a strategy for using an inexperienced sales team can be risky because you will spend time training your sales team that is not 100% sure that it will bring you the required results.

Again, continue to develop the same table where you have added positions and roles. Now, you will add an additional three columns for required sales skills, background, and experience.

Determine the Number of Salespeople

Now, when you have clarity on the skills needed, you must decide how many sales reps are necessary to meet your goals. This number will depend on factors such as your target market size and sales objectives.

For example, if your sales records show continuous growth in sales, and you are growing your business, you will include more salespeople to be part of your sales teams.

So, now you can add one more column for the number of salespeople inside your table.

Step 2: Develop a Sales Process

If you want to build a high-performing sales team, you must have a clear sales process in place. In such a way, if you have a brand new sales team they will quickly learn all the important steps they must conduct.

To develop an effective process, start by designing a repetitious framework that guides your prospects smoothly along the sales funnel.

Related: How to Build Sales Funnel Stages – Understanding The Anatomy Of Your Sales Process

Documenting your process is crucial because a sales playbook is a valuable tool when you are building a sales team because it can simplify your operations, detailing each step of the sales journey.

Read more about the steps of the sales process and B2B sales process so you can easily develop your unique process.

Step 3: Hire the Right Sales Reps

Now that you know what your sales will need, you can start hiring sales reps. But, before you start with hiring, you must develop your hiring process, including the qualities you will require.

Develop Your Hiring Process for Sales Teams

The hiring process for sales teams should be thorough and strategic. You want to make sure you are choosing the right individuals who will not only excel in their roles but also fit into your company culture.

For example, you can have the following steps in your process for hiring sales reps:

1. Recruitment methods such as job postings, social media, and referrals to attract a diverse pool of candidates.
2. Conduct initial phone or video interviews to narrow down your sales rep candidate list.
3. Invite top sales talent persons for in-person interviews where you can further assess their qualifications and fit for the position.
4. Assessments or tests to evaluate their sales skills and techniques.
5. Check references and background information to ensure the candidate has a successful track record in sales.
6. Make an offer to the chosen candidate and negotiate terms of employment.
7. Onboard the new sales rep and provide training on your company’s products, services, and sales strategies.
8. Regularly evaluate and provide feedback to ensure that the sales rep is meeting expectations and contributing to the growth of your business.

When it comes to hiring sales reps, it’s important to have a structured process in place. This not only ensures that you attract top talent but also helps you find individuals who will be a good fit for your company culture.

Define Qualities You Will Look For in the Hiring Process

You already have defined required skills for your sales professionals, still you can add additional qualities that will ensure your entire sales team will work in cohesion and help you achieve desired sales goals.

When it comes to building a successful sales team, identifying the qualities that matter most is really crucial. Having in mind the specifics of sales jobs, you can focus on qualities such as coachability, ambition, and collaboration.

For example, coachability will help you develop a team that can adapt to changing market trends and sales strategies. Ambition will drive your reps to reach challenging goals and exceed expectations, while collaboration will foster a cohesive and supportive team environment.

Also, you can not underestimate the competitiveness and entrepreneurial spirit, because such traits can help your sales leaders to improve the sales process. These characteristics are often indicative of top performers who won’t shy away from challenges.

Develop Sales Interview Questions

To ensure you select the most suitable candidates for your sales department, you can use targeted sales interview questions to assess their skills and abilities.

This approach helps you measure their experience and shows you how they think. You can prepare targeted sales interview questions like the following open questions:

1. Can you tell me about a time when you had to exceed sales targets or goals? How did you approach this challenge?
2. How do you handle rejection and objections from potential customers?
3. Have you ever faced a difficult client? How did you manage the situation and maintain a positive relationship with them?
4. In your opinion, what are the key qualities that make a successful salesperson?
5. Can you give me an example of how you have utilized social media in your previous sales roles to generate leads and close deals?
6. How do you prioritize your tasks and stay organized in a high-pressure sales environment?
7. Can you walk me through your experience with developing and maintaining long-term client relationships?

Ultimately, your goal is to hire candidates who will elevate your team and help you exceed your targets. By being intentional in your hiring process and focusing on the attributes that align with your company’s values, you set the stage for a high-performing sales team.

Remember, successful salespeople can make all the difference in achieving your business objectives. So, don’t underestimate these steps if you want to build a winning sales team.

Step 4: Onboard Your Sales Team

Now, at this step, it is the time to onboard your new sales reps. Here are some important aspects on the importance of ongoing training of a sales team:

Implement A Customer-Centric Approach For Success

Winning by Design explains that a business can achieve sustainable growth with remote sales. With proper training, your sales and marketing team can drive customer success by implementing a customer-centric approach.

Here are some customer-centric sales approaches your employees can learn in sales training:

• Using SaaS: One secret to attaining business success is the software as a service (SaaS) sales method. It involves impact-driven sales by creating an ongoing and sustainable relationship with customers. A training program in SaaS transforms your business because of a scientific approach, promoting conversations between marketing, sales, and the customer for a win-win situation.
• Valuing Net Promoter Scoring: Net promoter scores (NPS) measure customer satisfaction, wherein customers’ answers to NPS surveys would also determine your sales team’s performance. Training your sales team to understand the concepts and impacts of NPS will help reduce the churn rate.

Related: Unlocking the Secrets to Lead Generation: A Beginner’s Comprehensive Guide

Create A Strong Competitive Advantage   

Training your sales team for success gives your business a competitive advantage. Competitive advantage goes beyond the quality and prices of your offerings.

Your success also depends on how your team presents sales pitches, converses with customers, and encourages customers to continue using your products and services. Check out some effective ways on how to create a tremendous competitive advantage through sales training:

Define Your Sales And Marketing Tactics:

A business should sell value to its customers. How you distribute or promote value matters a lot in a competitive environment. Through sales training, your team will learn more effective tactics. For example, they will learn how to implement tactics, such as providing faster shipping and delivery, offering value at a lower price, and providing better service and product quality.

Set Activities For Each Tactic:

Your sales team will learn how to define the actionable steps for each tactic. Some examples include analyzing the product distribution channels, supply chain, and production process and eliminating those things that do not add value.

Know Your Competition:

Teach your sales team to analyze your major competitors’ offers and their sales and marketing tactics. This will give them an informed perspective to help them decide which course of action to take next.

Offer Books and Resources

Don’t underestimate the power of additional learning materials. Assign relevant books and resources to help your sales reps expand their knowledge and skills.

I often recommend specific sales literature that aligns with your training sessions. For example, after discussing negotiation tactics, I might suggest a popular book that outlines advanced strategies like The Ultimate Guide to Powerful Closing and Sales Negotiation Tactics that Unlock YES and Seal the Deal by Jeb Blount.

Step 5: Set Clear Goals and Expectations

To build a successful sales team, you must establish clear and easy-to-understand goals and priorities. When you set specific targets for your sales team, it provides them with a roadmap to follow, ensuring that everyone is on the same page and working towards common objectives.

Define Clear Expectations

When you build a sales team, you must provide clear expectations for your sales team members. Let them know what you expect in terms of performance, communication, and collaboration.

For example, you set the following expectations:

• A certain number of client meetings per week
• Follow-up on leads within a specified timeframe
• Consistent communication with team members and clients

By setting these expectations, you are holding your team accountable for their actions and ensuring they are working to achieve the set goals.

Set Realistic Sales Goals

It is important to set realistic goals for your sales team. Setting unattainable targets can lead to demotivation and frustration among team members. Instead, focus on setting achievable goals that challenge your team while also being attainable with hard work and dedication.

For example, you can set goals such as:

• Increase sales by 10% in the next quarter
• Obtain a certain number of new clients within a specified time period
• Improve customer retention rate by 5%

These goals should be measurable and have a specific timeline for completion. This will give your team something tangible to work towards and allow you to track their progress along the way.

When setting goals for your sales team, it is crucial to align them with the overall objectives and mission of your company.

When I worked with a service-based business, we implemented weekly sales meetings to assess progress against our goals. This rhythm not only kept the team motivated but also allowed us to pivot quickly if we noticed we were falling short.

Provide Necessary Resources

Lastly, ensure your sales team members have the resources they need to succeed. This includes access to training, tools, and support. Equipping your team with the right tools empowers them to reach their goals and excel in their roles.

Step 6: Monitor and Analyze Performance

To effectively monitor and analyze the performance of your sales reps, start by focusing on critical metrics.

Define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, are specific metrics that can be used to measure the success of your sales team.

Some common KPIs for sales teams include:

• Monthly/quarterly/annual sales revenue
• Actual sales regarding sales goals
• Number of new leads generated
• Conversion rate from lead to customer
• Average deal size
• Sales cycle length

Track Sales Activities and Engagement

In addition to overall performance metrics, it’s important to track sales activities and engagement. This includes tracking the number of calls made, emails sent, meetings scheduled, and demos given.

Comparing achieved performance through KPIs with sales activities and engagement, you can easily correlate specific activities with higher and lower results. In such a way, you can, for example, learn that calling 5 times customers in one month negatively impacts customer response. So, you can now change your sales processes to ensure you will contact them on an optimal level.

Tracking these activities also lets you gain insight into how your sales reps spend their time and identify areas for improvement or optimization.

Step 7: Encourage a Culture of Engagement

An effective sales team requires a strong culture of engagement. When your employees feel valued and connected to their team, they are more likely to succeed.

Start by fostering an environment that supports empathy, curiosity, and persistence. This means that sales leaders and managers must actively listen to their sales team’s concerns and be open to their ideas.

Prioritize Team Connection

To improve employee engagement, prioritize building strong connections among your sales team members. You can create different opportunities for collaboration and teamwork, such as group projects or team-building activities.

Positive Work Environment in the Sales Department

A positive and supportive team culture is crucial for employee engagement. Make it a point to celebrate successes—big or small. Recognizing individual and team achievements can significantly increase morale.