It doesn’t matter how many people you have in your team, it’s only effective management that’s going to keep it on track. You need everyone working well so that your business can drive forward. Collaboration and communication is necessary for this to work but if you want to be a successful team leader, then you can bet you need to put in more effort – as much as humanly possible.
You need to be able to support your team, right? Well, field teams are a little different. Treating your field team like a remote working team is vital to success. You won’t be micromanaging anyone and yet with the right field service software, you can ensure that those out there and making the sales are able to do so effectively. People want to go to work, do great at their jobs and gain that satisfaction and it comes down to your management to make that happen. Whether you have three people or three hundred working in the girls, you have to work both your feedback and software together to ensure effective leadership. Let’s take a look at some of the tips to effectively manage your field team:
- Start with your current communication strategies. As we said at the beginning of this article, communication is the first and most important strategy that you need to hone. You have to ensure that you are able to be an effective communicator in your team and you don’t want your reps left in the dark, right? The better you communicate expectations on the job and what software you have, the happier your team will be. They should be able to come to you with any issues and you shouldn’t feel that any communication is futile or not well-received. If you worry about this, ask your team how they can be communicated with and they’ll happily tell you!
- Never hold back on feedback. When you can’t see people working in an office, it becomes really difficult to determine whether they are happy. A good strategy for happiness in your team is to offer everyone regular feedback. Sure, not all feedback is going to be positive, but it’s going to be constructive and necessary for them to do a better job than they did before. Plus, there is not one person out there who doesn’t want to hear that they’re doing a good job. Feedback can be delivered in so many ways and you should be giving that feedback while also openly asking for other feedback. You have to know how you’re doing as a leader, too, and your team will be more than willing to provide you with that. It’s going to be a tough pill to swallow if people give you poor feedback, but it’s worth it to be able to improve.
- Lean into the project management tools that are available to you. There are tools that work for every business type and it’s so important that you manage your tools effectively, too. Organization is going to help you to manage a sales team successfully because you’ll be able to get a system in place that runs well. You want to ensure that collaboration between all of your team members is easy, too, and with the help of technology, you can simplify the experience and allow everyone to reach their productivity targets, too.
- Research your software properly. If you’re looking at better field service software, good for you. It means that you see the benefits of technology in your sales team. You want to ensure that you spend the right amount of time researching your software, however, as not all systems are created equal. If you ensure that your reps have the right software, they can be more effective and much better at their jobs. Good software makes their experience of their role easier and it also helps to avoid frustration that occurs within their roles. With the right tools in place, everyone has an easier job!
- Consider how you hire. Are you hiring people that are right for sales roles? You should be able to feel confident that the people working your roles in the field are competent and able to do their jobs. Sales roles are not for everyone, and you’ll know from the interview stage of the jobs whether you are hiring the right people or not. Without the right team, your business cannot grow effectively and whether you are working in the same office or you are working remotely, you need to be able to foster positive relationships within your team for it all to go well!
- Keep up with training. You have to think about how you can encourage improvement best and training is the way to do it. People need to feel empowered in their roles and with professional development, they can do exactly that! Providing sales-specific knowledge will help and if you don’t know it yourself, then hire an external company to help. You want to ensure that your team can refine their selling techniques and hit their targets. The best option for the improvement of your team and their jobs is to train, train, train!
- Keep those rewards coming. Everyone wants to be recognised and rewarded for their work. When you are managing a successful sales team, you are going to see a lot of people pushing their own goals to work harder. People respond to positivity and not negativity and while you may want to give negative feedback from time to time, keep those rewards coming! If you stop giving back to your team, they won’t work as hard for you because no one wants to push and push for minimum recognition. It doesn’t all come down to salary, of course, but it’s what you want to ensure that you have up your sleeve to manage your people well.
Empowering your team gets the job done. Take the time to use these tips to show the team you care enough!