{"id":5865,"date":"2024-01-25T11:21:02","date_gmt":"2024-01-25T11:21:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.klenty.com\/blog\/?p=5865"},"modified":"2025-11-28T05:17:05","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T05:17:05","slug":"how-to-manage-a-remote-sales-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.klenty.com\/blog\/how-to-manage-a-remote-sales-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Powerful 5-Step Framework on How To Manage Your Remote Sales Team"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Every sales team has one decisive goal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earn revenue.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s all fine and dandy as a sales manager when you\u2019re all in the same location next to each other and you can rely on face-to-face interaction to take leads down the funnel and close deals.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what if circumstances dictate that your team needs to go remote?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With people no longer in the same building\u2026.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Communication goes for a toss.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your team starts to feel isolated, deprived of all the random hallway \u2018Hi\u2019s and watercooler moments that lay the groundwork for healthy camaraderie.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trust that you had in each other and the team spirit that you painstakingly built..<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With people far away and scattered, all that\u2019s starting to wilt.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if it starts to tell on your numbers, you can’t even sit next to your team and have a mature discussion on what\u2019s going on.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In such drastically changed circumstances, how do you, as a manager, ensure that your remote sales team hits its weekly and monthly sales targets?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fret not, companies such as Automattic, Buffer, Arkency, and Gitlab have been at the remote game with considerable success.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And you can do the same.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end of this blog, you’ll be acquainted with the 5 must-have ingredients of managing a remote sales team that will ensure that you not just survive but thrive as a distributed team.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Do You Manage a Sales Team Remotely?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

From the get-go, set employee expectations regarding online work. This will help you and your employees draw boundaries and balance your personal and professional life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, prioritize what kind of KPIs you want to track since you won’t be able to physically check in with employees. To track their progress towards goals, while the usual KPIs are still relevant, for a remote team, you also need to keep an eye on their ownership of tasks, accountability, self-discipline, adaptability to digital workflows, and collaboration with other team members. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, run virtual team-building activities that open the channels of communication across hierarchies. To foster a good organizational culture and strengthen relationships within the team, you could try out fun games like “Never Have I Ever,” “Show and Tell,” and “How Well Do You Know Me” are some of the virtual team-building games you can try out. You can also incorporate ideas from corporate team-building experiences<\/a> to keep remote teams engaged and connected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Practices To Manage a Remote Sales Team<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

1. Set Up Processes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Great sales is an outcome of having great processes in place. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sales process will ensure that you have a well-defined and repeatable group of activities that you can perform to reach a certain target like the number of deals closed, $ value generated, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When working remotely having a good process in place is really important because the team is scattered and out of sight.

Having an effective and repeatable process in place will ensure that salespeople need to follow the exact same process and get the same intended outcomes without you being able to guide them face to face. You can also make use of workflow software<\/a> that empowers your team to work more efficiently while minimizing error. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, how do you set these processes? <\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span>Following these points will help you set a good process in place for your remote sales team to be successful.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

a) Maintaining Records in the CRM<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In a remote e<\/span>nvironment, it is more critical than ever to maintain a record of all sales activities such as the number of active accounts, deal size,  deal source, deal closures, and follow-ups in a suitable CRM. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being steadfast in logging activities in CRM becomes indispensable since<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n