Working remotely has become the new normal, but it isn’t a recent phenomenon. Ever since 2005, the percentage of remote work has increased by 173 percent – all thanks to easy access to the internet.

That said, although, working remotely has become easier than ever in the past decade, managing work remotely is quite not there yet. And, it gets, even more, trickier when you are managing a sales team, that too as a newly appointed manager.

Well, what to do in that case? How do you make your sales team thrive without micromanaging them?

Here are a few strategies that can help you out in this venture.

Have a Process in Place!

Having a clear and well-laid-out process should be your priority as a manager.

Lack of a clear process can often lead to unsaid expectations, which can cause a lot of friction in your team.

So, make sure you are clear about what needs to be done and how it is to be done. To do so, make sure you document every expectation you have from your team and share it with them beforehand.

Take out time to draft every task yourself. Mention every single detail carefully – whether it is about the sales quote or even the time of reporting, ensure you miss nothing.

Once you send this document to your team, get on a video call with them to make them understand every single point. Be clear while enlisting every single point. The goal here is to have no confusion among the team members in terms of deliverables.

Hire Experienced Professionals

Hire professionals that have had previous experience of working in a remote situation. That way, it will be easier for you to manage them.

There can be a case where you come across a professional who is great at their job but hasn’t worked remotely yet. In such cases, ensure that the professional has the right motivation behind working remotely.

Remember, you are only as good as your worst sales rep! So, see to it that you have a team of professionals that not only understand the remote work environment but can also adapt to it in a blink of an eye.

Be Readily Available for Your Team

There is nothing more motivating than a manager who pushes his team, is always available to solve queries, and has clarity on where the team is heading.

Believe me; having you just a call away can make all the difference for your team. So make you are available to hop on a video call to discuss expectations and provide a detailed report to each employee about their specific tasks, whenever necessary.

Invest in Cloud-Based Software

Cloud-based software helps your teamwork, collaboration, and communication, wherever they need and on whatever device they are on.

The software you can use for this purpose are:

• Cloud-Based Storage such as OneDrive and Dropbox make accessing organizational, marketing, and sales data easy for your team.
• Cloud Communication like slack and teams that facilitate easy collaboration.
• A cloud CRM software like Kylas can help your sales team work efficiently from home with all the data they need.

Don’t Micro-Manage

Micromanaging your sales team, while they are working remotely, can sabotage their productivity.

If you already have pre-define benchmarks and processes in place, all you need to do is have a little more faith in your team.

And, even after that, if you feel that there is a need to monitor, you can simply use a CRM to keep track of what your team is doing in order to achieve its sales goals.

CRM you can use:

• If you are a small or medium-scale business, you can use Kylas. It is a great, easy-to-use, budget-friendly CRM software that can maximize your sales efforts.
• If you are an enterprise, then software like salesforce or Freshworks can work for you that deals with that kind of data.

And, that is all about it!

I hope you found that fruitful. Lastly, I just want to say that take your time training your team for a remote environment. Trust me, once you do, there will be nothing stopping you!