{"id":1347,"date":"2007-12-20T10:11:28","date_gmt":"2007-12-20T16:11:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/12\/managing-a-remote-salesforce\/"},"modified":"2007-12-19T19:40:14","modified_gmt":"2007-12-20T01:40:14","slug":"managing-a-remote-salesforce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/12\/managing-a-remote-salesforce\/","title":{"rendered":"Managing A Remote Salesforce"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We talk about this topic at length because it is more than a trend.\u00a0 ManageSmarter.com&#8217;s <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.managesmarter.com\/msg\/content_display\/publications\/e3i6d1121114462c396480e98dbc2e95717\">Long-Distance Teambuilding<\/a> addresses this topic in a real-world manner:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Sellers by nature like to be in a team environment\u2014they want a high-five and a talk around the water cooler,&#8221; says Cowitt, vice president of national advertising sales for Freedom Interactive, the Internet division of Freedom Communications, a media company in Irvine, Calif. So Cowitt implemented a daily phone call, which lasts about 15 minutes, to allow salespeople to exchange ideas, successes and challenges.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That is the right approach.\u00a0 We initiated a weekly conference call earlier this year with one of our customers with whom we are placing salespeople around the Western US.\u00a0 We had multiple salespeople onramping around the same time so we had to develop a sense of team amongst a group who had never met each other.<\/p>\n<p>The military often discusses and incorporates <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Force_multiplier\">force multipliers<\/a> and that approach is going to be a required tool for any sales manager in today&#8217;s market.\u00a0 Technological tools are affordable and instant.\u00a0 Managing remote salespeople is a daunting task that requires a different skill set in comparison to managing in an office environment.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>At first, to generate conversation, he asked salespeople to come prepared with discussion points, such as a summary of a particular category. But eventually the talks became more organic.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Perfect.\u00a0 &#8220;Organic&#8221; talks are the sign of community and something we experienced first hand in our national conference calls.\u00a0 The first calls were quiet, measured and strictly on topic.\u00a0 However, after a month the discussions became livelier, cross talk developed and the ultimate sign occurred &#8211; the salespeople started razzing each other.<\/p>\n<p>Along the way, the salespeople started discussing national accounts that crossed over territories and they shared marketing messages, sales techniques and voicemail approaches.\u00a0 As a sales manager, what more could you ask for?<\/p>\n<p>Well, sales I suppose.\u00a0 And they did.\u00a0 In fact, they closed business at a faster rate than any previous salespeople in the company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We talk about this topic at length because it is more than a trend.\u00a0 ManageSmarter.com&#8217;s Long-Distance Teambuilding addresses this topic in a real-world manner: &#8220;Sellers by nature like to be in a team environment\u2014they want a high-five and a talk around the water cooler,&#8221; says Cowitt, vice president of national advertising sales for Freedom Interactive, the Internet division of Freedom Communications, a media company in Irvine, Calif. So Cowitt implemented a daily phone call, which lasts about 15 minutes, to allow salespeople to exchange ideas, successes and challenges. That is the right approach.\u00a0 We initiated a weekly conference call earlier this year with one of our customers with whom we&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/12\/managing-a-remote-salesforce\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14,4,5],"tags":[156,157,1750,158],"class_list":["post-1347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communication","category-sales-management","category-trends","tag-remote-sales","tag-remote-sales-team","tag-sales-management","tag-sales-management-trend"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-lJ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1614,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/06\/gas-prices-and-work-trends\/","url_meta":{"origin":1347,"position":0},"title":"Gas Prices And Work Trends","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 12, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Gas prices are driving companies to adjust their reimbursement policy for outside salespeople.\u00a0 We have seen a handful of salespeople who have taken a real hit due to the fact they are on a monthly car allowance and not mileage reimbursement. Telecommuting is already grabbing a larger foothold in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Team Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Team Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/team-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1554,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/05\/managing-remote-relationships\/","url_meta":{"origin":1347,"position":1},"title":"Managing Remote Relationships","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"May 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The management landscape is changing drastically as more salespeople move to remote\/home offices within their territory.\u00a0 Yet, many aspects of sales seems to be moving more towards relationship-based sales.\u00a0 Yes, relationships have always been a key part of selling, but it seems to be the greater piece today.\u00a0 Information flows\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Communication&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Communication","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/communication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":956,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/05\/sales-requires-mobility\/","url_meta":{"origin":1347,"position":2},"title":"Sales Requires Mobility","author":"Lee Fratzke","date":"May 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"What is your company doing to accommodate remote employees? That question is becoming more common in each subsequent interview I run with our customers. Sales has always been an \"outside-the-walls\" position, but now that truth is being taken to new levels. From Managesmarter.com's Get Competitive, Get Mobile (added emphasis): The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2478,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2011\/03\/conventional-wisdom-about-sales-managers\/","url_meta":{"origin":1347,"position":3},"title":"Conventional Wisdom About Sales Managers","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"March 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is an article from Eye on Sales that addresses a common sales management topic \u2013 should you promote your top salesperson into the sales manager role?\u00a0 I would argue that the conventional wisdom is to avoid making this mistake. From the article: Sales management mistake #1: Promoting top performers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Assessing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Assessing","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/assessing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1490,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/03\/the-essence-of-sales-management\/","url_meta":{"origin":1347,"position":4},"title":"The Essence of Sales Management","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"March 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a tough topic because there isn't a cookie-cutter sales manager template that fits for all companies.\u00a0 Our experience has been that smaller-sized companies tend to expect the sales manager to carry a significant quota while larger companies expect the sales manager to manage without carrying a personal quota.\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Onramping&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Onramping","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/onramping\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1999,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2009\/04\/chaotic-freedom-in-sales\/","url_meta":{"origin":1347,"position":5},"title":"Chaotic Freedom In Sales","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"April 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I read this line from an sales employment ad this morning: Reps are NOT restricted by territory. The unrestricted territory seems innocuous enough\u2026maybe even valuable.\u00a0 It usually isn\u2019t.\u00a0 As a salesperson, I would read this ad with some skepticism in that the company may be trying to add salespeople without\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Employment Ads&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Employment Ads","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/employment-ads\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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