How to effectively manage sales employees at different locations

To effectively manage sales employees at different locations, you have to follow appropriate technology and methodology.

If you are running a business, then your sales team is the heart of your business which has to be always working properly for the good health of your business. A small break in the sales operation can damage your entire business structure. However, if you have your sales employees working at different locations, then this process becomes more difficult for you as you can’t physically oversee the functioning of your every sales employ working remotely.

Now, what?

Well, there’s no doubt that in the modern work culture of remote working has raised the challenge of physical interaction between manager and employees. This can further create the issue of a managerial gap within different sales teams which are working on separate geographical locations. However, today in the technology-oriented world nothing is impossible to achieve.

Yep, by using the few tips, one can effectively manage sales employees at a different location. Just follow these seven wonderful tips and manage your sales teams effectively.

Centralized Work Culture

Okay, so one of the first steps that can be adopted by you to manage your remotely working sales employees would be creating a centralized process across all your business locations. You have to make sure that the same training and instructions are provided to your all employees. It is important to have similar employees handbook to establish a similar work culture across the board. To establish the centralized work culture, you can use tools of technology in your advantage also like you can use mobile apps to connect with your remote teams.

If you fail to create the same work culture for your all sales employees, then this will generate several different autonomous sales unit for you which aren’t in sync with each other. But, if you implement a similar work pattern, then you can effortlessly undertake sales operations on different locations without worrying about any mishap.

Create an Accessible Environment

This is the question raised by most of the managers that how can they track their employee's movements and know what are they up to currently. It is still very important for managers to access the work culture of their sales employees to evaluate their performance.

Now, thanks to the real-time collaboration tools like TrackOlap managing remote teams have never been easier. This tool enables companies to ensure the satisfactory completion of jobs while monitoring the behavior of employees in real time. If you provide the Employees Tracking app of TrackOlap to your sales employees, then they log in to it when they are working and you can view an entire geographic history of your employees with real-time feed on the map.

The dynamic tools offered by TrackOlap can help you in creating the accessible work environment and establish a solid two-way communication channel at cheaper rates also. Now, it is very convenient for managers to stay in contact with their employees and discuss their project progress in real time. Managers should also try to schedule weekly online meetings with their remotely working employees to understand their requirements.

Design a Remote Management Center

To manage sales employees at different locations, you must have to establish a remote data centers. In lieu to make your remote data center, you required fast bandwidth, quality equipment, regular maintenance of your data and so much more.

Performing all these things will add extra burden on your business costs. Apart from the basic setup cost, you have to constantly update the technology as it can shortly become obsolete. This makes the process of remote working more ineffective for businesses. In this, the services offered by the collocation SAAS based sales improvment tools like TrackOlap are the best as they offer numerous benefits such as :

You can save lots of money by using the SAAS based solutions.
These services offer high powered input with regular and uninterrupted service.
You get the support of the largest IP in the world which is adequate enough to handle the bandwidth from any location and that’s without disturbing the process.
They offer support of multiple security layers to make sure that your data stays protected.
No need to manage a team of software developers or infrastrucuture.
Always have access to latest features.

Once you have taken the support of TrackOlap services, then you can leave the worry of maintaining the data center behind and focus solely on your sales employees. That’s because, by outsourcing, you can appoint versatile and professional sales employees which aren’t possible with traditional methods.

Set Goals

If you want to micromanage every task of your remote working employees, then this is eventually going to slow down the workflow for you. Thus, instead of monitoring every activity of your employees, you should set goals for them and give them full leverage to complete the given goals as they please within the time frame. You should avoid interfering with their methods of working, but if you found that your predetermined goals are not coming along, then you should immediately intervene and find the solution.

You can use calendars, excel sheets and other software to provide your goals information to your team and even send reminders to them. This practice will create an environment of trust and responsibility among your sales employees working at different locations and makes the management process simple.

Delegate Work

Responsibility of managing or supervising should be delegated to one employ on the basis of his capabilities. This way one manager won’t have to perform all the duties of managing different employees remotely. Employees can easily report to them and they can report back to you. This way your remote sales employees will have the support and supervision all the time.

Your appointed managers can be helpful in acquiring new projects, developing solid communication channels and can provide new innovative ideas. By delegating the work to the right person you can improve the performance, efficiency, and productivity of your sales team. The process of delegating responsibility can become more effective with the help of automatic tools which will automatically delegate responsibility to your team mates.

Be Considerate to Local Standards

If your sales employees are scattered all over the globe, then you have to be considerate towards the local standards as well. Like you should set working hours according to the time differences, consider local languages and let go accent problems of your employees. You can use digital tools to understand the time difference and translate different languages like Google Translator etc.,

Moreover, you have to consider the local culture and holidays so that you can give off to your employees on their special days. And, you can’t overlook the local labor laws, employment regulations and much more. Overall, you have to be considerate towards the needs of your employees if you want them to work efficiently.

Use Staff Scheduling Software

Staff scheduling software is very useful for any organization. These tools help all employees working in sync no matter where they are present. One can customize the staff scheduling software according to their business requirements and select different plans as well. TrackOlap has the ability to design the staff scheduling software as per the requirements of a company. Most of the software will only highlight the scheduling conflicts, whereas, managers have to quickly resolve them after receiving the accurate data from the software.

Establish a Bond

If your team is working at another location, then it doesn’t mean that you can’t establish a bond with them. You should try to discuss their family, commonalities, and beliefs to make a bond with your remotely working employees. Using tools, documents, and spreadsheets, you can manage your employees, but if you want to win their trust, then you have to bond with them. Show you are supportive of their success by using inquiry to help them achieve their goals rather than a check on their progress and numbers. With the help of video conferencing tools and texting mobile apps, you can easily stay connected with your employees.

Conclusion

The process of effectively managing sales employees at different locations might be a bit tricky job, but if proper technology system is adopted, then companies can easily develop the employees efficient system. The remotely working system opens up lots of new opportunities for the companies and lets them explore the new business territories. Moreover, talent and skills have drawn from remote sales employees can be very helpful for the business.

So, when you are establishing a remotely working sales team, then make sure to design infrastructure and adopt technology approach to create employees efficiency system. Otherwise, you might not be able to see the expected growth.