How Much Freedom Should You Give Your Sales Team?

Imagine training for the Olympics like those gymnasts who start practicing at a young age. Just like them, learning how to balance sales freedom is like mastering that tricky balancing beam.
Give your sales team too much freedom, and you might lose out on sales. Take away too much, and they might rebel. It’s a tough line to walk!
As a sales manager, you don’t have the luxury of spending ages learning how to find that balance. Today, let’s talk about how you can figure out which team members can handle freedom and who might need more guidance.

New Hires:

When someone’s new to the team, keep an eye on their work. Make sure they’re meeting their daily sales goals. Once they’ve proven themselves, then you can start giving them a bit more freedom.

Experienced Sellers

If you have a team member who’s really good at their job, don’t try to control every little thing they do. Being too involved might upset someone who’s constantly hitting their sales targets. In this case, they should get more freedom.

In-Between Folks

For everyone else, here’s the deal: if you’re not making many sales, you might get less freedom. But if you suddenly start keeping tabs on someone’s work without a good reason, your team might think you’re micromanaging.

How to Measure Freedom:

Keep an eye on everyone’s activity. It’s important to track what your team is doing because it helps you understand if they’re reaching their sales targets or not.
Here’s another way to look at it: Tracking helps your team perform better, which means more revenue for the company. It’s a win for everyone!
If you want to introduce a new way of tracking activities to your team, make it sound positive:
– Instead of just focusing on the salespeople, track the potential customers in the sales process. Show how many potential sales are out there waiting to be tapped into. This way, your team might see tracking as a helpful tool.
– When someone’s not doing well, tracking their work can help them see what worked before. Together, you can figure out a plan to reach realistic sales goals. That way, your team sees tracking as support, not as something negative.
Keeping an eye on your sales team’s activities from the start helps you see who’s doing well and who might need some more guidance. This way, you won’t spend time and resources on people who aren’t performing, and you can reward your top sellers with the freedom they’ve earned.