Setting up a sales department is not an easy task, it requires time and resources. Here are 5 tips to help you meet these challenges and improve your financial performance.

Ask yourself if you need to
:

  • Control sales and accurately predict revenue;
  • Gain a competitive advantage;
  • Be closer to the customer and respond promptly to market requirements.


If you answered "yes" to at least one of the questions, the next step is to compare the costs of setting up your own sales department and the profitability of your work.


Learn to plan your day correctly

Imagine that your sales department is an army. As with any army, there should be a vertical structure, with clear organizational blocks and hierarchies. And, of course, a strict schedule:

  • the first part of the day - calls to potential customers with a meeting offer;
  • the second part - meetings.


All actions of your "soldiers" must lead to the fulfillment of the monthly plan. These are not just formalities and discipline for the sake of discipline. As a leader, you must make the employees grow and earn more. 


Find the right leader

An external candidate or an experienced and ambitious manager from another unit of the company can hold the position of sales manager. Let him assemble the team.

If you are prepared for some expenses, you can consider candidates without work experience and specialized education. If there is no desire or opportunity to invest resources in training, it is better to immediately recruit employees with sales skills. Don't forget: work experience in this field is a plus here and now, but it's not a long-term advantage.

Develop your employees

Even if you recruit experienced salespeople, you still need to train them. This can be done by a more experienced coach, leader or colleague.

One option for large companies is to create their own employee training center. It allows you to be independent of the level of training of new recruitment managers and to bring them quickly to results. This way, you can control the quality of the training and keep the employees' knowledge at a decent level. Of course, this scenario requires slightly larger investments.

Empower your sales team

The main task of the sales department is, in fact, to sell. But don't neglect its other functions either. First of all, this is an excellent channel for targeted communication. Employees who regularly attend personal meetings can pass on information about a new product or its capabilities to key market players. The effect of this interaction is even better than that of advertising campaigns

Secondly, the sales department can be used as a support to solve customer problems. This is especially true for IT and communications companies - they often produce something new that is difficult to configure and integrate.

All in all, the sales department is the key component of a company's success, that’s why its construction and management is quite important for the life of a business.