Your salespeople get the flexibility and convenience of working where they want, and you get to build a diverse geographic sales team without needing to sink capital into building official “offices” across the country - or the world. The tough part is building the right virtual sales team.

Select the Right Salespeople

Most good salespeople are strongly self-motivated, but any virtual employee needs to take this trait to the next level. A virtual sales team often operates without supervision day-to-day, and likely does not speak to another co-worker for days on end. Every team member needs to be comfortable with this isolation and should be able to keep producing without the manager standing over his shoulder. With proper Presentation skills training this is important.

Set consistent expectations

Because virtual employees usually decide what tasks to tackle and in what order to tackle them, it is important that everyone understands the priorities right from the start. This is important for new salespeople or salespeople who have not worked almost before. So when you launch a new virtual salesperson into the world, sit down with her and set some specific goals. Don’t just give her a sales goal, take some extra metrics as well. For example, you and she can agree that she will make at least 25 cold calls per day, set at least 5 appointments per week, and send out 10 Thank-You notes per day.

Use the Right Tools

There are plenty of Marvels technologies available to help you and your virtual team work smarter. Get webcams for all your salespeople (and yourself) and use video conferencing to meet. Setting up a CRM everyone can use from their own computer, preferably a CRM service that does not require software installation. Whatever it is, there may be software packages or Internet services that can meet that.

Live in Touch

You've flung your salespeople out into the world, but you can't afford to forget about them. You should set up regular meetings (via video conferencing earlier) with your team and go through any sales-related issues. It’s also a good idea to call or have a conference with individual salespeople so you can touch the language with them and find out how they’re doing.

Know When to Let Go

Managing virtual employees requires a high level of trust. If a new salesperson joins your team you’ll need to keep an eye on their activities, but once they’ve become familiar with their goals and are uncomfortable with your expectations, it’s time to back off a bit. Good virtual employees prefer a higher level of independence - it goes by their ability to self-motivate - so if you barrage them with calls and emails “just check up” you will be sending exactly the wrong message.

About the Company: Since 2005 they've been helping clients win over their key stakeholders by providing leadership communication coaching, group training programs and advice before major events, pitches and investor presentations. They've been trusted to help clients win multi-million dollar mandates and helped funds and corporates raise more than 20 billion dollars.