How do you manage your sales team? 7 secrets to make them unstoppable

By Axelle Drack

Published: 6 June 2025

Supervising and managing a sales team is quite a challenge.

Your company's objectives are ambitious, and you have a heavy responsibility to deliver very high sales performance: the company's growth and development depend on it.

Fortunately, you can rely on a crack team. In order to lead your team to ~~victory~~ and achieve the objectives set, there are a few keys that every sales manager needs to know how to handle.

From structuring the team, to your (exemplary) role as manager, to training, leading and motivating the troops, we explain in detail everything you need to know to manage your team with talent.

Let's get started!

See all software Sales Enablement

What role does a sales team play in a company?

Key functions and missions of the sales force

The main mission of the sales force is to convince a company's prospects to use its services or buy its products. They are responsible for the entire customer journey: prospecting, sales and customer loyalty.

To fulfil their mission, the sales team relies on an in-depth analysis of customer needs and expectations. This enables them to make personalised proposals based on the customer's profile and to respond precisely to any objections.

But the role of the sales force doesn't stop there:

They represent the company's image and values.
They negotiate contracts and sales conditions.
They monitor sales performance.
They monitor the competition.
They participate in the overall sales strategy by feeding back information.

Focus on the special role of the sales manager

The sales manager supervises the entire sales team. As such, he or she defines the individual (and collective) objectives of all team members and ensures that they are achieved.

In practice, this means

Analysing the sales department's key performances.
Organising meetings and reviews.
Acting as a link between management and the team in the field.
Managing the team on a day-to-day basis.

What are the key skills of a sales team?

Sales is not the only skill that makes a good salesperson! There are also :

mastery of dedicated digital tools (CRM, office suites).
good interpersonal skills and persuasive communication techniques.
sales, negotiation and objection handling skills.
time management and organisation.
teamwork and collaboration with other teams.

#1 - Structuring the sales team

Now we're going to try and answer the question: how do you structure your sales team?

Clearly defined roles and responsibilities

In any team, organisation is essential so that everyone knows their area of responsibility and can operate within it without encroaching on their neighbour's tasks. Depending on the size of your sales team, different roles may be assigned:

Sales manager in charge of strategy,
Sales manager (you!) to manage the team,
Account executive,
Customer Success Manager, who focuses on customer satisfaction,
Sales assistant for administration and sales force support.

It goes without saying that the larger your team, the more you'll need to integrate intermediate management roles, in order to keep the operational separate from the strategic.

💡 Don't hesitate to schedule a meeting to clearly explain the different roles and make the organisation chart accessible at all times.

In addition to roles, it is also advisable to clearly define the different areas of action for each person. For example, allocate people to different regions or countries, or to different types of market.

Yes, competition in a team can be good for performance, but you have to be careful that it doesn't tip over into the dark side of the force. By putting all your employees on the same playing field, especially if the market is niche, you run the risk of generating a bad atmosphere among your ranks. It's counterproductive!

Clear sales processes

You're a sales team and you don't have a sales process? No, but hello? All joking aside, you really need to get started. If you don't have one, you'll be going blindly ahead and rendering the sales strategy defined upstream useless. For your team, it's an uncomfortable situation in which it's hard to get your bearings.

👉 Why is it essential, if not indispensable, to define them? Here are a few good reasons:

to harmonise sales techniques,
to serve as a reference in the event of hesitation or problems,
establish a common vocabulary in line with the company's image and values,
increase the chances of closing the sale by following a tried and tested process,
evaluate performance and see where in the process each person is most effective,
Accurately track the progress of opportunities through the sales pipeline to make forecasts,
manage your time better by identifying the most qualified opportunities more quickly.

Here's an example of a sales process:

Although the stages of sales are relatively the same for everyone, the techniques, vocabulary and approach will differ in each company. Find your own style!

Supporting tools

While we're on the subject of the sales process, it's important to remember that the tools you use to support your sales staff throughout the process are also important.

In addition to the considerable autonomy they give your team, certain sales support tools provide a tremendous helping hand that you would be wrong to do without. Generally speaking, they help you to be more efficient in your work and to use the power of automation and artificial intelligence to offload time-consuming tasks, so that you can concentrate your efforts on pure sales.

✅ In short, tools are a very important form of support for teams.

Here are a few examples of what these tools can do:

automate social selling on LinkedIn,
automatically generate qualified leads in your inbox,
find a prospect's email or telephone number,
automatically assign scores to leads,
use electronic signatures to close deals remotely, etc.

But if you had to choose just one tool to buy, it would of course be the CRM (which needs no introduction!). They come in all shapes and sizes, and more and more of them are directly integrating very useful functions for all salespeople's missions.

Well, yes, there's another one that's just as indispensable to you as it is to your team: the sales dashboard (which can sometimes already be integrated into your CRM). KPIs measure the various performances, and each member of the team can access them to monitor their own progress.

#2 - Act as a good sales manager

Lead by example and respect

Leading by example isn't the main way of influencing others, it's the only way.

Albert Einstein

Why is it important to set an example? Applying the rules you impose on others to yourself shows how important they are to the smooth running of the department. What's more, when a manager thinks he's above the rules, it's often seen as a lack of respect and completely devalues the point of following them (it's only human!).

These rules need to be carefully thought through before being put in place, as too-frequent changes undermine their consistency and legitimacy (as well as being difficult to follow).

💡 Don't underestimate the power that your attitude can have on the motivation of your whole team, you have more than you think. Your own energy at work, your investment, your ability to support others, your transparency and perseverance in canvassing is a very inspiring attitude that will pull everyone up.

Listen and support

In a sales team, as in any team, listening to your colleagues is essential for a number of good reasons:

to make them feel valued and involved,
to obtain valuable feedback for improvement (how sales processes work, customer opinions, management methods, areas for improvement, etc.),

What's more, by listening actively and sincerely, you'll get to know each member of the team better. The aim? To provide them with the best possible support.

Make sure they have everything they need to work to their full potential. Every salesperson is a human being in their own right, and you need to treat them as such by adapting (for example, some will appreciate extra autonomy, others more regular check-ups).

As a manager, you are responsible for their performance, but also for their progress. It's always a good idea for your company to have people who can upgrade their skills and develop regularly within the company (rather than leaving to join the competition).

In a way, you're their coach!

Setting motivating and achievable goals

Good objectives must always respect two imperatives: they must be motivating and achievable.

To maintain this balance, you need to set your team's objectives on the basis of last year's results at the same time.

Of course, you also need to take the context into account. If your sector is facing an unexpected crisis, for example, you'll need to adapt your objectives accordingly.

Maintaining a course that no longer corresponds to the reality on the ground is unproductive and demotivating. So be firm, but adapt if necessary. 🤝

#3 - Motivating your troops

The importance of motivation

"No problem is insurmountable for a well-motivated sales person.

Scott Adams

Having motivated sales staff is not an option. They play an essential role in your business, as they are the driving force behind sales growth. It may be your customers who pay the salaries, but it's the salespeople who go out and get them. So it's vital that the desire to go out and sign customers and to excel is nurtured.

But motivation is a fragile thing, and sales is a job with many ups and downs, with periods of low morale.

The challenge is to create motivation in your team, and to maintain it on a regular basis.

Is money the best carrot?

"Sales people are only interested in money". "He'd sell his mother to make more money". Clichés about salespeople are hard-wired!

So is it really only money that motivates them? According to a study by Uptoo, only 23% of salespeople consider changing jobs because of salary.

Motivation is highly complex and rarely depends on a single factor.

Remuneration and bonuses are an important part of motivation in this sometimes arduous job, where you have to work at the front line. They have to be seen as sufficiently interesting and compensatory to have an impact on motivation. For bonuses to be motivating, they have to be based on precise and understandable criteria, and not be determined by guesswork. The most important thing is that it rewards the work done.

While pay may be a trigger to start a new job somewhere, it's not what will make them stay. Money is more of an instant stimulus than a lasting motivator.

What really motivates sales people

Here is a non-exhaustive list of the factors that motivate sales staff:

✅ When the targets set are ambitious, but not unattainable. It's important that they are realistic, otherwise they can be demotivating. The effort required to achieve them must be reasonable. If the price to be paid is too high (less time in your personal life, fatigue, frequent travel, overtime, etc.), the incentive to achieve your goals diminishes.

✅ A strong team spirit. When the atmosphere is good, it's a motivating factor on a daily basis. Everyone brings something to the table in their own way, organisational or productivity tips are exchanged, older staff share their experience and younger staff bring a fresh perspective, and so on. The power of mutual support is not to be underestimated!

✅ Being good at your job. It's a very pleasant feeling of achievement to progress and excel in what you do. It brings a sense of enjoyment to the job, which is a good source of motivation.

✅ Being recognised and rewarded. When you make an effort and achieve good results, you like to be recognised, it's only human (otherwise, what's the point in going the extra mile?). Being thanked by your manager in front of the team or in private is gratifying and motivating. It's also important to celebrate team victories by organising a meal in a restaurant or a drinks reception.

Don't hesitate to organise more than one!

#4 - Leading the sales team

As a sales manager, this is not one of your easiest tasks. It requires energy, organisation and creativity to keep your team united. Here are a few ideas for leading a sales team!

Rituals

Rituals are an important part of the team's identity. They are more or less formal moments that help to maintain links between people. At a time when teleworking is being widely adopted, they maintain the feeling of belonging to the group, even if you're not always face-to-face.

Here are a few examples:

daily scrum-type meetings, where each team member shares his or her tasks for the day, where important information is passed on and where questions can be asked;
weekly or monthly team lunches or breakfasts;
informal coffee breaks to take a breather from a busy day.

Sales challenges

A bit of healthy competition in good spirits can make all the difference to performance! Here are some ideas for challenges you can set up to stimulate competition:

🏃 The Friday challenge. Whoever achieves the highest figure for the month gets to leave early on the last Friday. A well-deserved rest!
☃️ The Christmas challenge. The festive season is a time when everything slows down, including sales! So to avoid this slump, put together a nice pile of well-wrapped presents, and as soon as a salesperson signs a sale, he or she has the right to open one.
🗓️ The annual challenge. This lasts for a year and rewards the best salesperson with a big prize (a trip, for example). This type of challenge is highly motivating!

Special events

Celebrating victories, rewarding efforts and strengthening team spirit all involve events that are a little out of the ordinary. Like rituals, they can gradually become part of the company's identity.

The classic dinner offered by the company in a good restaurant after achieving the month's objectives works rather well. Alternatively, organising 1 or 2 weekend seminars a year is a very effective way of strengthening links and team spirit.

#5 Train your staff regularly

To improve performance

Although there are many different types of sales person, there's one thing they all have in common: they love to change!

It has to be said that the constant changes in the market, coupled with ever-increasing competition, leave them no choice: they have to constantly adapt and optimise the way they work to improve their results.

So to ensure that your teams don't feel out of their depth (when it comes to AI and automation, for example) and are well equipped to take up the fight, you need to train them regularly, whether it's on :

New time-saving tools,
innovative sales techniques
market information,
skills and soft skills to better convince prospects, etc.

To acquire new skills and rapidly boost your sales performance, think about Kestio. This all-in-one platform is designed for entrepreneurs and managers like you, who have busy days. It gives you access to over 50 certified experts and hundreds of resources on sales and prospecting. By joining the community, you can discuss the subjects that interest you with a community of managers and sales professionals!

Kestio

Comprehensive Sales Management Software Solution

Learn more about Kestio

How can you train your team effectively?

For training to be truly effective, you first need to analyse your needs.

Updating soft skills?
Integrating new tools?

Answering this question will enable you to define clear and measurable objectives.

When choosing a training programme, make sure that the organisation you choose offers both theoretical and practical content to maximise learning.

In addition to these specific courses, introduce a continuous training policy as soon as future employees are onboarded. Finally, personalise the programmes as the employee's career progresses, to enable a gradual increase in skills.

#6 Use tools to manage sales performance

CRM, prospecting and reporting tools

CRM software has become an essential part of sales managers' day-to-day work. They allow you to centralise all the essential data on prospects and customers in a single interface.

CRM also offers some very interesting automated features. For example, they can be used to notify the relevant employees when a prospect validates a new stage in their conversion cycle (contact, quote request, etc.).

Lastly, they can be used to create intuitive and precise dashboards to provide a simple overview of the progress made.

Tracking key performance indicators (KPIs)

Establishing KPIs is absolutely essential in sales. Here are the most relevant:

Opportunity conversion rate: to measure the actual effectiveness of your sales force.
Turnover per salesperson: to measure the individual performance of each team member.
The number of opportunities created: to measure the total number of opportunities over a given period and anticipate future sales.
The average length of the sales cycle: to measure the time between the first contact with a prospect and their conversion.

It's up to you to identify the most reliable indicators for your company!

Adapt your strategy according to the results

Thanks to a combination of relevant key performance indicators and reporting tools, you have a 360° view of your results. A solid basis for optimising your strategy in real time. Sales processes must not remain fixed. They need to evolve in line with the data collected in the field, so that they are totally in tune with the market.

#7 Collaborate with other departments to maximise the commercial impact words

Sales teams never work alone. They must constantly share information with the other sectors of the company: marketing, customer service and management.

Aligning the sales team with marketing

Sales teams are on the front line. They are the ones who put marketing concepts into practice and defend them to customers. As a result, sales people have precise insights into the arguments that work... and those that don't.

By feeding the information back to the marketing department, this data can be used as a basis for optimising future campaigns. It also works the other way round. Salespeople need to use a tone of voice and persuasive techniques that are in line with the branding decided by the marketing team.

Customer service is the natural extension of the sales team. It ratifies by contract what has been discussed and negotiated upstream by the sales team. Communication between the two departments must therefore be flawless!

If the information transmitted is incomplete or erroneous, this can lead to misunderstandings with the customer and compromise the established relationship.

Involve management in the sales strategy

A sales strategy must be integrated into a more global corporate strategy. To ensure alignment between the two, management teams need to be involved in sales decisions.

The dynamic is simple. The sales team takes information from the field and passes it on to management. Management then decides (or not) to adjust its growth targets in line with the feedback received. It's a win-win situation. Sales results influence company strategy and vice versa.