Both digital and non-digital companies are always looking for ways to grow their sales, increase market share, and stay ahead of the competition. However, running a successful sales team can be challenging, especially when digital. Impressive visuals can boost results because images increase conversion rate and give your products a better look. Moreover, keeping tabs on your employees entirely through the internet depends on skill, patience, and diligence.
Many internet-based salespeople are motivated by the ability to work remotely. If you manage your digital dealers well, you can easily maintain a loyal, satisfied, and productive team to steer your business towards success.
7 Tips To Manage Digital Dealers
Here are seven tips that will help you accomplish just that.
Acquire and Use the Right Tools
Your dealers need practical online tools for effective collaboration. To satisfy your clients, they need reliable access to files, information, schedules, updates, news, and more. Proper management of an online sales team starts with getting everyone on board with organizational, scheduling, and communication tools.
A vast pool of professional tools is available, but choosing the right ones for your operation can be overwhelming. Start by identifying your team’s needs and looking for ideas for process improvement. Compare every tool and idea with a list of your required features. Try to focus on things like cost, user-friendliness, and technical support. Trello, Slack, Asana, and Catsy are some solutions that can get you rolling into working efficiently with your dealers.
Proper Communication
Effective communication has become an integral part of online businesses. Gone are the days of face-to-face only communication. Many customers will look for ways to contact customer support even before purchasing any product on your website.
Be sure to communicate clearly to keep all your dealers on the same page. Always double-check with them and ask follow-up questions to avoid surprises down the road. You can also send them reminders and encourage them to update you on prospective clients and deals.
Also, keep your communication lines open and let your digital team know they can reach you whenever they need answers or clarification. Even at home, check your email and make yourself available through social networking sites like Skype and Google Hangouts so they can get to you easily.
An essential aspect of proper communication is conveying positive feedback whenever a team member accomplishes something significantly impressive. A simple “job well done” after a day of commendable sales can go a long way to keeping your dealers motivated.
Insist on Video Calls
According to research, more than half of all human communication is non-verbal. When you don’t get to work with your dealers physically, using video calls instead of audio-only or textual communication can be a great way to gauge their mood and enthusiasm, and convey encouragement when needed. A short email can save time for more critical tasks, but those non-verbal clues you get when you converse on video will help keep your dealers closer and more passionate about the job.
Account for Schedule Inconveniences
One reason many brick-and-mortar companies and new startups are putting their offline businesses online is the ease with which they can expand their customer base beyond physical borders. On the other hand, having a global reach requires international employees to conduct product research, interact with prospective clients, and deliver traded goods or services.
You must devise a well-balanced schedule to keep everyone comfortable working in different time zones, especially for projects requiring collaboration. Find convenient times to set up conferences, calls, and meetings. If you have fewer people working overseas than within your primary time zone, don’t forget to show team solidarity by occasionally setting up calls in favor of your international dealers. It will help your team realize the sacrifices their fellow workers regularly make.
Set Clear Expectations
Before bringing a digital dealer into the fold, lay out everything you expect from them. Setting expectations for your team can be challenging, especially if you didn’t have a well-defined team structure when you started. Nevertheless, as the saying goes, failing to plan is planning to fail. A clear set will help keep your digital dealers focused and engaged while facilitating constructive criticism and benchmarking.
Nurture Company Culture
You can create culture even when your sales team is remotely scattered worldwide. Everyone working for your brand must be privy to your values in engaging with clients, advertising, and selling your products. Evaluate new employees against your values and be ready to let go of anyone who doesn’t uphold them. Understanding your company’s culture creates the much-needed sense of loyalty and community, even among those digital dealers you never meet in person.
Get Together Face-To-Face at Least Once a Year
Working with outsourced dealers may not require personal interaction, but creating some time to talk and build rapport is essential if you have a permanently employed sales team. Video calls will mostly cover you, but a few hours of in-person interaction can cultivate more team spirit than weeks of remote efforts.
Getting everyone together may be pricey at times. Still, more often than not, the energy from these gatherings will be high, and you will have a better opportunity to discuss things like culture, vision, and the company’s future than when your team is spread around the globe.
Practical Ways to Manage Dealers Working Online
Managing digital dealers requires more effort than occasional touchpoints or sending promotional letters to be effective in today’s digital world. Businesses also need strategies to ensure their presence is reliable and efficient, and helps them prosper in all digital areas. The following vital areas can improve your management skills and help dealers achieve greater success.
Supply Ready-To-Go Content For Dealers
A great way to support your dealers is by giving them ready-to-use content. You get product descriptions, pre-made banners, marketing blueprints, and explanatory videos. Because dealers are responsible for many different brands, brands can improve dealer performance by making it simple for dealers to work with their assets.
Great photos or videos are essential since they can draw users’ attention and improve your results. Giving dealers access to the content hub ensures they can use the latest, most effective materials anytime.
Use a Product Information Management (PIM) System
Choosing a PIM system allows you to manage your dealers more effectively. A good PIM solution also makes it easier to keep product data current and accessible. A PIM for retailers helps reduce listing errors and supports faster product updates, while a PIM for brands ensures consistent messaging and presentation across all sales channels. A PIM for distributors makes handling large volumes of SKUs easier for wholesalers and resellers. A reliable PIM system benefits a company by supporting efficient workflows and boosting sales by making products more visible and easier to buy online.
Improve the Appearance of Your Page to Convert More Visitors
Visual elements are essential in e-commerce to raise PIM sales. Stores should assist their dealers in using great pictures of products and people. A brand should share a single kit containing images and videos wherever necessary. Because images increase conversion rate, creating an approach centred around visuals allows products to be noticed and gain potential shoppers’ trust. Delivering organized pictures and graphics lets dealers act more efficiently and helps them maintain their brand’s sophisticated look.
Organize Fast and Impactful New Employee Orientations
From the beginning, dealers need a careful explanation of your brand, processes, and tools. Confusion and miscommunication can be prevented later when you take care with onboarding. Craft your onboarding materials to be brief, illustrated, and simple for people to follow.
A set of walkthroughs, FAQs, and playbooks can help you long-term if you keep them on hand. Make it simple for dealers to understand how your PIM software works and identify quickly available content. As a result, every new dealer begins with all the necessary information and resources to market and sell from the very first day.
What’s Next?
Maintaining a successful and motivated team of digital dealers means upholding clear communication, encouraging cohesion, and building value for what each person brings to the business, even without face-to-face interaction.
Your team must always remain organized, which means implementing a reliable product information management platform. Catsy is your number one solution for keeping all your company data in one centralized location to streamline workflow among all your digital dealers.
Now that you know how to manage digital dealers, click here to see what Catsy can do for you.
