Managing a Virtual Team - Telephone Sales Training

Many of us have to manage people we don't physically work with on a regular basis. Sales managers have long faced the challenge of managing people on the road – for others the challenge may be newer. So what can you do to help yourself

Be a better manager to a virtual team

First of all, clarify what kind of virtual team you are dealing with.

Are your team working on projects together, or do they work individually and are a team simply because they all report to you?

• If the team are actually working together, though sitting apart, you will need to devote a lot of your people management time to making the joint process, telephone sales training as effective as possible. This may mean conference calls, regular get-togethers, and lots of cross team networking.

• If the projects are mostly individual, then the team will need more one to one support from you, and ‘team time' can be focused on exchanging relevant information, building customer service skills and offering customer support.

Relationship Insight

The less time you are able to spend with someone who works for you, the more important it is to have a useful, reliable insight into their working style, their motivational needs and their core values. Understanding yourself and your management development training style will also help you adapt to each individual's needs.

Applying your Insight

Of course, it is no use understanding how to get the most from people if you don't apply your knowledge in practice. Language really matters when dealing with people on the phone. Use the wrong words, and you will not get the reaction you seek.

For example,

If you ask someone with a high activist learning style to ‘spend a couple of hours thinking about possible approaches to a problem' you are not likely to get very much in return.

Ask the same person to ‘identify 3 ways that we could deal with this problem, with a short action plan for each that you would be prepared to implement' and you may get just the quality of thinking you need.

Choose your communication methods carefully

Applying your insight into people to choosing appropriate communication methods will help you make the best use of all the options

• Try to avoid using personal meetings for routine administration and information.
• If the team is meeting altogether, spend time talking to each person beforehand to establish what they want from the group meeting, and to clear any routine items beforehand

• Feedback by e-mail is always risky! Even if you have something positive to say, it can be taken in the wrong way (eg. You write ‘well done – a really good piece of work!' and they think ‘did she think I wasn't capable of doing a good job!').

• If you need to use the phone to give feedback, and the impact of having a virtual team is that usually you will – choose your words very carefully. E.g. telling someone who is very goal

oriented that an action was ‘not helpful' will have minimal impact, since their aim is to deliver goals not be helpful. Suggesting that a different approach would make the achievement of the goal much more likely will have a greater chance of encouraging this person to change behaviour.

• Remember that when you can't soften what you say through body language, criticism will sound much harsher than you perhaps mean.

• If the person receiving feedback is completely on their own – perhaps working from home or on the road, you need to be especially careful not to leave the individual feeling massively de-motivated. Again, a good understanding of their personal motivations and values will guide you on a suitable approach.

TIME for preparation as well as meeting

• When using the phone for meetings, allow a lot of time to prepare carefully.

• If you want people to contribute to a phone meeting, discuss beforehand how you would like them to contribute and when.

• Plan the meeting in key sections so that you can change the pace and vary the style. You might want to include a round the group update session, some brainstorming, an overview of a specific project or issue, a short skills piece and clear next actions.