Conference Calls: Building Remote Sales Teams

Scheduled Conference CallsTelephone conferencedecisions, action steps, who is accountable, and
calls are rated by sales team members as beingtime frame for every agenda item, and read
almost as effective as face-to-face sales teamthose notes at the end of the meeting.- Keep
meetings, but are much more convenient.your name off the list. Your job is to follow up.-
Conference calls can not only let you disseminateRotate who takes decision minutes.- At the end
information, they can be used to coach andof the meeting- ask for ideas for topics to include
develop people. They can serve as a "virtualin the next agenda- ask for feedback from the
water cooler" for building the team vs. training ateam on strengths and areas for improvement
group of remote individuals. Use telephonefor future
conference calls to share information, developconference call meetings- Follow up on decision
skills and strategies, and build your team.To helpminutes.Conference calls can't replace face-to-face
maximize conference calls:- Set a consistentcontact, but they are a convenient and practical
agreed-upon time.- Use an agenda. Ask teamway to connect with team members and connect
members for their ideas before the meeting asthe team.The only downside is the need to
to topics on the agenda.- Don't over pack thecoordinate schedules and the emergencies that
agenda. Assign a time to each item and use thearise that can cause people to miss the phone
agenda to move things along.- Begin by quicklycalls. The way to maximize the benefits and
reviewing the agenda and checking formanage the downside is for you to be the role
agreement.- Distribute any materials to allmodel - be prepared, do not cancel, start and end
participants before the call.- In advance, assignon time, use every minute to help your people
topics to team members. Better yet, ask forsucceed, and ask for feedback on how to make
volunteers.- Rotate responsibility for five-minutethe conference call team meeting even
presentations among team members as a way tobetter.Phone meetings are a helpful, effective
create peer coaching and recognize achievement.-way to connect people and share best practices.
Include Best Practices as an agenda item ofMoreover, they are likely to turn a group of
every meeting and use it to spotlight exceptionalremote salespeople into a team.About Linda
performance and share ideas.- Make theRichardsonLinda Richardson is President and
conference call interactive. Ask vs. tell. Ask howfounder of a leading sales training and consulting
others feel about what a team memberfirm. She is a recognized leader in the sales
volunteers before giving your view, adding value,training industry and is credited with the
or tying it all together.- Make sure there is anmovement to consultative selling, which is the
action step with clear accountability and a timecorner stone of Richardson's methodology. Ms.
frame for every agenda item so that theRichardson has written 9 books on selling including
meetings are not viewed as a waste of time.-her most recent, The Sales Success Handbook.
Ask one team member to take notes on theShe has been published extensively in industry.