Page 199 - Social Media Marketing

Building and Managing Your Own Sales Team 185

The following list introduces various areas that you need to focus
on in order to become an accomplished team leader:

• Create and communicate a clear vision. As leader, you need
to see where the team is heading and what each member of the
team needs to do to get there. Formulate a clear vision for your
team and then make sure members know what that vision is
and what role they need to play.

• Commit yourself to the success of your teammates. Hire great
people and give them everything they need to be successful:
training, resources, technology, coaching, and so on. Invest
heavily in their success, especially early on, and then give them
the freedom and responsibility to take it to the next leveL Once
your teammates know that you are committed to their success,
they will be committed to your success. They will also tell ev-
eryone they meet about the great team they are part of. Money
cannot buy the type of genuine, positive PR this generates.

• Plan the work and then work the plan. You need to put the
systems in place to accomplish every task that needs to be
done-from marketing your business and the products and
services you sell to processing transactions and expanding
your business.

• Manage your team's growth. Make sure your team has the
infrastructure in place to support new team members before
you add a new member to the team. When teams grow too
quickly, team leaders often overlook the basics, such as weekly
team meetings, which can result in the entire team falling apart.
Whether your team consists of two people, eight people, or
even multiple offices, you have to make sure you maintain
steady and manageable growth.

• Deal with issues immediately. Don't let problems fester. If
your team has some internal strife, investigate, identify the
root cause of the problem, and then address the problem with
everyone involved. The longer a problem is allowed to exist,
the more damage it can do.