The Ultimate Guide to Building and Managing a High-Performing Virtual Sales Team

The rise of remote work has transformed the sales landscape. In 2024, a whopping 60% of sales organizations will have most reps working remotely, according to Gartner. Virtual selling is no longer a nice-to-have – it‘s a necessity for staying competitive.

But let‘s be real – managing a remote sales force comes with its own set of challenges. How do you hire the right reps, keep them engaged and motivated, and consistently crush quotas – all while rarely (if ever) seeing them in person?

Fear not, virtual sales leaders. In this ultimate guide, we‘ll dive into the strategies, tactics, and tools you need to build and manage a remote sales team that outperforms even the best in-office teams. With advice gleaned from top-performing virtual sales orgs and remote-work experts, you‘ll be armed and ready to take your dispersed team to new heights. Let‘s jump in!

The Virtual Sales Team Advantage

While virtual selling has its hurdles, it also offers some major benefits:

1. Access top talent anywhere: Hire the best salespeople regardless of location – whether that‘s across town or across the globe. 81% of remote workers say they‘re happy in their jobs, compared to 55% of on-site workers. Keep your remote reps engaged by providing flexibility and autonomy.

2. Expand coverage and selling hours: Virtual teams can cover more ground and cater to buyers in different time zones. Have reps on the East and West coasts? They can tag team to provide coverage from dawn to dusk.

3. Cut costs: Reduce or eliminate spend on office space, supplies, in-office perks and more. Companies save an average of $11,000 per year for each employee who works remotely half the time. Reinvest those savings into tools and training for your team.

4. Improve productivity: Remote workers are 35-40% more productive than their in-office counterparts, with 40% fewer quality defects. Give reps the flexibility to work when and where they‘re most efficient.

The virtual sales advantage is clear. But to capitalize on it, you need the right people, processes, and technology in place. Let‘s start with how to hire remote sales rockstars.

How to Hire a High-Performing Virtual Sales Team

Building an "A team" of remote reps starts with your recruiting and hiring process. Here are some tips to find and land top virtual sales talent:

Screen for Virtual Sales Skills

In addition to core selling competencies, look for attributes that align with remote work success:

• Self-motivation and discipline
• Proactive communication
• Comfort with technology
• Adaptability and resilience
• Relationship-building skills

"When hiring SDRs and AEs for a remote team, prioritize candidates who have a track record of hitting goals while working independently," advises Jordan Katz, Director of Sales at Troops. "Ask for examples of how they‘ve overcome challenges and stayed motivated outside a traditional office setting."

Adapt Your Interview Process for Virtual

Shift your interviewing approach to assess remote readiness, rapport-building, and engagement in a virtual setting.

Instead of in-person meetings, conduct interviews over video conferencing. Have candidates walk through a virtual demo or roleplay. Assess their comfort level and effectiveness selling and communicating on-screen.

Ask interview questions like:

• "What tools and techniques do you use to stay productive at home?"
• "Share an example of how you built rapport with a colleague or client virtually."
• "How do you collaborate effectively with a distributed team?"

Showcase Your Remote Culture

To attract top virtual talent, position your remote work environment as a competitive differentiator. Highlight the flexibility, autonomy, and work-life balance your virtual team enjoys.

"We emphasize our remote-first culture in all recruiting materials and conversations," notes Emily Muller, Head of Talent at Zapier. "Our careers page includes employee testimonials on remote life and details our virtual onboarding and enablement programs."

Share specifics on how you enable remote rep success: your digital tech stack, remote learning and development opportunities, virtual team building activities, etc. Paint a compelling picture of your thriving virtual sales culture.

Virtual Sales Enablement Essentials

You‘ve got your remote reps – now you need to set them up to succeed in a virtual environment. A robust sales enablement program provides reps with the content, tools, and training they need to engage buyers and close deals from anywhere.

Remote Sales Tech Stack

Arm your virtual team with technology to boost efficiency and effectiveness:

Tool	Purpose
CRM	Manage deals and track rep activity in one place
Video Conferencing	Demo and meet with buyers face-to-face
Sales Engagement	Automate and scale rep outreach across channels
Conversation Intelligence	Record, transcribe and analyze sales calls
Content Management	Organize and share sales collateral, templates, etc.
Learning Management System	Provide on-demand training and development

"Investing in the right tech stack to support our remote reps has been a game-changer," shares Kyle MacLean, VP of Sales at LucidChart. "Tools like Gong for call recordings and Guru for knowledge management have enabled our team to collaborate and level up their skills from anywhere."

Virtual Sales Content

Provide reps with fresh, relevant content assets to engage buyers throughout the sales cycle:

• Outreach templates and sequences
• Demo decks and prerecorded video pitches
• Case studies, white papers and ebooks
• Competitive battle cards and objection handling guides
• Pricing sheets and ROI calculators
• Proposal templates and contracts

Regularly audit your content for gaps and optimization opportunities. Gather feedback and track usage data to gauge what‘s resonating with reps and prospects.

"We have a dedicated Content Marketing Manager who partners with Sales on developing and refreshing enablement materials," notes Ali Riggs, Sales Enablement Leader at Intercom. "Tight alignment between Marketing and Sales ensures reps have an arsenal of content ammo to move deals forward."

Remote Sales Training & Coaching

Upskill and reskill remote reps with virtual training and development initiatives:

• On-demand LMS courses and learning paths
• Virtual live training sessions and workshops
• Peer learning circles and "buddy" programs
• Video role-play and feedback
• Call reviews and data-driven coaching sessions

Focus learning on virtual selling skills like on-screen presence, remote demo best practices, and creating engaging digital buyer experiences.

"We revamped our onboarding and ongoing training programs to center on virtual selling competencies," shared Jasmine Jauregui, Sr. Director of Sales Enablement at Drift. "By providing reps with the skills and knowledge to excel in a remote environment, we‘ve seen major improvements in ramp time and quota attainment."

How to Effectively Manage Remote Salespeople

Leading a dispersed sales team requires intentional and proactive management. It‘s about providing guidance and support virtually, while still empowering reps to leverage their autonomy. Here are some best practices.

Establish a Virtual Communication Cadence

Frequent, organized communication is the backbone of effective remote management. Set up a recurring schedule of meetings and check-ins:

• Weekly 1:1s with each rep to review deals, metrics, goals and development areas
• Daily team standups to share updates, wins and priorities
• Bi-weekly pipeline reviews to inspect key deals and identify coaching opportunities
• Monthly or quarterly all-hands to align on strategy, progress to goal and company updates

Set clear expectations around response times and availability. Encourage reps to block focus time on their calendars. Find the right balance of being accessible as a manager and respecting rep worktime and boundaries.

"A predictable meeting rhythm keeps remote teams on track and aligned," says Maren Donovan, CEO at Zirtual. "Well-structured meeting agendas, follow-up action items and virtual collaboration spaces (like Microsoft Teams Channels or Slack) make virtual communication seamless."

Set Clear Goals and Success Metrics

Ensure remote reps have total clarity on performance expectations. Focus on outputs and results over inputs and activity.

Set SMART goals and OKRs at the individual, team and org level:

• "Achieve $750,000 in new pipeline this quarter"
• "Increase win rate from 20% to 25% by EOY"
• "Reduce average sales cycle from 60 days to 45 days"

Break down big targets into monthly and weekly milestones. Track progress and course-correct as needed in your weekly 1:1s.

Measure leading indicators like conversation volume, velocity and engagement rates. But don‘t get bogged down in micromanaging tactical activity metrics. Focus on empowering reps to achieve the outcomes that matter most.

"Our entire go-to-market org aligns on a shared revenue target each quarter, but sales reps have a lot of autonomy in how they hit that number," notes Tim Harsch, CRO at Techstars. "Sure, we measure activities and leading indicators, but we don‘t prescribe exactly how many calls a rep needs to make or opportunities they need to create. We care most about the results."

Foster Collaboration and Knowledge-Sharing

Just because reps aren‘t sharing a bullpen doesn‘t mean they can‘t (and shouldn‘t) collaborate. Create virtual spaces and forums for reps to connect, learn from each other and work together:

• Slack channels around key topics (#competitive-intel, #sales-enablement)
• Video "coffee chats" or virtual happy hours for reps to bond
• Cross-team working sessions to solve big challenges
• "Win wire" emails or videos celebrating closed deals and key learnings
• Recorded call and demo libraries reps can reference for training

Establish mentoring relationships and peer learning circles, where reps partner up to shadow calls, trade best practices and coach each other.

"We lean into our reps‘ competitive spirit to fuel collaboration and motivation," shares Christina Helm, Head of Global Inside Sales at HubSpot. "We run team competitions and showcase rep wins, learnings and successful deal stories. This taps into the buzz you‘d typically get on a sales floor, but in a remote-friendly format."

Automate and Systematize

With reps working in different places and at different times, streamlined systems and processes are essential. Look for ways to templatize, automate and enable self-service to keep remote reps moving efficiently.

Some areas ripe for systematization:

• Canned email responses and call scripts
• Automated lead routing and prioritization
• CRM data entry and activity logging
• Approvals and document signing
• Reporting and performance notifications

"In a remote world, time is your reps‘ most precious resource. Help them guard it fiercely," advises Gary Lipkowitz, COO at Regie.ai. "We‘ve focused heavily on automating data entry, research and admin tasks to maximize rep selling time. An hour saved on busywork is an hour they can spend prospecting or running demos."

Keep Remote Sales Teams Motivated and Engaged

Isolation and burnout are real concerns on remote sales teams. With fewer organic opportunities for connection and camaraderie, motivation and morale can take a hit. Combat this with proactive efforts to energize and unite your virtual squad.

Celebrate Wins and Milestones

Make a point to call out both big and small wins:

• Reps who set meetings with target accounts
• Sales accepted leads (SALs) generated
• Discovery calls that uncover compelling use cases
• Demos that move deals to the next stage

Give shoutouts in team meetings, over email and in Slack. Use a recognition tool like Bonusly to make it easy for reps and managers to give each other virtual props, points, and rewards.

Track and celebrate rep progress toward goals and milestones. A new record for demos booked in a week? Ring the virtual gong! Halfway to quota mid-month? Cue the confetti and applause emojis.

"Never underestimate the power of recognition for keeping remote reps engaged," notes Rakhi Voria, Director of Global Digital Sales Development at IBM. "We use a Slack integration to update the team in real-time whenever a rep books a meeting, hits a goal, or makes progress on their development plan. The kudos come pouring in and it sparks healthy competition across the team."

Get Creative with Remote Team Building

Recreate "water cooler" moments and team bonding virtually:

• Host a Monthly "Mystery Coffee" where reps are matched up with random teammates for informal chats
• Run a virtual 5K or fitness challenge and track progress as a team
• Play virtual trivia or "guess that song" in meetings
• Have a pet show-and-tell or "cribs" style home office tour

The key is to create intentional touchpoints (that don‘t feel forced) for reps to connect on a human level.

"We‘re always looking for ways to build and maintain team cohesion remotely," shares Shelley Cernel, Sr. Marketing Manager at Knock. "One of our most popular rituals is ending our weekly team meetings with ‘Friday Wins‘ – both work and personal. Reps share deals they closed that week, but also milestones like potty-training a toddler or paying off student loans. It reminds us that we‘re more than our quotas and pipelines."

Take Virtual Sales into the Future

As we‘ve seen, building and managing a high-performing remote sales organization takes intentional effort and a shift in approach. But with the right strategy and execution, the rewards are substantial.

In our increasingly digital world, virtual selling is becoming the norm rather than the exception. The sales leaders who embrace and optimize for this reality now will have a major leg up in the years ahead.

So hire those remote rainmakers. Enable them with the content, training and tools to succeed from their home offices. Keep them motivated, engaged and performing at the highest levels – even without the in-person energy of a traditional sales floor.

The virtual sales landscape is wide open. Go claim your piece of it.