3 Factors to Consider When Restructuring Your Sales Team

When it comes to restructuring your sales team, many factors should be taken into consideration in order to make the transition as seamless as possible. Outbound lead generation or business development reps (BDRs) are asked to be diligent and thoughtful in the lead nurturing process — management should give them the same due diligence when reconfiguring the sales organization.

Traditionally, sales forces are organized in one of two configurations:

• Geographically Aligned: Each rep has a specific territory and a corresponding account executive.
• Round-Robin: Reps have the freedom to call any and all leads, and then pass on qualified leads to account executives in a round-robin order.

3 Questions to Ask Before Restructuring Your Sales Team

Regardless of whether you are switching from geographical to round-robin or vice versa, below are three questions that a VP of Sales or BDR manager should ask themselves before rolling out a new sales program:

1) What are the Rules of Engagement?

If your team is transitioning into a round-robin model, rules of engagement need to be incorporated and enforced from the start, so to mitigate any problems.

Naturally, reps will be protective over leads that they have nurtured, so you must first consider how your team will pinpoint at exactly what point a lead becomes fair game (i.e. when was the lead last engaged?). Take your sales cycle into consideration when determining the timeframe. Is it 30-60-90 days?

Next, define what exactly “engaged” means. Then identify where to assign inbound leads if you do not have a separate inbound qualifying team.

2) How Will This New Structure Support Internal Growth?

Take into consideration how you will build out your team within this new structure. If you are making the move to a territory model you need to think about how you will add reps to regions and how the regions will be modified with each additional rep.

If you are moving to a round-robin set up, how will the rules of engagement affect a new team member? In a job that can be a grind, a new BDR should be set up for success — not faced with impediments from the start.

3)  Is Your Team On Board? 

With any type of restructuring, the hope is to create a better dynamic for the team and increase the pipeline in the process. In order to achieve both goals, you must make sure that your team is onboard, they understand why there is a shift, and they realize how it will affect them and their current pipeline.

Additionally, make sure that they have a point person to check in with throughout the transition, as inevitably problems and unforeseen situations will arise. Whether it is a team lead or manager, having an outlet and intermediary will help to make the transition as smooth as possible.

Have you recently restructured your sales team? What challenges and/or successes have you experienced?