The right sales management techniques can make the difference between having a team of goal-oriented salespeople, and having a bunch of individuals focused on themselves. Outdated or unreliable sales management techniques won’t help you form a cohesive team, and may actually push team members farther apart. With the right approach to sales management, you can get everyone on the same page, and keep them there. This will not only help your sales numbers, but will also make your sales management job that much easier. Here are five sales management techniques that could help.

Straightforward Communication

The best sales management approach is to be absolutely clear and open about what you want and expect from your sales team. If you need them to do something that you know they don’t like doing, tell them why. Don’t try to trick or persuade through clever rhetoric. Be explicit in your requests, and they’ll have no reasons to complain about vagueness.

Give them the Details

Of course, nobody likes being left in the dark. If you have to ask them to do something they don’t like, tell them why it’s necessary, and why you’ve chosen them for the job. Don’t adopt the “I’m the manager and I don’t have to explain myself” mentality-unless you want to create hurt feelings and unnecessary workplace stress. When people know what’s going on, they feel better about the things that are asked of them. Your sales management process should include making the time to answer questions and explain duties, as necessary.

Less Managing, More Leading

You can’t lead from the rear. If your sales management technique involves pushing people to do better, then you can’t be in front of them showing them how. If you’ve made it into sales management, it’s a good bet that you know a thing or two about sales. Don’t be afraid to show them how it’s done. Read up on emerging trends and new techniques, attend conferences to learn where the industry is headed, and talk to industry leaders to get helpful advice. Then, put all of that knowledge into practice in full view of your team. Let them see you exuding skill and professionalism at all times, and they’ll quickly want to follow suit. If you employ best practices, and manage yourself first, your sales numbers will be all the motivation they need to follow your lead.

There is no “I” in Sales Manager

Never forget that you’re still part of a team. The leader, whether it’s a coach, a manager, or a supervisor, is still just a link in a much greater chain. You need to find ways to work with the many different personalities on your sales team. Sales management is about getting people to work together for a common goal, yourself included. There will almost certainly be people you don’t like as well as others, whose personalities entirely clash with yours, and that’s OK. They’re still part of the team, and it’s your responsibility to figure out what makes them tick, and how to harness it.

Time is Precious

Every minute spent away from prospects and clients is a minute that your team isn’t making a sale. You should identify tasks that are not customer facing and either eliminate them, hand them off to someone else, or streamline them to make them as brief as possible. You’re managing a sales team-not a paperwork team, not an attending-meetings team, and not a standing-around-doing-nothing team. Keep them focused and on-task, or the minutes you’re not making sales will start to outnumber the minutes you’re making money.