Do you struggle with your sales team when it comes to producing the desired results? Are you still trying to figure out the right recruitment and training efforts to attract the right talent and keep them for the long term? Whether you use an in-house or call center on demand deployment strategy, you still need the right approach to sales management to produce the results you want. Fortunately, there is opportunity to learn from top performers in the industry.

Call center on demand solution provider, Five9 (News - Alert) hosted a webinar earlier this month in which Director of Sales Development, Kristina McMillan discussed the three pillars that have allowed the company to create a high performing sales department: people, technology and culture. The company’s efficient process now turns leads into high-value opportunities thanks to a proven approach to managing the sales team.

One key to success for Five9 is the use of fun and friendly competition. Whether tracked individually or as a team, employees have the opportunity to set and hit certain goals and then be rewarded for their progress. Transparency at times of change is also important for Five9, ensuring that agents are on board with new policies before they become effective is essential to smooth transition and ongoing success. Plus, when changes are made for the better, agents are more engaged and anxious to see the impact.

As for finding the right talent, McMillan starts with the phone conversation instead of the in-person interview. Her team is phone-based, so it only makes sense that the candidate should be able to grab her attention and engage over the phone. If the agent is unable to do so, she isn’t convinced they will be able to execute on these things with a prospect or ultimately drive sales. As both are critical to her bottom line, this is a great way to weed out those who lack the skills and talent she needs for her team.

Interestingly, that team is full of agents located throughout the U.S., which makes creating the team culture more of a challenge. McMillan doesn’t let that hurt performance:

“This is one of the challenges our team faces – we have remote reps and we love it because it’s often more cost effective to do so or it’s just the talent we want. One of the things we look at is how we can connect the remote reps better to the rest of the team, through things like IM, but it really comes back to training and feedback. Early on, new reps listen to other reps on the phone and vice versa, continually giving feedback.

It simulates being in the same location and it offers a lot of opportunity for quality interactions from the start. We’ve found that this approach builds a strong foundation for relationships and connections — so they have established resources to come back to later with questions.”

Regardless of your industry, if your call center on demand team is responsible for positively impacting the bottom line, you have to make the necessary investments in the right talent for the job. To learn how Five9 is doing this on a regular basis, check out the webinar in full here.