Building a high-performing sales team starts with a clear structure and a solid strategy. Without these, it’s impossible to scale your revenue efforts. Your team needs the right roles in place, clear goals, and a game plan that drives results.
In this guide, we’ll break down how to structure your sales team effectively and walk you through the 5 key steps to building a team that consistently hits targets.
Ready to create a sales machine that delivers? Let’s get started.
Why Sales Team Structure Matters for Enterprise Success
A well-structured sales team is essential for driving revenue growth. With the right team roles in place, you can improve efficiency, streamline communication, and create a seamless customer experience—from the first conversation to closing the deal and beyond.
Key Components of a Successful Enterprise Sales Team
An effective enterprise sales team typically consists of three primary roles:
1. Sales Development Representatives or Business Development Representatives
Usually abbreviated to SDRs and BDRs, these are your frontline warriors who generate and qualify sales leads. They reach out to prospects, identify potential clients, and set the stage for more in-depth sales conversations.
2. Account Executives
The closers of your team, account executives (AEs), take qualified leads and shepherd them through the sales process. They're responsible for understanding client needs, presenting solutions, negotiating terms, and ultimately closing deals.
3. Sales Engineers
Sales Engineers combine business acumen with technological expertise to help understand and answer the client’s needs.
This structured approach ensures that each team member can focus on their strengths, leading to better outcomes for the whole department. According to one study, companies with a structured sales process see 18% more revenue growth than those without. So, how do we build a sales team from the ground up?
How to Build a Sales Team in 5 Steps
Step 1: Recruiting and Hiring for Your Sales Team
The first step in building your sales team is finding the right talent. Start by defining what “ideal” looks like for each role. You want to outline the non-negotiable skills, experience, and personality traits that align with the success profile of your sales organization. Doing this upfront lets you fine-tune your job descriptions and streamline candidate evaluation.
Once you’ve got that dialed in, don’t just rely on job boards. Leverage your network—encourage your existing team to tap into their connections and bring in trusted referrals. Often, the best candidates are those who aren’t actively looking but can be drawn in through a strong referral pipeline.
You’ll also want to cast a wider net. Use LinkedIn, niche industry platforms, and professional recruiters to target the talent pool that will drive results. Don’t forget about industry events and conferences, where ambitious sales professionals are actively networking. Even sales communities like Pavilion can also surface experienced pros.
When it comes to evaluating candidates, here’s what to look for in each role:
- SDRs/BDRs: Resilience, top-notch communication skills, and a hunger to learn and grow.
- AEs: Relationship-building expertise, strategic thinking, and a track record of closing high-value deals.
- Sales Engineers: The ability to simplify complex concepts and collaborate seamlessly with AEs.
Beyond just skill sets, you need to focus on cultural alignment. A team that clicks culturally performs better. A 2024 study found that employees who fit their company’s culture are:
- 55% less likely to seek other opportunities
- 5 times more likely to recommend their company
- 14% more productive.
Hiring for both competence and culture will help you build a sales team that not only hits numbers but sticks around for the long haul.
Step 2: Setting Clear Goals and Expectations for Your Sales Team
Clear, measurable goals are essential for giving your team direction and keeping motivation high. They also give you a way to monitor progress and performance. Here’s what to focus on:
- Revenue targets: These are your big-picture goals, aligned with your company’s financial objectives. Break them down into team-wide and individual quotas.
- Key performance indicators (KPIs): Track key metrics like conversion rates, average deal size, sales cycle length, customer acquisition cost (CAC), and customer lifetime value (CLV) to gauge how close you are to hitting your revenue targets.
- Activity-based metrics: These track the day-to-day actions that drive sales success. Depending on your process, this could include calls made, emails sent, meetings booked, or proposals delivered.
Use the SMART framework (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) to set clear and actionable goals, ensuring your team knows exactly what’s expected of them—and how to achieve it.
Step 3: Onboarding New Sales Team Members for Success
Oh, the dreaded ramp-up time. Great onboarding gets your new sales team members up to speed quickly and sets them up for long-term success. It should include:
- Training in Product Knowledge: Your new hires need a deep understanding of your products or services, such as your core features and benefits, ideal customer profiles, common use cases, and the competitive landscape.
- Role-Playing Sales Scenarios: Practice makes perfect. Set up role-playing exercises for new hires to practice pitching, handling objections, and navigating difficult conversations.
- Introducing Company Tools: Familiarize new team members with your sales tech stack, like your CRM and sales enablement tools.
Pro Tip: Speed Up Onboarding With Account Rooms
To streamline onboarding further, consider using Account Rooms—a shared digital space where sales reps can access all deal-related information in one place.
With tools like Momentum's Deal and Account Rooms, you provide complete visibility into client interactions, helping new hires get up to speed faster. This can significantly reduce onboarding time since it typically takes around 5 months for sales reps to reach full productivity.
Step 4: Coaching and Continuous Development of Your Sales Team
The sales landscape is constantly evolving. Client expectations shift, the market changes, and new technology reshapes how we sell. To stay ahead, your team needs continuous development—and that’s where effective coaching comes in.
Despite its impact, many companies fall short. Research from Gartner shows that while strong coaching can boost performance by 8%, only 42% of reps feel their managers provide it consistently.
The benefits of regular coaching include:
- Reinforcing best practices
- Closing performance gaps
- Adapting to market changes
- Improving overall team performance
You don’t have to do it alone—Momentum can help you coach your sales reps. With real-time AI-generated insights from calls, you can pinpoint coaching opportunities and address skill gaps quickly. It’s a smarter, more efficient way to provide individualized training.
Key Principles to Focus on When Coaching Your Sales Team
As a sales leader, your time is limited, so keep your coaching efforts focused. Instead of rolling out an overly complex training plan, focus on regular, consistent coaching sessions that deliver impact. Provide timely feedback—not just during onboarding but throughout the sales cycle—to keep performance on track.
Set both short-term and long-term goals. While quick wins are motivating, your team should always stay focused on how their contributions drive the company’s broader growth.
When it comes to individual coaching, focus your energy where it’s needed most. High-performers may require minimal guidance, but your time is best spent helping those with performance gaps or developing reps who are still building their skills. This targeted coaching can lead to the biggest improvements in overall team performance. And, your bottom line, of course!
Step 5: Maintaining Motivation and a High-Performance Sales Culture
A high-performance sales culture means that at the end of each month, you know your team has pushed hard to grow the business. This culture doesn’t happen overnight—it’s built through motivational strategies and performance-enhancing practices that drive results.
Central to this culture are recognition and clear communication. Celebrate both individual and team achievements, and keep your sales team in the loop about company goals, market trends, and how their efforts contribute to the bigger picture. This keeps your team motivated and helps them see the direct impact they’re making.
Sustaining motivation also requires a strong foundation of well-being. Sales are high-pressure, and burnout is a real risk. Respect your team’s work-life balance because maintaining it leads to better long-term performance.
To build on this foundation, focus on these key elements:
- Lead by example
- Encourage collaboration
- Promote continuous learning
- Make data-driven decisions
- Foster adaptability.
Finally, uphold high ethical standards throughout your sales organization. Not only does this build trust with your clients, but it also gives your team pride in their work, further boosting motivation and overall performance.
Final Thoughts
In an enterprise sales environment, success comes down to having a clear structure and strategy for your team—but flexibility is key. Stay agile, continuously refine your approach, and always be responsive to your team’s evolving needs.
Looking to elevate your sales team’s performance? Momentum can help you implement these strategies with precision and efficiency. Reach out to us today to learn more!