At Solcomm, we’re direct sales leaders in the telecom industry. We’re definitely not interior designers. So why are we writing a blog about sales office design?
Because your sales office layout can impact your bottom line.
If you’re looking into expanding your team, or improving your home base, it’s important to consider the best office layout for sales. After all, you don’t want your physical space to impact the productivity of your sales team.
So if you’re a sales team leader looking to build the best office for your team, read on!
The 3 Objectives Of The Best Sales Office Layout
Your office isn’t just a place where you go to make phone calls and drink from the water cooler between sales presentations.
Your office is an extension of your organization. It has real purpose. And making the right moves when setting up that office is crucial for your optimal team performance.
In general, there are 3 primary objectives that you should consider when setting up your physical office space. You want your office to:
- Help build up the sales culture of your company.
- Show off the opportunities to grow within your organization.
- Be functional for your team.
Objective 1: A Great Sales Office Design Should Build Culture
Your physical space is a huge indicator of company culture.
For example, when we think of sales offices, most of us think of the average gray cubicle scene. A Dilbert comic strip come to life:
But then there are the Googles of the world, who load their offices with “fun” features like hammocks and slides. Facebook’s office complex has free restaurants and a fully functioning bike shop. Renowned advertising firm Wieden & Kennedy have a functioning bird’s nest in their office, in case you want to feel like an eagle while you’re working.
See? Not kidding.
The important thing for your office is that it reflects your company culture. Google’s choice of making their offices into playgrounds may be a terrible idea for your company. The bland cubicle space may not be the best idea either.
So what do to?
Well, if you have a work-hard-drive-hard culture, you’ll want a very businesslike corporate office to reflect that. If you’re a suit-and-tie no nonsense company, you don’t want your quarterly sales meetings held in a bird’s nest.
If, on the other hand, you have more of a casual or fun culture, you’ll want to make your office comfortable. We’re not talking about adding playground equipment here, but you may want a less stodgy environment if you want your team to feel at home.
You may need a balance of both! Successful salespeople tend to be more fun, casual, and outgoing… while operations personnel tend to gravitate toward more traditionally formal or “professional” workspaces.
Regardless of your company’s culture, don’t pick an office that works against the culture you’re trying so hard to build.
Objective 2: A Great Sales Office Design Should Showcase Opportunity
We’ve written about this before, but one of the most crucial elements in building a healthy direct sales team is to showcase the opportunities to advance in your organization.
After all, direct sales is all about growth. If you can raise up sales leaders within your organization, you can experience exponential growth.
So you want to build an office that encourages that type of growth.
Traditionally, this was viewed as the “corner office.” If you made the corner office, you were advancing in the organization. People see that corner office and they don’t see just an extra bank of windows. They see success.
They see opportunity.
What’s your company culture’s corner office? Be sure that it’s something that is attainable, visible, and that your company is vocal about the opportunities available to get there.
Now, keep in mind, if there isn’t really opportunity to advance, then don’t hold up an unattainable ideal. If the office is super nice, but there’s no real way to individually advance or succeed in the organization, this can kill morale.
After all, if the company can invest in this super cool office, especially for the higher-ups, why can’t they invest in the sales force?
Take these factors into account when considering your organization’s opportunities for advancement… and then reflect that accordingly in your space.
Objective 3: A Great Sales Office Design Should Be Functional
This may seem pretty straightforward, but it’s actually a bit more complicated than it seems.
After all, a sales team operates a little differently than a software development team, for instance. Rows and rows of cubicles just won’t cut it.
A direct sales organization usually has a lot of salespeople coming and going. There are huge team meetings. There are group trainings and one-on-one trainings that need to be accounted for. People will be on the phone. A lot.
Do you have a space that will be functional for all of those needs?
Let’s talk about the best office layout for sales.
Have Spaces To Close Sales
Your office will need spaces available for customers to meet with your sales reps. You’ll need private areas available for them to have discussions with prospective clients… and to close those deals.
Have Spaces For Management
Your leadership team is the vision for the sales office. They keep things moving forward. Be sure to have space dedicated for them where they can plan. Where they can interview new employees. Where they can do one-on-one training and invest in your team.
Have Spaces For The Whole Team
You’ll need at least one room that’s big enough to fit your whole organization for team-wide meetings. There will also be group trainings of various sizes, so be sure you have enough rooms in your office for all those things to happen simultaneously.
And, while you’re at it, remember that you’ll want big enough hallways that your team isn’t constantly elbowing each other as they move throughout their day.
Have A Space That Is Easy To Find
If your building is hard to find, your clients will be hard to find.
Is there easy access to your office from the street or parking lot? Is your front door fairly obvious? Are you easily located in Google Maps? These are all questions you will want to sort out as you consider your new office space.
Also, train everyone on your team to be great at describing where your office is. You should know landmarks, streets, hallways and doors, any info that your clients or interviewees might need in order to find you.
Have A Clean Office
Inside an out, your office space should be clean looking. The interior and exterior of the office should match… a bright shiny modern exterior won’t help you if you have dingy carpet and dated decor. And the sharpest, cleanest interior finishings won’t make an impression on your customer if the outside of the building looks condemned.
Also, this should go without saying, but have clean bathrooms. Nothing scares prospective recruits or clients than an office with a filthy restroom.
Have Good Coffee
Seriously. Get some good coffee. Most every sales guy out there drinks it. You want them productive and happy? Get a well-stocked coffee bar with the good stuff on hand. You can’t buy good team morale, but you can buy a decent cup of joe.
Have The Support You Need To Establish Your Sales Office
If you’re looking to grow your direct sales team, Solcomm wants to hear from you. We are direct sales leaders in the telecom industry and we specialize in providing support and training to new telecom subdealers just like you to help your sales team thrive and avoid common start-up mistakes. Check out our opportunities for subdealers today!
Keep up the great work! Thank you so much for sharing great posts.