Hi there 👋, my name is Dipak Vadera and I’m the Sales Director at Leadfeeder. 

Leadfeeder is a website visitor software — after installing our software, you can see the companies visiting your website, what they did on the site, and suggested people for you to contact at that company.

How big is it?

The Inbound Sales Team is currently made up of 10 rockstars:

2 sales managers, 2 business development managers, 5 account executives and myself. We’re hiring for 3 more account executives, check out our openings — I’d love to have you on the team.

Where are your teammates located?

Leadfeeder is a remote-first company with employees in 25+ countries around the world. Half of the inbound sales team is located in the US with the other half scattered across various countries throughout Europe. However, you never know where someone’s going to join a virtual meeting from which keeps things interesting. Being remote-first, Leadfeederians are big travelers. 

What does your team do? What are you responsible for?

My team handles all of the inbound sales opportunities at Leadfeeder. My goal is to coach, manage and support the team so they’re able to hit their sales targets

Trust, accountability, and being a self-starter. Without those components (and qualities), remote culture falls apart. 

My colleague, Alicia, and I actually wrote a blog on the topic of remote work culture recently. Our top five tips for managing a remote sales team are: 

1. Hire a great team
2. Give your team the tools they need to succeed
3. Give your team a strong foundation
4. Set realistic and data-driven goals/expectations
5. Be a manager people can talk to

Managing a remote team comes with its challenges. For example, you can’t stop by their desks for lunch or throw an impromptu happy hour. You can, however, be approachable and have an “open door” policy for your team members. 

Starting off on the right foot is important, too. I learn about each team member’s communication style and manage them accordingly. 

Meeting up on video instead of over the phone is another good way to stay connected to your team. I know we all have zoom fatigue, but you can start group calls with a creative ice breaker to keep it light and learn new things about your team.

Lastly, keep things short and sweet — no one likes to waste time. It’s important to let your team take advantage of the remote gig and grant them their independence.

Working across time zones. While it’s overwhelmingly worth it in terms of the trade-off (not being remote), working in opposite time zones is tough, especially when your team is spread across 6 timezones. 

A few tips I’ve learned in the last few years:

1. Embrace asynchronous communication where you can, not everything has to be communicated on a call.
2. Set fair meeting times & prioritize ‘overlap time’ - for instance, 3PM GMT (UTC) is when we have our team-wide calls, towards the end of the working day for Europe-based team members and mid-morning for their US counterparts.
3. Record meetings in case someone is not able to attend. That way they won’t feel like they entirely missed out.
4. Use a tool like Dato to visualize all the timezones your team members are based across. You can do something similar in Google Calendar too.

We have bi-annual team retreats called “teamweeks”. The last one was two weeks ago in Barcelona, here’s a cool video we posted of the trip. 

We also take part in at least one virtual team-building activity per quarter (via Onsite.fun). Aside from organized activities, we make time for a laugh on regular calls.

Family Feud! We’re addicted.

Continued learning is a big part of my role. Leadfeeder offers free courses to employees through Udemy, which is great. On an ongoing basis, I utilize LinkedIn, Reddit, Slack Communities, Skillshare, Audiobooks, and Podcasts (to name a few). 

If you have any good recs, send me a message on LinkedIn!