Client guide · Sales roles
Make remote sales collaboration work
A good salesperson should not spend their first weeks chasing access, finding colleagues or guessing priorities. Set them up for success before their very first call.
For founders, sales leaders and HR teams
SDR · BDR
Sales Executive
Updated 16 October 2026
The Kernel perspective
One team. Shared information. Clear ways of working.
Distance is not solved by more surveillance. It calls for a clear remit, a reliable working environment and regular conversations. Keep the practices that already work and make explicit what colleagues normally learn informally.
This guide brings together lessons from hundreds of our clients’ collaboration experiences. It turns Kernel’s on-the-ground expertise into practical decisions for your sales teams across all 54 African countries.
Set up for success
The talent is there. Give them the right foundations.
Hiring starts the relationship. Organisation and support give it the foundations to last.
- A clear mission
- A working setup
- A supportive team
01. Agree the role before choosing tools.
SDR, BDR and Sales Executive responsibilities vary between companies. A job title is not a brief: define the expected outputs, decision-making authority and handover responsibilities.
BDR
Target accounts
SDR
Leads to qualify
Shared qualification
Need, context, contact and next step
Sales Executive
Discovery, proposal and negotiation
An example, not a universal division of roles: adapt responsibilities to your sales cycle.
SDR: qualify and start conversations
Clarify the balance of inbound and outbound work, qualification criteria, expected response times and what makes an accepted meeting. Confirm who runs the demonstration and takes ownership of the prospect afterwards.
- Output: an actionable prospect record and a qualified meeting.
- Measures: meetings held, accepted and converted into opportunities.
BDR: develop target accounts
Define the segments, territories, company sizes and stakeholders to approach. Agree whether building prospect lists is part of the job and how much time it should take. A list of names is not yet a prospecting strategy.
- Output: researched accounts, relevant contacts and opportunities.
- Measures: meaningful conversations, engaged accounts and pipeline created.
Sales Executive: move deals forward
Document discovery, demonstrations, proposals and negotiation. Set discount authority, contract approval rules and the handover to customer-facing teams after signature. Make clear what the salesperson may promise and which decisions need approval.
- Output: opportunities managed with a dated next step.
- Measures: pipeline progression, conversion and signed revenue.
Agree together: target customers, offer, channels, territory, language, progressive goals, commission rules, reporting manager and qualification criteria. Activity volume and sales quality are not interchangeable.
02. Multiple locations. One team.
54 countries, 54 approaches. Distributed teams should not rely on a supposedly universal routine. Discuss working hours, public holidays, connectivity constraints and communication expectations with the people concerned.
Make shared time intentional
Agree a realistic overlap window, show time zones in calendars and check seasonal clock changes. Calling hours should suit the target market while respecting agreed working time. Separate urgency, availability and expected response times so that nobody has to guess.
Write down what must outlast a meeting
Keep decisions, procedures and notes in your existing shared workspace. Every topic needs an owner, a deadline and a source of truth. After a video call, a short summary and clear next steps prevent information from being available only to those who attended.
Build useful routines
Start with a short daily check-in during onboarding, then adjust the frequency as autonomy grows. Keep a weekly one-to-one, a pipeline review and coaching time. Protect uninterrupted prospecting blocks. Shared outcomes matter; being permanently online is not a performance indicator.
Prevent misunderstandings
Explain internal vocabulary, communication habits and target-market expectations without attributing behaviours to nationality. Ask people to summarise important decisions in their own words. Agree a backup channel for connectivity problems and an escalation contact, without expecting out-of-hours availability.
A useful management question is “What is preventing you from moving forward?” before asking for more calls. Missing access, an unclear offer or poorly targeted data requires a different response from a higher activity target.
03. A ready workstation, not a workaround.
Validate the working environment with the collaborator and your IT lead before they start. Working from home, Kernel offices or shared offices should reflect the role’s requirements, confidentiality needs and agreed arrangements.
Location and connectivity
Check noise, lighting, confidentiality and the ability to make calls without disturbing others. Run a phone call and a video meeting from the actual workspace: stability, latency and audio quality matter as much as advertised bandwidth. Agree a backup option appropriate to the location.
Compatible equipment
If personal equipment is sufficient, identify whether it runs macOS, Windows or Linux, the version and compatibility with your calling software, applications and security requirements. Test the webcam, headset microphone, browser and monitor. Personal-device use must be approved and covered by your IT policy.
Practical support from Kernel
Need to ship a preconfigured computer or purchase equipment locally? Kernel can help organise these steps. Confirm availability, budget, delivery, any formalities, configuration and support together. Timing and arrangements depend on the country and equipment rather than a uniform delivery promise.
Security from the outset
Use individual accounts, multifactor authentication, updates and least-privilege access. Share permitted secrets through a password manager, never chat messages or spreadsheets. Document the asset inventory, support contact, equipment return and access revocation at the end of the assignment.
Your readiness test: the collaborator can sign in, receive an invitation, open useful documents, call a test number and record an activity in the CRM from their actual workstation.
04. Onboarding starts before day one.
Integration is as much about the existing team as the new colleague. Explain the role in advance so nobody is left wondering about responsibilities, objectives or where the person fits.
Days −10 to −5 · Prepare and announce
Appoint a manager and an onboarding buddy. Announce the arrival with the person’s role, responsibilities and key contacts. Prepare an introduction to the business, its offer, customers and values. Share useful documentation securely without expecting unpaid work before the agreed start date.
- Owners: manager, HR and IT.
- Output: a shared onboarding schedule and a validated workstation.
Days −5 to −1 · Arrange the right access
Create a work email address and a signature consistent with the rest of the team. Add the collaborator to calendars and your existing communication platform, such as Slack, Zoom Workplace or Microsoft Teams. Prepare access to the CRM, documentation, shared folders and role-specific applications.
- Individual invitations, approved permissions and multifactor authentication.
- Password manager: 1Password, LastPass or Passbolt, according to your policy.
Tools mentioned · view the details
Day 1 · Make the team understandable
Introduce the company, manager, colleagues, support functions and the people who take over opportunities. Explain where to ask questions, who approves a discount and how to report an incident. Walk through your collaboration tools: Google Workspace (formerly G Suite), Microsoft 365 or Dropbox, followed by video meetings using Google Meet, Teams or Zoom.
Tools mentioned · view the details
Week 1 · Work together before delegating
Schedule product demonstrations, market familiarisation, role plays and observation of authorised sales conversations. Ask the collaborator to explain the value proposition and qualification criteria in their own words. Prepare a small pilot list and review messages together before launching a campaign.
Weeks 2 to 4 · Build belonging
Include the person in meetings, team channels and informal moments. Invite them, without requiring changes to personal accounts, to update their LinkedIn experience with the appropriate title and relationship. Introduce the company’s LinkedIn, X, Instagram and Facebook pages so they can follow its news. Obtain agreement before publishing a photo, announcement or personal mention.
- The individual updates their own LinkedIn profile.
- A weekly reflection helps resolve uncertainty before it becomes a habit.
Do not just send a list of links. Explain the context, priority and expected outcome. A collaborator needs to know where information lives and when and how to use it.
05. A connected sales process.
Start with how your business actually works. You do not need every tool: one source of truth and a few well-connected applications are more useful than a stack of overlapping subscriptions.
01Target
Who and why?
02Call
Start a conversation
03Follow up
Agree what comes next
04Track
Record the next action
The CRM is the common thread: every exchange informs the history, the next action and targeting adjustments.
Target · Who should you contact, and why?
Document your ICP (ideal customer profile): industry, size, geography, challenges, decision-maker role and exclusions. Decide whether you supply lists, the collaborator builds them or a provider delivers them. For each contact, keep the source, verification date, owner and relevant outreach context.
- Zeliq and Dropcontact: contact research or data enrichment according to your needs.
- Sales Navigator: LinkedIn account and stakeholder research. Waalaxy: LinkedIn and email sequences, subject to platform rules.
- Novarich: tailored B2B prospect databases. Ask about targeting criteria, provenance and update arrangements.
Tools mentioned · view the details
Call · A professional line, tested
Consider Sonik.ai, Aircall, Onoff Business or Ringover according to your setup. Before ordering, confirm whether a French number can be used from the working country, the required documentation, permitted destinations and appropriate number type. Number allocation and caller ID depend on local rules and the operator.
- Test an outbound call and an inbound callback from the actual workstation.
- Confirm headset quality, audio, calling charges and CRM logging.
- Do not enable recording or transcription without checking information requirements, lawful basis, access restrictions and retention.
Follow up · Relevance before volume
Individual follow-ups can come from the usual work email address. For structured sequences, lemlist or Apollo can organise follow-ups according to the selected plan. Approve templates, tone, timing and stopping rules: a reply, meeting, refusal or unsubscribe request.
- Ask IT to validate SPF, DKIM and DMARC.
- Start with a limited volume and monitor bounces, complaints and meaningful replies.
- Respect vendor limits, channel rules and the requirements of each target market.
Track · A history the team can pick up
Provide access to your existing CRM, such as Pipedrive or HubSpot. If your operation still uses Excel or Google Sheets, keep one shared file with appropriate permissions rather than personal copies. Explain pipeline stages, mandatory fields and how to close a lost opportunity.
- Minimum fields: company, contact, source, owner, status, last interaction, next action and due date.
- A handover includes the need, stakeholders, context and agreed next step.
- Keep refusals and objections in a shared suppression list to prevent repeat outreach.
Compliance belongs in the workflow: check data provenance, professional relevance, transparency and a simple opt-out. B2B is not a blanket GDPR exemption; requirements differ by country and channel.
06. Build autonomy in stages.
These milestones are a discussion framework, not performance guarantees or universal quotas. Adapt them to your offer, sales cycle, market and the collaborator’s experience.
Days 1 to 30 · Understand and test
Validate product knowledge, tool use and the quality of early conversations. Review a sample of messages and call notes. Identify recurring objections and refine targeting before increasing the pace.
- Review: access, pitch, qualification and data quality.
- Decide: what can be handled independently and what still needs support.
Days 31 to 60 · Repeat what works
Compare segments and channels using meaningful sample sizes. For an SDR or BDR, measure meetings actually held and accepted. For a Sales Executive, look at opportunity progression and confirmed next steps.
- Review: meaningful response rate, meetings held and accepted opportunities.
- Decide: improve one part of the process at a time.
Days 61 to 90 · Stabilise and develop
Document effective practices, exceptions and training needs. Review pipeline quality, loss reasons and autonomy. Agree the next quarter’s remit and objectives together rather than assuming the initial plan remains correct.
- Review: forecast reliability, team feedback and progress.
- Decide: increase volume only when quality and capacity support it.
Your dashboard should tell a story: relevant activity, conversations, meetings held, accepted opportunities and sales. Publish definitions and rate denominators so that comparisons remain meaningful.
07. Choose your toolkit deliberately.
Explore the solutions mentioned, their purpose and their official websites. Keep existing tools when they meet the need. Features, integrations and availability depend on the plan: verify them before committing.
Partner terms, through Kernel.
Kernel has established partnerships for its clients with the sales solutions identified below. Before subscribing, ask your Kernel contact about preferential pricing and the terms applicable to your requirements. Offers depend on the solution, plan, country and eligibility; no specific discount is guaranteed on this page.
Ask about partner termsTargeting and prospect data
Zeliq
Research B2B prospects and enrich contact details to support targeting.
Kernel sales-tool partner
Official website
Dropcontact
Find and enrich business email addresses in your sales data.
Kernel sales-tool partner
Official website
Waalaxy
Organise LinkedIn and email sequences. Check LinkedIn terms and usage limits.
Kernel sales-tool partner
Official website
LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Identify relevant companies and decision-makers using search criteria.
Kernel sales-tool partner
Official website
Novarich
Commission a tailored B2B prospect database based on your target market.
Kernel sales-tool partner
Official website
Sales calling
Sonik.ai
Structure calling sessions and sales follow-up. Confirm numbering and availability.
Kernel sales-tool partner
Official website
Aircall
Centralise team telephony and connect calls to your sales environment.
Kernel sales-tool partner
Official website
Onoff Business
Provide professional phone lines and manage team numbers.
Kernel sales-tool partner
Official website
Ringover
Organise business calls and follow-up according to your integrations and plan.
Kernel sales-tool partner
Official website
Sequences and follow-ups
lemlist
Prepare personalised outreach sequences and coordinate follow-ups.
Kernel sales-tool partner
Official website
Apollo
Bring sales data and outreach sequences into one environment.
Kernel sales-tool partner
Official website
CRM and shared tracking
Pipedrive
Track pipeline stages, activities and next sales actions.
Kernel sales-tool partner
Official website
HubSpot
Centralise contacts, conversations and opportunities in your team CRM.
Kernel sales-tool partner
Official website
Microsoft Excel
Shared tracking for a simple setup, with owner, status and next action.
Official website
Google Sheets
Collaborate in one spreadsheet with explicit permissions and update rules.
Official website
Communication and video meetings
Slack
Join the channels your team already uses and find shared decisions.
Official websiteZoom Workplace
Bring video meetings and collaboration together within your existing setup.
Official website
Microsoft Teams
Chat, meet and collaborate within your team’s Microsoft environment.
Official website
Google Meet
Run introductions, one-to-ones and video conversations with prospects.
Official website
Access and passwords
1Password
Share authorised secrets in vaults with controlled access.
Official websiteLastPass
Manage business passwords according to your security policy.
Official websitePassbolt
Organise team password sharing with an open-source solution.
Official website
Documents and collaboration
Google Workspace
Email, calendars and shared documents. Formerly known as G Suite.
Official websiteMicrosoft 365
Share documents and work within your company’s productivity environment.
Official website
Dropbox
Centralise and share useful files with controlled permissions and versions.
Official website
LinkedIn
X
Instagram
Facebook08. Your green light before the first prospect.
Review this checklist with your manager, HR team and IT lead. Tick only what has actually been validated. Progress stays on this page and resets when you reload it.
0 / 12 items validated
Questions to resolve together
Should we replace all our tools?
No. The aim is to bring the collaborator into your existing environment, not create a parallel organisation. Check licences, permissions and compatibility from their working location first. Add a tool only when it solves a specific need.
Who manages the collaborator day to day?
Your manager sets priorities, teaches your offer and reviews results. Kernel supports you within the agreed service scope, including HR, equipment or workspace matters where applicable. Clarify ownership before the start date.
Can a French phone number be used from Africa?
It may be possible with an appropriate solution, but is not automatic. Confirm documentation, number type, usage restrictions and availability from the relevant country with the operator. Complete a real-world trial before going live.
How do we access partner terms?
Contact Kernel before subscribing. Share the solution, number of users, working country and existing tools. Your contact confirms the offer and eligibility before you commit; discounts should not be assumed to apply retrospectively.
What if equipment or connectivity delays the start?
Flag the issue before day one where possible. With Kernel, review local purchasing, preconfigured shipping or a suitable workspace. Agree an owner, a realistic schedule and an approved interim solution.
Give your sales team a prepared start.
Kernel, your HR partner in Africa, combines technology and local teams across all 54 countries. Let’s discuss your organisation, constraints and what your collaborator needs to succeed.
Prepare my project with KernelCompliance reference: consult the guidance from the CNIL. This operational guide does not replace legal or IT advice tailored to your markets. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.