We definitely didn’t start this calendar year expecting to be cooped up at home, chasing vastly different sales targets and challenges than earlier.
Almost every industry took a hit with COVID-19, and sales always face significantly tougher challenges in this environment. The pressure of drumming up business and chasing closures while the economy plummets is no laughing matter.
As a sales manager, you also have the added responsibility of people – you need to keep the team’s sales motivation up as well. But don’t you worry because stats show that remote workers can be anywhere from 14% to 30% more productive than their in-office counterparts.
In an office environment, teammates, leaders, meetings, and the prospect of growth act as sales motivators; there’s constant interaction, a rapport, and a professional environment that contributes to it.
Your focus in a remote situation should be to motivate your sales team but you’ll have to do it in different ways, sometimes by simulating similar conditions.
1. Ways to Motivate Your Sales Team Remotely
Here are a few ways you can keep up your team’s sales motivation in a remote environment-
1.1. Create a Repository of Processes and Workflows
For example, any particular practices you follow when working on lead classification, conversion or deal closures should be uploaded as best practices. These can be put down into documents and will act as clear guidelines and expectations for your team as well as any new recruits.
Earlier, you might have communicated these in person in response to seeing someone going wrong. Without that contact, it’s time to turn these processes & best practices into always-accessible resources.
1.2. Conduct Mandatory Morning Video Meetings
With the video turned on!
These could be 15 minutes for everyone to share their work for the day and for you to provide updates, but it will help keep up the tempo. It’s important here to keep the video going and to make it seem as organic, easygoing, and open a meeting as possible.
Bonus tip– Think about ending the meeting with a “morale check”, where everyone simply describes their mind space for the day in a word.
1.3. Be Transparent
These are uncertain times and nothing is as anxiety-triggering as not knowing whether your job is safe.
Be as transparent as you can about any new company updates, policies, or changes. As you deliver them to your team, remember to be a little bit of a friend in addition to being their manager.
Growth motivation is very prominent in the workplace, and working from home in the middle of a pandemic can seem a little like stalling for a salesperson.
A good way to promote team spirit and growth is to bring everyone together for learning sessions that you can take or everyone can take in turns – sharing experiences and achievements or failures.
1.5. Make Work More Engaging
When you’re in sales you usually have a passion for understanding problems and selling solutions, rather than simply selling products.
The pandemic landscape requires a whole new level of understanding – consumer behaviour has changed, customer needs have changed and buying behaviour has changed. Have your team come together to dissect this new landscape and discuss new ideas on how to tackle prospects.
Want to know more about changing customer behaviour? We address these very issues in our blog on customer retention.
Video meetings, open lines of communication (to you or amongst each other), transparency, and clear expectations are some simple ways to keep sales motivation high and avoid people or performance hurdles.
If you have any more tried-and-tested tips, feel free to share them in the comments below!
