Remote work has been growing since the pandemic. Many businesses realized the amount of benefits that remote work offers is enough to completely or partially implement it. Remote work is especially great for professions which can be done only with a computer.
Sales are a great example of a job that can be done maybe even better in a remote environment, depending on the employee. Whether you have a company that’s focused on sales or has a sales team, remote work is worth considering.
This article explores the importance of remote work and how it can boost your sales team. Of course, there are some challenges, but for many, the pros of remote work outweigh the cons.
What makes remote work unique
Traditionally, companies had to rent office space for their employees. Furthermore, they had to spend money on utilities and equipment. All of these expenses could have taken up a significant portion of the budget.
Remote work allows you to completely avoid the need for an office and help you save money. Similarly, employees would save their own money by not having to commute to work or live in densely populated areas.
In terms of the work processes themselves, remote work has benefits in terms of productivity. Many people work more efficiently without the pressure of their co-workers and managers nearby. Furthermore, they can significantly benefit from flexible schedules and asynchronous work.
However, some challenges regarding remote work can emerge if we take a look at team cohesion and effective communication across teams. Employees can be stationed in different timezones, which can cause delays in communication.
This can be solved through straightforward policies on work scheduling and messaging. The onboarding and hiring process is also going to be a lot different if you’re working remotely than in the office environment.
You’ll have to conduct online training and onboarding of your sales specialists, which can sometimes be challenging.
How do sales work in the current era?
Sales in the current landscape function a lot differently than before. Old school sales methods, such as cold calls, are still relevant and effective, but we also have a number of other, more modern, ways.
More importantly, modern sales can be conducted without ever having to have an in-person interaction, which makes remote work perfect for sales teams. Nowadays, we have virtual meetings, CRM platforms, and automated email marketing, to name a few.
Furthermore, traditional sales methods, such as cold calls, can be done through software. You can use platforms such as Skype or Viber and VoIP systems.
A remote salesperson can, for example, use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to find relevant leads. Sales Nav has a number of filters that allow you to find the right company and individual for your needs.
Then, they can use the FullEnrich extension to “enrich” the leads and obtain their contacts. After they find their info, and most importantly, their phone and email, they can use email marketing tools or phone solutions in order to initiate sales.
There are dozens of different options on the market when it comes to sales tools. For email marketing, we have Woodpecker, Lemlist, and Hunter.io, to name a few. On the other hand, you can choose from phone solutions such as Aircall, Ring Central, Dialpad, and others.
Because there are so many different options on the market, it can be confusing and hard to find the proper tool. You should seek options that are easy to use yet have all the features that you might need.
Remote workers as sales specialists
Compared to traditional sales, remote workers will rely heavily on their computers and software. While it’s not expected of a salesperson to be a software developer, some level of tech-savviness can be crucial for their role.
While the onboarding should cover the majority of processes the sales specialists will use, some problems or advanced features will require more tech skills. Ensure that your sales team has enough experience with technology in order to avoid bottlenecks.
But don’t fire a good salesperson if they have a harder time adjusting to the technology, as their sales skills are much more important than their tech savvy.
Because your sales team will work remotely from a number of different countries, you’ll have to help them cooperate and bond. This can sometimes be problematic if your sales team doesn’t have the same time zones or speaks different languages.
However, you should try to bridge this gap through regular meetings and online team-building activities. The great aspect of remote work is that you’ll be able to tap into global talent, allowing you to hire better sales specialists.
This can help you improve your sales team’s efficiency and establish your teams more quickly than in an office environment. Hiring globally can also help you penetrate into new markets with less risk.
Imagine if you’re running a UK-based company that’s looking to expand to Norway. Instead of having to open an office there, deal with paperwork, and spend a fortune on setting up a team there, you’ll be able to hire Norwegian-speaking sales experts with ease.
Communication tools for sales
Communication and outreach tools are essential for sales experts. Most importantly, your team will need centralized platforms that they’ll use to find leads and contact them. You can use some of the tools mentioned, such as Dialpad.
However, you can also take a look at the best Dialpad alternatives and see whether a certain platform provides better features. When looking for a phone system, you should explore integration options that are relevant to your company.
For example, if sales are only one team in your business, you’ll want software that’s possible to integrate with communication platforms such as Slack or Microsoft Teams in order for easier management and communication company-wide.
You can further enhance your team’s productivity with sales-specific tools, such as Gong.io for call analysis or HubSpot for CRM. Other important considerations when finding a communication tool include looking for in-house support and training.
This can significantly help you onboard workers and managers more quickly, especially if they haven’t used such tools before. Furthermore, if a problem occurs, support will help you fix it with ease.
Eventually, if a tool has everything you need, you should evaluate its cost compared to competitors and choose one that suits your budget. Make sure that there aren’t any shadow costs associated with it.
How to ensure employee productivity
Many entrepreneurs and decision-makers are worried about how to ensure employee productivity. For example, what can guarantee that they’ll work for an X amount of hours and that they won’t slack off?
One way to ensure their productivity is through setting KPIs. You can use these KPIs to understand the realistic output of your sales team and to ensure that your sales experts are hitting their targets.
Adequate KPIs also allow you to award your best performers, motivating your whole sales team to strive towards better results.
If this doesn’t suit your idea of a productive worker, you can also explore time and attendance software in order to ensure that your sales team is spending enough time working and that they perform an adequate amount of actions.
As mentioned earlier, building loyalty and engagement can be done through meetings and team-building activities. If your team has a sense of connection, they’ll also strive towards better results.
In case someone is making the same mistakes over and over, you should try to identify the problems and create documents that they’ll be able to learn from and fix their mistakes. YOu can create them in Word and then convert word to PDF in order to distribute it.
Remote sales teams are crucial for modern businesses
Sales have always been a form of art. Of course, anyone can be trained to some degree in sales and be good at it, but the top performers are always going to be talented. Furthermore, even the best salesperson can have poor performance if they’re selling a bad product.
As a company managing a remote team of sales specialists, you’ll have to find and use adequate technology in order to ensure good employee productivity. Don’t neglect the importance of communication and automation software for good sales performance.
Don’t be afraid to allow your sales teams to work remotely. You can first experiment with hybrid work before you allow them to go fully remote. Eventually, you’ll understand whether this work model has brought you benefits or not.
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