The perks of working remotely are finally coming to the fore. As enterprises are going remote, they are switching how they communicate with target audiences and approach prospects.<\/p>\n
Even if you\u00a0shift to remote work, you must ensure your business runs as usual. Start with your remote sales teams first. In this blog, we will share some hacks and tips sales teams can follow as they work from home.<\/p>\n
We spoke to a few leaders and experts from across industries to understand what remote sales practices and hacks they are using. Based on this, we have put together a round-up of some remote sales tips, tricks, and hacks coming straight from experienced leaders, sales professionals, and sales managers.<\/p>\n
Getting started with remote work can be a bit challenging for businesses. There is a strong concern about the distractions at home and the level of productivity.<\/p>\n
This is a whole new scenario for sales reps who are used to meeting prospects face-to-face.<\/p>\n
But, with the right set of hacks, tips, and tricks, even field sales teams can master the art of remote selling.<\/p>\n
There are more upsides to remote work than disadvantages. The time spent commuting to the workplace is zilch when working remotely. It also allows you to work flexibly and thereby provide even better inputs.<\/p>\n
Most importantly, remote work is a more durable way of operating. In extreme situations such as natural hazards and pandemics, employees\u2019 safety is the main priority.<\/p>\n
Remote working is the ideal solution here.<\/p>\n
Before we get into the specifics, some self-explanatory rules exist for working from home. Remote work means working outside of the physical restrictions of your office.<\/p>\n
However, to maintain the same level of professionalism, it will be wise for you to consider these tips and hacks.<\/p>\n
To begin with, pick a room where you\u2019ll be setting up your workspace. If you already have a designated study room or library, these spots make for your ideal workspace.<\/p>\n
The idea is to opt for a disturbance-free spot where you can concentrate and make sales calls without any noise.<\/p>\n
Working from the comfort of home may cause you to become overly relaxed, and you may end up going into a cycle of procrastination.<\/p>\n
To avoid this, set up your workplace, complete with your laptop, appliances, and office supplies. You should be as productive as you would be in your office. Ensure that there is no disturbance from your family members during your working hours.<\/p>\n
Another effective way to succeed in remote working is to set clear, achievable goals. Goals help you break down tasks, set timelines, and measure completion.<\/p>\n
Use challenging yet realistic quotas to motivate your remote team to meet targets. It is also crucial to keep communication clear so everyone understands their job and deadlines.<\/p>\n
According to Raymer Malone, the owner of\u00a0High Income Protection Insurance Agency, the\u00a0right tools, the right approach, and the right mindset are 3 key necessities\u00a0when working from home.<\/p>\n
He says, ” You need to have tools or technology that help you sell your products.\u00a0 Utilize calendar scheduling services like Calendly,\u00a0 screen-share with websites like join.me, write notes with a digital notepad, or have clients sign documents with DocuSign.<\/p>\n
The right approach means that you have a process in place to make the sale, so we incorporate a contact cadence that is a combination of calls, texts, and emails.\u00a0 Our CRM manages this process for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deploy\u00a0collaboration software\u00a0to maintain smooth team workflows. Teams working in different time zones and\/or geographical zones can rely on these tools to\u00a0operate more efficiently and ensure that everyone\u2019s on the same page.<\/p>\n
It is equally important to have regular check-ins with your team. No matter your position on the hierarchy, you should be well-versed in what\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n
Even if you are operating as a geographically dispersed team, you are, at the end of the day, working towards the same goal.<\/p>\n
For this, you should be on top of what\u2019s happening at every person\u2019s end.<\/p>\n
Kevin Dorsey, VP of Inside Sales at\u00a0Patient Pop, has been managing almost 100 sales reps remotely. He suggests holding multiple Zoom huddles per day.<\/p>\n
He says,<\/p>\n
\u201cstart of the day, focus on the plan, motivation, check-ins, and getting the energy going. Next one right after lunch, getting people back together, and getting ready for the afternoon. End of day \u2013 Share the wins. We also do zoom power hours and training where every one zoomed in and did all the same thing at the same time. Shouting people out publicly via slack for things they are doing that\u2019s winning.\u201c<\/p>\n
According to Jessica Magoch, CEO at\u00a0JPM Sales Partners,<\/p>\n
\u201cMake sure your sales reps have a constant flow of communication to you and to each other. Apps like Slack are easy to set up and integrate with other apps you may use.<\/p>\n
Create channels for specific conversations to organize information. My teams have a 911 channel which is where they ask questions they need an answer to while on a call or in a meeting. We don\u2019t ever want them to have to hang up the phone because they don\u2019t have the answers they need, so we have a commitment to all have our notifications on for that channel and make sure it\u2019s not overused.<\/p>\n
The celebrations channel is there to celebrate wins, big and small, to keep the morale up even when working remotely!\u201d<\/p>\n
Here are the best practices you can follow while communicating with your remote teams.<\/p>\n
If your team has newly shifted to remote working, you must understand that there will be a learning curve.<\/p>\n
One way to make the transition less frustrating is to empathize with your team, especially those who aren’t tech-friendly. Assure them that you’re there whenever they need help.<\/p>\n
It’s easy to feel lonely and disconnected from your team when working remotely. However, you can use technology to overcome such isolation.<\/p>\n
Host video meetings where your team can have face-to-face communication with one another. It helps them connect and collaborate better.<\/p>\n
Remote working needs special communication norms to bring clarity and certainty to virtual communications.<\/p>\n
Teams should decide which communication channel to use (WhatsApp, slack, etc.), preferred response time, writing style (formal or informal), and so on.\u00a0It would also help to set remote communication etiquette and have everyone follow it consistently.<\/p>\n
Is email the primary communication channel for your remote team? If so, it’s time you supplement it with group chats and internal messaging tools.<\/p>\n
Such tools enable employees to have short, quick conversations without straining their inboxes.<\/p>\n
Remote working does not need to put a halt to social activities. Use the webcam to your advantage to host virtual happy hours or video coffee dates and encourage non-work related conversation.<\/p>\n
The more you know your team personally, the easier it becomes to communicate and collaborate.<\/p>\n
Technology plays a pivotal role in making remote teams efficient and fostering remote work collaboration.<\/p>\n
You probably already use tools like sales CRM and automation software to streamline sales workflow.\u00a0But as you start working remotely, you will need to revise your tech stack with a few other remote work collaboration tools.<\/p>\n
Here is a list of them.<\/p>\n
Get a business VPN that offers remote access to your office network for your sales team. Remote sales employees have access to company sources and relevant data without any security threats with a business VPN.<\/p>\n
Besides that, sales reps hold huge pools of data about prospects. Home wireless networks may not be safe from hacking threats. This endangers the security of prospects\u2019 sensitive information.<\/p>\n
Remote access VPN protects your information through encryption. So, every piece of information becomes encrypted and unreadable.<\/p>\n
In remote selling, sales calls become one of the main points of communicating with prospects.<\/p>\n
In a conventional setting, you\u2019d rely on a fixed phone line system. But, when sales reps start working remotely, they don\u2019t have access to the same landline phone hardware.<\/p>\n
In order to maintain business continuity, get a\u00a0cloud phone system\u00a0that teams can easily access in a remote setting.<\/p>\n
Investing in a good cloud-based phone system helps sales reps in carrying out cold calls remotely in an effective manner.\u00a0Cloud-based office phone systems\u00a0can typically be accessed through\u00a0mobile apps, web apps, and other mobile devices.<\/p>\n
Agents can work flexible hours in a remote setting. Cloud phone systems help align business hours with different agents\u2019 working hours.<\/p>\n
Cloud phone systems, in this sense, streamline the sales process for teams. What\u2019s more, with features such as auto-dialer and\u00a0call recording, sales teams can aim to achieve optimum productivity.<\/p>\n
Follow a personalized approach to communicating with prospects. One small pitfall associated with remote selling is the absence of face-to-face communication.<\/p>\n
Especially for sales reps who are used to pitching in person, turning prospects into customers is challenging.<\/p>\n
In remote selling, personalized communication with prospects helps. From the very outset, your pitching and messaging should be customized to the respective prospect. Identifying prospects\u2019 problems and aligning your solutions to their problems is the path to follow.<\/p>\n
Create personalized emails to address the specific challenges that your prospects are facing. You have to showcase that your product has the solution to the specific problems that a prospect is facing.<\/p>\n
Backing up your email pitches with a quick pre-demo video will be helpful here. Instead of taking your prospects through a proper demo of your product, you can give them a short teaser. When you are directly addressing your prospect, it leaves the impression that you can help solve their problem.<\/p>\n
Tap into the power of your business website. Your website is a vital digital property for brand discovery, awareness, consideration, and conversion.<\/p>\n
Use your website to showcase how your products can address prospects\u2019 pain points effectively. You can generate a lot of leads through your website itself. For this, you need to optimize your website<\/a>.<\/p>\n To begin with, you need to use a reliable chatbot. Chatbots help you provide all the relevant information about your product and brand to website visitors in real-time.<\/p>\n Apart from investing in a chatbot, you also need to get a sense of your website visitors\u2019 activity. Use Google Analytics for this. Track website traffic, new visitors, time spent on a particular page, and so on.<\/p>\n Lastly, don\u2019t forget to add calls to action. Analyze visitors\u2019 activity on your website and, accordingly, place calls to action on your website. Having your prospects go through a product demo, for instance, will help you increase the chances of conversion.<\/p>\n You can lead your audience to your demo page through calls to action.<\/p>\n Use local numbers to connect\u00a0with your prospects. Outbound sales with local caller IDs can make a big difference. Your prospects are less likely to pick up your call if they see an unfamiliar code.<\/p>\n On the other hand, your chances of getting answered are more when you call from a local number. This also increases your chances of getting conversions.<\/p>\n So, remote sales teams, no matter where they are making the calls from, can demonstrate a local business presence with local numbers. People are more likely to be curious to answer a call when they are familiar with the number.<\/p>\n If you want to increase your chances of generating conversions, get your remote sales team to use local numbers.\u00a0Get a good business phone system\u00a0that provides you with local numbers from any location.<\/p>\n You can boost your sales efforts through SMS campaigns. In remote sales, it is very important to nurture prospects through various points of communication. In fact,\u00a0automated SMS campaigns\u00a0can be used for following up with prospects.<\/p>\n Remember the mere exposure effect? SMS campaigns can help build familiarity, as well.<\/p>\n Besides, many businesses invest in SMS campaigns for the high ROI it brings. Studies show that 90% of the time, SMS messages are read within 3 minutes of the receipt.<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, SMS messages generate nearly 3-7 times more engagement than emails.<\/p>\n You can also use automated text messages to respond to your prospects\u2019 queries.<\/p>\n We can\u2019t reiterate enough how important it is to be responsive to your prospects. This is why you should work around automated SMS campaigns for your business.<\/p>\n A successful remote sales plan calls for smooth collaboration between different departments. With automated integrations, you can save up on a lot of time and effort.<\/p>\n Rather than manually carrying out tasks between different tools and\/or software, you can rely on automated integrations. Particularly for teams working remotely, automated integrations are no less than a boon.<\/p>\n We just discussed how important it is to align the sales communication according to a prospect\u2019s position along the customer journey. Automated integrations between marketing automation software and CRMs can be used to pass the sales-qualified leads to the sales team.<\/p>\n Automated integrations between your cloud phone system and CRM software can streamline the cold-calling process for your remote sales team, as well. Use automated integrations to put your remote selling efforts on the fast track.<\/p>\n Almost every sales team is highly reliable on heavy CRM setups, but some businesses also use a less complex CRM, such as Streak. Chris Kaiser, CEO and Founder at\u00a0Click A Tree, says,<\/p>\n \u201cTo stay connected within the team, you need a good CRM, and everybody needs to be on the same page on how to use it. Having regular online meetings about this (to start with once a week is good) ensures that every salesperson uses the CRM in the same way, so everyone always understands what\u2019s going on. At Click A Tree, we\u2019re using Streak CRM since it integrates seamlessly with Gmail, and we can work from within Gmail. \u201d<\/p>\n Michael Alexis, CEO of\u00a0Team Building, believes in the idea of \u2018automation of lead qualification and giving your sales team more hours in the day.\u2019 He says,<\/p>\n \u201cAs a small remote team, we rely heavily on automation. We use the online\u00a0automation tool, Zapier, to automate many of our sales tasks. The goal of using Zapier isn\u2019t to replace people with automation, it\u2019s to use automation to augment our small team\u2019s talents and productivity.<\/p>\n For example, we taught our sales rep how to automate lead qualification and other repetitive tasks, which resulted in about 10 hours per week of time savings. With this extra time, this rep can now spend more time on the phone with potential clients, which is a win for us and also a win for them as they are commission-based. In total, we automate about 14,000 tasks per month which has proved to be an incredible time-saver and allows us to compete with companies with ten times the number of employees.\u201d<\/p>\n One common apprehension that repetitively arises about remote sales is the productivity of sales teams.<\/p>\n But we\u2019ve got just the hack for you!<\/p>\n Hold your remote sales reps accountable by tracking their performance through Analytics and\u00a0Call Monitoring.<\/p>\n Keeping tabs physically on your remote sales reps is not possible in a WFH setting. But you can monitor remote sales reps\u2019 call activity to know how they are performing.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re using a cloud-based phone system, you should access the call analytics. View the volume of sales calls made by a particular agent on a given day, the duration of each call, and so on.<\/p>\n With Call Monitoring, you can listen to live calls between your sales reps and prospects. Without your prospect know, you can speak to your agent during the call. You can also barge in during the sales call to talk to the prospect directly.<\/p>\n Call Monitoring, in this sense, makes tracking remote sales performance easier.<\/p>\n Setting SMART sales targets is the key to boosting your\u00a0sales reps\u2019 productivity. It is not possible to monitor your remote sales reps\u2019 activity full-time. In the absence of a supervisor tracking their performance, sales reps may tend to slack off or procrastinate.<\/p>\n SMART sales targets ensure better efficiency. Use the SMART model for your sales goals.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s quickly break down this acronym.<\/p>\n SMART goals are goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic\u00a0and time-bound.<\/p>\n Like any profit-driven enterprise, your ultimate objective is to increase your revenues. To put it in a nutshell, your sales targets should look something like this: \u201cIncrease sales revenue by around 25% in the next quarter.\u201d<\/p>\n The switch from pitching in person to communicating virtually can be hard. It can be difficult for field sales reps to maintain the volume of sales following this shift.<\/p>\n Leveraging the mere exposure effect can be very helpful here.<\/p>\n The mere exposure effect is a psychological phenomenon according to which people have a tendency to build preferences for things that they are familiar with.<\/p>\n Remote sales teams can use the mere exposure effect to get the prospects familiar with the product. It goes without saying that building a digital presence is imperative to get your prospects familiar with your products.<\/p>\n Besides organic digital properties like your website and social media handles, you also need to invest in paid content and targeted advertising.<\/p>\n Use your digital content as a build-up to your sales pitch. Applying the mere exposure effect, here, your prospects are more likely to convert when they are already familiar with your product.<\/p>\n Remote sales reps need to be present and active on LinkedIn for so many reasons. Not only can you build awareness about your brand on LinkedIn.<\/p>\n This platform is also great for building your network and connecting with prospects, subject matter experts, and peers in the industry.<\/p>\n LinkedIn, in this sense, is a great platform to learn, market, and network. LinkedIn\u2019s format allows you to build professional relationships at scale. In fact, remote sales reps can use this platform for prospecting and pitching directly on the platform.<\/p>\n Connect with the right people to make the most of your presence. Use InMail to engage with leads and prospects. Showcase expertise through content on LinkedIn.<\/p>\n The idea here is to leverage the format to the fullest.<\/p>\n Prospecting is, perhaps, one of the most crucial steps in generating revenue through sales. Identifying prospects who are suitable for your products instead of randomly shooting in the dark.<\/p>\n This will help you in generating more conversions and save more time.<\/p>\n D- DEMOGRAPHICS<\/p>\n A- ANALYSIS of PROSPECTS\u2019 DIGITAL FOOTPRINTS<\/p>\n L-\u00a0LEAD SCORING<\/p>\n S- SEGMENTATION of LEADS<\/p>\n Firstly, create a demographic profile of your prospect. Which are your target geographical areas? For B2B brands, other factors, such as company turnover, size, industry, and so on, may also be important.<\/p>\n Next, conduct an analysis of your prospects\u2019 digital footprints. This includes analyzing how prospects interact with your website and social media handles.<\/p>\n Further, find out if any prospects are downloading case studies or e-books.<\/p>\n Following this, you need to carry out the lead scoring exercise. Work with your marketing team to combine your marketing-qualified leads and sales-qualified leads.<\/p>\n After this,\u00a0segment your leads\u00a0depending on where they are on the journey to becoming customers.<\/p>\n Closing deals is not always smooth and uni-directional. Many times you will come across prospects making objections to the sale. But don\u2019t get disheartened by these objections.<\/p>\n As the saying goes, you gain some, you lose some. However, you can gain more than you lose by being prepared with rebuttals to sales objections.<\/p>\n For sales reps who are on the field most of the time, dealing with rejections in a remote setting can be particularly difficult. Preparing in advance is the trick here.<\/p>\n A good idea here would be to tap into the experiences of your sales team. Prepare a list of all the common objections that your team may have come across. Plan out strong and convincing rebuttals to the different objections at the same time.<\/p>\n Persuading prospects over a call is no easy feat. Rehearsed rebuttals to objections can help you turn objections into a possible \u2018yes.\u2019<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take an example.\u00a0One of the most common objections that sales reps face is concerns about expensive product pricing. Figure out what the concern of the prospect is.<\/p>\n If the price is the real concern, you can always offer discounts to match their budget. Be prepared to respond to the sales objections with appropriate rebuttals.<\/p>\n Providing incentives as a part of your offer will make for a win-win situation.<\/p>\n Khabeer Rockley, Director of\u00a0The 5% Institute, suggests speaking with the decision-maker upfront.<\/p>\n In the discovery call, you need to ask, \u201cUsually, when you\u2019re making a buying decision, who needs to usually be involved \u2013 is it just yourself, or are there others too?\u201d<\/p>\n This will depend on whom you\u2019re selling to (B2C to enterprise) and what you\u2019re selling.<\/p>\n At the start of the sales conversation, check that all decision-makers are present by saying: \u201cSo just to confirm as per our previous conversation, if you were completely happy with how everything went today \u2013 is everyone presently able to let me know what the next steps will be?\u201c<\/p>\n The important thing is first identifying decision-makers and not making assumptions about who they are, and then secondary \u2013 ensuring they\u2019re present when you\u2019re having your deep dive sales conversation.<\/p>\n Use content to establish your position as a brand worth investing in. Instill confidence in your prospects through affirming content pieces. Showcase how your brand is helping other brands and businesses solve their problems.<\/p>\n You can share case studies to illustrate how your clients are using your products to achieve their goals.<\/p>\n Ask your clients to share feedback and testimonials for your product. Video testimonials can be particularly impactful.<\/p>\n Take referrals from loyal customers. Use the\u00a0Net Promoter Score\u00a0Survey to identify potential advocates for your product. Have your customer success specialists reach out to them.<\/p>\n Ask them for permission to share their feedback. In this way, you establish a strong relationship with your clients, that too in an ethical manner.<\/p>\n Tailor your message according to the platform or medium you are using. Communication plays a vital role in sales. In remote sales, especially, the way you pose your message to your leads and prospects is a make-or-break gamble.<\/p>\n How you frame your message on social media platforms is going to be different from your approach to email or even your website, for that matter.<\/p>\n Push your prospects along the sales journey by using the right messaging on every platform. Your message on social media platforms will be largely focused on building awareness.<\/p>\n This is where you will generate leads as well as prospects. Remember, your communication strategy will also vary across different social media platforms.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, as your prospects move further along the customer journey, you will follow a different approach to communicating with them. Emails to prospects should be more personalized, attempting to offer solutions for them.<\/p>\n Similarly, your cold call pitches will be mapped out differently. Sending out the right message at the right phase along the sales journey will ultimately contribute to remote sales success.<\/p>\n For Manny Hernandez, CEO and co-founder of\u00a0Wealth Growth Wisdom LLC,<\/p>\n \u201cThe\u00a0first thing is to provide sales training. If your sales team doesn\u2019t know your product like the back of their hand, they\u2019ll fall short when closing a sale. Make sure that sales reps understand product details and features so that they can effectively answer questions and solve client problems.<\/p>\n Taking your sales reps through a\u00a0structured onboarding program\u00a0will really go a long way to help them understand product details. Also, goal setting, scripting, and a focus on relevant\u00a0sales metrics\u00a0is important.<\/p>\n Be transparent and provide open data so that reps can unleash the full potential of\u00a0sales analytics.\u201c<\/p>\n Remote selling means flexible working hours for sales reps. This is when remote sales reps can enroll in\u00a0online sales training<\/a> courses.<\/p>\n In fact, since there is no commuting time in remote selling, sales reps can utilize this time to enhance their sales skills.<\/p>\n There are various self-paced and peer-review-based sales training courses out there. There are several paid as well as free online sales training courses. Now, you can take a pick as to which course will be most helpful for you, depending upon the skill areas you would want to work on.<\/p>\n There are some courses and webinars targeted at remote sales training, as well. Perhaps, you can create a pool of learning sources in-house as well.<\/p>\n Remote sales reps can access these sources to amp up their knowledge and skills.<\/p>\n Here are some of the free online sales training courses and guides that remote sales teams can explore:<\/p>\n This is also probably the right time to work on your MS EXCEL skills. Run through EXCEL cheat codes, and find relevant templates to carry out your sales processes effectively.<\/p>\n Shawn Breyer, Owner of\u00a0Atlanta House Buyers, insists on holding remote sales teams accountable to KPIs.<\/p>\n \u201cWe track how many cold calls they make, how many meaningful conversations they have -this is subjective, and how many offers they make. The reason we track these is that we know how many phones calls it takes to get a lead, we know how many leads it takes to get a deal, and we know how many offers we need to make to get a deal.<\/p>\n So, instead of tracking how many deals we got (lagging indicators), we track how much action we are taking, which is our set of leading indicators.\u201d<\/p>\n Michael Tuso is the Director of Revenue Performance at\u00a0Chili Piper\u2013 a 100% remote workforce SaaS firm since 2016. He suggests,<\/p>\n \u201cCreate awareness on the sales team. One way we do this is by using a self-scoring system of sales calls. After prospecting and\u00a0discovery calls, the sales reps score themselves on a scale of 1-10. That score is then sent to management, and we can compare the two and address discrepancies.\u201d<\/p>\n Kean Graham, CEO of\u00a0MonetizeMore, with 100+ full-time remote staff, has been following a KPI system for remote management.<\/p>\n \u201cWe implemented a\u00a0key performance indicator (KPI)\u00a0system in accordance to each team and its workflows with the following color system:<\/p>\nUse Local Numbers<\/h4>\n
Power-up Your Sales Efforts with SMS Campaigns<\/h4>\n
Leverage Automated Integrations for Smoother Workflows<\/h4>\n
Use Call Monitoring and Analytics<\/h4>\n
4. Set S.M.A.R.T. Sales Targets<\/h4>\n
\nMake your goals measurable. Use concrete numbers to represent your\u00a0sales targets.
\nYour goals should be realistic and attainable.
\nAscertain performance accountability from remote sales reps by setting clear timelines.<\/p>\n5. Use the Mere Exposure Effect to Increase the Chances of Conversion<\/h3>\n
6. Be Proactive on LinkedIn for Networking and Prospecting<\/h3>\n
7. Use the D.A.L.S. Model for Prospecting<\/h3>\n
8. Be Prepared with Rebuttals to Sales Objections<\/h3>\n
9. Create Proof Content<\/h3>\n
10. Align Your Message According to the Medium<\/h3>\n
11. Invest in and Encourage Sales Training for Your Reps<\/h3>\n
\n
12. Track Relevant Sales KPIs and Metrics<\/h3>\n