With COVID-19, most salespeople are 100% remote operating from their home office with no travel. Every interaction with customers is done via conference call or video-conference. Before COVID-19, unless you were strictly inside sales, most salesforces were in the field, catching planes, driving to customers, and were on the road making it happen. What a change! For some of us, it has been a nice break from the hectic airports, traffic, and non-stop whirlwind weeks filled with travel. But for many, being “stuck” in the home office every single day is getting old. Real old. Here are a few things you as a salesperson or leader, can do to keep your sanity and to sell your best!
- Take a break mid-morning and go for a short walk outside. You have to leave the computer and go for a walk. Otherwise, if you are just staring at emails and the computer all day, your mind will turn to mush. Your energy will become drained. And guess what? Your customers will take note. They will hear it in your tone of voice and feel your lackluster energy level over the phone. You also won’t give them the attention that they deserve and they will sense this. Get out of the house and go for a walk. Physiologically this has significant benefits. Increased blood flow, an energy boost, improvements to your mood, and a reduced stress level, are some of the many health benefits. Some of my best problem-solving ideas also came to me when I went for a walk. I used to think a walk was a waste of company time. A 10-15 minute walk will improve your selling results for all the above reasons. Take one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
- Don’t eat lunch at your computer. Remove yourself from your home office workplace. Eat outside or in another room. I would often have lunch down in the kitchen (away from my home office). I would eat rather quickly so I could enjoy getting outside, usually for another walk.
- Reflect on the many great benefits of working from home and use them to your advantage. Understand that the times that we are in are temporary. If you were commuting daily to your office, you don’t have to deal with traffic and coming home late. Your productivity should be at an all-time high. I understand that there are distractions at home (the kids, family, pets, etc.). But… there shouldn’t be any “water bubbler” talk; no wasted time gossiping with coworkers (not that you would do that); and more time than ever before to focus on selling. Think about it… no traveling to the airport, no wasted time on a plane, no emails piling up as you drive; and… you can send out more quotes, take more calls, and work on more presentations than ever before. You can be 100% “on” and at your best from your home office. Use this to your advantage!
- If you are a sales leader, you should be checking in with each member of your team daily. As a manager, I would make it a point to make sure that I gave everyone on my team some “loving” on a daily basis or to help them with anything that they needed. Often times I would just call them to check in and see how they were doing. Being remote can make people feel like they are all alone on an island, but not if you as the sales leader, take the time to connect with, and to keep your people connected with their team on a daily basis.
- Turn the cameras on! By not being able to go to a physical office and see people, you have to turn the cameras on. Doesn’t it feel so good when you talk to a member of your team and you see their face? You can see their smile once again! This is both healthy for the person on camera, and for the person on the other end. Just because we are remote doesn’t mean we go weeks without seeing each other. Use the cameras!
- Communicate frequently. Keep your people informed. Celebrate good and exciting news early and often. If you are a sales leader, have at least one team call per week. Send out an email to the team on Friday afternoons recapping progress, wins, and giving accolades to those who deserve it. When you are talking with your reps, keep them informed of all the great work that everyone is doing and some of the deals in the works that may come in during the week or month. When employees are remote, they want to feel connected. They want to feel as though they are a part of something. Remember, there is no brick and mortar office right now. It is up to you, the leader, to keep your team plugged in and connected.
- Encourage your team to work from different places. I would ask that my team pick one day a week to change up the scenery and work from somewhere else. Maybe they have a vacation home or lake house. Maybe they can get a WiFi signal from some public spot that they enjoy going to. Encourage them to take their phone and their laptop and work from someplace different. A change of scenery is sometimes all a person needs to get out of a slump and become refreshed again.
- Talk more on the phone. Both with your internal and external customers. When you are at home every single day, little things such as a frustrating email can wreak havoc on someone. Use the phone more to communicate both with your team members, other associates, and with your customers. There is more to communicating than just sending and receiving emails all day. You get burned out if you do this and oftentimes, wires get crossed. And let’s face it, I think everyone is pretty tired of the non-stop, ever-flowing inbox that just keeps piling up. Pick up the phone and talk more than ever before. People want to hear your voice and escape from all the back and forth emailing.
That’s it for now my selling friends! Do something different, something special this week to break things up. Create some new habits and new routines for 2021. You will be most glad that you did.
– Happy Selling!