A recent survey found that 64% of employees feel connected to their colleagues, despite the country being on lockdown. Many of these scattered work forces have maintained a strong sense of culture during the trying months and have demonstrated that employee engagement can remain high even when a team are working from their home offices. So, how do they do it? Here are four tips to help you keep your remote sales team feeling connected.
The Monday morning meeting
Monday might not be anyone’s favourite day of the week, but all the more reason to schedule a weekly video call to kick off the day and recognise your top performers. However, with UK employees revealing they lose 13 days a year to unproductive meetings, it’s essential to keep these check-ins snappy and to trial new formats to see which works best for your team. If the purpose of these meetings is to motivate your salespeople and get their brain juices flowing set an aim for each weekly call.
For example, one meeting might be to find a new way to improve your sales forecasting, the next may be looking at how you can host a virtual social event. Involving the team in the generation of new ideas will give them an even mightier boost than their morning coffee and set their week up for success.
Socialising outside of work
Okay, so you might not be able to walk to the local pub after work but that means it’s time to get creative. Virtual bake-offs might not sound as tasty but that doesn’t stop you from getting your team together to rate each other’s cake. Don’t have any baking enthusiasts in your team? Try out virtual scavenger hunts, pub quizzes or fun fitness challenges.
Create virtual water cooler chats
If you haven’t heard of a watercooler chat then let us enlighten you. Every office has that place where the team gathers for some general chit-chat – what they did at the weekend, talks about the weather and any updates on their new house plants. A remote sales team doesn’t have this physical place and so they can lose the sense of camaraderie unless a virtual water cooler is created in place. Though you don’t want these chats to get in the way of work, one study shows that people are most productive in 52-minute bursts, so encouraging breaks can actually improve your team’s performance.
Microsoft Teams offers the feature of creating separate group chats – the perfect place to share non-work related memes, photos of pets and generally recreate those spontaneous water cooler moments. These groups are not only there to bring a bit of comedy to your team’s day but they can be a space for people to share their working from home tips. If your team chats on Slack, make use of the hashtag feature to set up a #wellbeing channel.
Refresh your tool stack
Give your salespeople the tools that will allow them to thrive in the remote world. Finding the right CRM system can prove an essential strategy to keep your remote sales team connected. Your CRM should be used as a central dashboard not only to visualise updates about prospects and leads but also used as a way to share files and schedule video chats. Next up is finding a sales enablement tool that allows your team to share insights about strategies that work and those that don’t. Using software such as Gong, your team can listen in on your top performers’ calls and truly learn from the best. Not only are they refining their sales skills but by sharing the successes of the team you’ll bring the group together.
Need help hiring during uncertain times?
With these four tips, you can keep your remote sales team feeling connected and even uncover a new and improved way of working. BMS has been navigating an ever-changing recruitment landscape for 30 years, meaning we’ve got the knowledge to help you build a successful sales team during these uncertain times. Contact us today to find out about our service or check out these four easy tips to help spot the wrong candidate in a video interview for more helpful hiring advice.
