With the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, everyone is trying to adapt to a remote work environment. Then how can salespeople be left behind? Since they are not used to remote selling, it can prove to be a daunting task for them.
If done right, remote selling can improve the team’s productivity and enhance the selling process.
What do you Mean by Remote Selling?
Remote selling refers to a process of making sales without actually being in physical contact with the prospective buyers. In simple terms, it is basically selling from a remote work location, unlike traditional selling. Instead of having in-person meetings, salespeople need to contact the buyers virtually either through a phone, message, or email.
What are the Benefits of Remote Selling?
Let us look at some of the benefits from remote selling below:
Reduces Costs
One of the main benefits of remote selling is that it helps you to cut down on expenses. You no longer have to shell out money for renting office space, buying equipment, travel expenses, car fuel, and a lot more. Also, you get to save money on food expenses during client meetings.
However, this doesn’t mean that you will be handling remote selling absolutely free. You will have to spend some amount on home office setup, tools, and a lot more. However, this amount will be lesser than that required in traditional selling.
Increases Efficiency
In traditional selling, you will have to arrange meetings with the prospects, thus requiring hours of traveling whereas remote selling helps you save a lot of travel time. This time can further be utilized to convert a greater number of qualified leads. The more time you spend on your sales strategies, the better the result will turn out to be. This way you will be able to close a greater number of deals, hence increasing profit.
Establishes Global Connection
Remote selling helps in establishing a connection with prospect buyers throughout the world. There are no boundaries when it comes to remote selling. All you need is a good internet connection and you are ready to go! You can even use some tools that can help you to automate repetitive manual tasks, thus saving your time.
Motivates Sales Reps
Remote selling can help to keep your team motivated as they will be able to choose their own work environment and set their schedule according to their needs. This way there will no stress, hence increased productivity.
According to a research study by Stanford University, it has been found that employees are 13% more productive while working remotely.
Tips That Can Help You to be More Productive While Remote Selling
Have a Dedicated Workspace
If you are selling from home, then you need to have a dedicated workspace in your home as they will help you to avoid distractions. Thus, you will be able to focus more on your work, thereby increasing productivity.
Having a dedicated workspace will help you to enter the ‘work mode’ and focus more on your work. It will help you keep your personal and professional life separate.
Set a Schedule
Having a schedule for your meetings will help you to remain disciplined and work in an organized manner. Waking up anytime you want and closing the work anytime is not an efficient way to work. Instead, you should fix a schedule and stick to it, if you want to get better results. Keep a fixed time to begin your work, take breaks, and end your work. This way you will become more organized.
Make Yourself Comfortable
If you or your work environment is not comfortable, then it will be difficult for you to focus on work. Take a look at some of the tips that can help you become more comfortable working from home:
- Ergonomic furniture
Ergonomic furniture refers to the furniture that helps to improve comfort for human use, reducing any type of repetitive stress injuries. Make sure the chair, desk, table, etc. you choose are designed in such a manner. Also, don’t forget to check the quality of the furniture before buying it.
- Proper Light
According to research, it has been found that those who receive enough natural light tend to sleep better and are 40% more productive. So, try to ensure that your home office has a window. This will help to enhance your remote working experience.
- Comfortable Headphones
Most people tend to neglect comfortable headphones as a necessity while working from home. But this is a mistake which should be avoided. You can wear comfortable headphones for the entire day without getting tired. These will also help you to avoid distractions and enhance productivity.
- Take Breaks
Make sure you take breaks at regular intervals while working from home. Breaks help to provide rest to your brain, thereby improving productivity at work.
Get your Basics Ready
Now that you have a comfortable working environment, you will have to keep your basics ready. Make sure that you have a good internet connection to support all the work activities you have planned. Also, since most of the conversations will happen by phone, so you need to have a good phone plan along with an excellent network.
If you have to schedule meetings with prospect customers, then you will need to do video conferencing. These days a lot of tools are available that can help you conduct video meetings in a hassle-free manner. Zoom, Skype, Google Meet, and ClickMeeting are some of the most common platforms that can help you conduct video meetings seamlessly.
Communication is Necessary
Since you are not sharing office space, you may find it difficult to communicate with your colleagues. But this is a mistake which should be avoided. You should try to put in efforts to communicate with your team as this will make everyone aware of what’s happening in the company. Also, you should help each other in times of need even if you are working remotely.
Know your Product
If you want to become a top seller, then you need to know the ins and outs of your product. You should be able to answer any of the questions asked by the clients, without any fail. If you are not sure of your product, how will you convince the client? This can lead to a lack of trust among the client which can further hamper the sales. That is why it is very important to know the product completely before selling it.
Keep track of Data Points for Each Sale
There are some data points that you need to keep a track of, before selling. Take a look at a few data points that you need to be aware of:
- Product sold
- Geographic location as in where the buyer came from.
- Customer language
- Pain points (what problems are the customers trying to solve? Why is the customer buying the product)?
- Whether the product requires a currency conversion?
If you keep a track of such kind of information, then you will be able to learn how different demographics favor different types of products over others. You will also get to know what works best while working from home.
Use CRM
These days, a plethora of tools are available that can help to improve efficiency at work and save your time. One of the best tools that you can use is CRM. It helps to track activity metrics such as the number of calls made, emails sent, new leads converted, and the list goes on.
When you compare the results with previous weeks or months, you will be able to analyze what things you need to improve for extra productivity.
Develop a Strong Outreach Process
No matter what type of product you are selling, you need to have a professional outreach process. For example, you can keep a specific process for sending out the company’s emails. You can even try to personalize outreach strategy according to the requirements of the customer. This will help to build trust.
After sending an initial mail or call, don’t forget to follow up with the prospects. This practice will help you in converting more leads.
Don’t forget about Time Zones
Remote selling opens a lot of opportunities on a global scale. No matter it has a lot of advantages, but it brings a lot of challenges as well. For example, if people participating in a meeting belong to different countries, then you will have to consider their time zones and conduct meeting accordingly. You will have to schedule your meetings, keeping all these factors in mind.
How to Manage a Remote Sales Team?
If you are a sales manager who has to manage a remote sales team, then it can turn out to be a challenging task for you. Follow these tips and manage your remote sales team in a better manner:
Support your Team in Creating Home Offices
You need to make sure that your employee has a comfortable working environment. You can even provide your sales team with comfortable chairs and desks. This would not only motivate them but also help in improving productivity.
Set Clear Expectations
Clarity is quite important when it comes to remote selling. If you want your team to work during certain hours, ask them beforehand so that they can adjust accordingly. Set clear expectations from the team so that no confusion arises.
Provide Flexibility
Avoid micromanaging and provide flexibility to the employees. The employees are more comfortable in flexible working hours, so you should provide them this facility as this would improve productivity at home.
Encourage More Communication
The biggest challenge while working from home is miscommunication. To combat this problem, encourage your team to communicate regularly. For this, you can organize video meetings or calls to discuss problems that the team is facing. This would help in finding out the solution to the problem collectively. Also, you should encourage social interactions within the team. This would help in team bonding.
Go Cloud-Based
Cloud-based platforms are really beneficial while working from home. Slack and MS Teams are great platforms that help you to share data, whatever the device is, be it mobile, laptop, or tab. This will make everything easily accessible for the team, hence they will perform better.
Measure and Follow-Up on Goals
Deal sizes, sales cycle time, and close rate are some of the important goals for a team that need to be tracked. You can even create regular reports to understand how the team is performing.
Key Takeaways
- Remote selling refers to a process of making sales without actually being in physical contact with prospect buyers
- Remote selling helps to reduce expenses as you can easily cut down on renting office space, buying equipment, travel expenses, car fuel, and a lot more
- If done the right way, remote selling helps to improve efficiency at work
- Remote selling helps in establishing a connection with prospect buyers on a global scale
- It helps to keep your team motivated as they will be able to choose their own work environment and set their schedule according to their needs
- There are certain tips that can help to improve productivity while selling from home
- Having a dedicated workspace can help to avoid distractions and improve performance at work
- Having a schedule for your meetings will help you to remain disciplined and work in an organized manner
- Creating a comfortable work environment can help you to be more productive at work. For this, you can opt for ergonomic furniture, and buy comfortable headphones
- Make sure that you have a good internet connection to support all the work activities you have planned
- Put in efforts to communicate with your team as this will make everyone aware of what’s happening in the company. Also, you should help each other in times of need even if you are working remotely
- If you want to become a top seller, then you need to know the ins and outs of your product
- There are some data points that you need to keep a track of, before selling
- Using CRM helps to track activity metrics such as the number of calls made, emails sent, new leads converted, and the list goes on
- No matter what type of product you are selling, you need to have a professional outreach process
- Don’t forget about time zones if you have clients in different countries
- If you are a sales manager who has to manage a remote sales team, then you need to follow some tips
- Supporting your team in creating home offices, setting clear expectations, providing flexibility to the sales team, encouraging more communication, using cloud-based platforms, and measuring and following up on goals are some of the ways by which you can manage your sales team remotely in a better way
Related Articles
Deskera Content Team
Deskera Content Team
Deskera Content Team
Deskera Content Team
