How to be successful in remote sales

5 habits remote workers and managers should adopt

The phenomenon of teleworking is gaining momentum. Almost all telecommuting statistics point to a massive increase in telecommuting - or remote careers, if you want to be precise.

A recent Gallup poll found that 43% of the U.S. workforce worked from home in some form last year, a 4% increase since 2012. It's easy to see why when you consider the benefits of telecommuting for sales teams.

Buffer's State of Remote Work 2018 Report highlights remote worker satisfaction, showing that a whopping 90% of respondents said they want to work from home for the rest of their careers and 94% encouraged others to work remotely take over.

However, working remotely is not without its challenges, particularly when it comes to employee engagement in a remote location.

Fortunately, there are a number of remote workforce best practices that both sales reps and managers can use to overcome these hurdles. By putting together the Remote-How Academy, we have already done the homework for you. Here are 5 habits that, in our experience, lead to distance selling success.

1. Leave business at the beginning of the day

Global leaders and industrial giants often share common traits: ambition, self-discipline and the ability to set priorities, to name a few.  However, the real secret to their success is that they make the big and difficult decisions in the morning, when their minds are still clear and fresh.

These are habits that even the best remote sellers practice. They dedicate their morning exclusively to sales-related tasks, i.e. H. anything that can lead directly to a sale. Otherwise, administration, social media, emails, chores, kids, and all the other distractions that come with working from home can drain your energy and distract you from the real goal - and that is selling.

So start the day with acquisition or strategic planning. Meet with clients for morning coffee. Block your mornings for sales meetings.

You'll find that this works both ways. Your customers may also be more willing to engage with you in the morning.

2. Make it a routine

One of the biggest benefits of remote work is the flexibility it offers. But sometimes too much flexibility can also be a disadvantage. Flexible working does not mean working without structure.

You can add a little structure to your workday with a routine.

Stay up to date. Try to leave the house in the morning before turning on your computer, just like your neighbors do when they rush to their jobs. Walk your dog or drop your child off at daycare and return to your office when the rest of the world arrives at work.

Another good idea is to set a specific time per day for email. If you have adopted the first habit described above, then the morning is best, after the heavy work is done. Think about the locations and therefore the time zones of your customers. Nobody wants to receive an email at midnight. But you can also use an email tool to delay the sending of emails.

Block out specific times of the day for specific tasks, monitor your productivity (time vs. output) for each block, and play with the ordering of blocks throughout the day to achieve the most productive daily routine.

Also try to recognize common meal times.

This helps you avoid feeling isolated and promotes structure and stable productivity in your workday. And to prepare for the next day, you should finish work at around the same time every day. Go for a jog or meet up with friends for a drink after work. When you return, you return home, not your home office.

3. Implement processes

The best sales managers take a similar approach to managing remote employees. The terminology is just different. Instead of “routine,” they call it “process,” “protocol,” or even a “remote worker handbook.”

Processes ensure that the entire field team is not only working in the same direction, but in the right direction. This is especially important when the field staff are spread across different countries and time zones.

A remote employee handbook that clarifies and systematizes sales tasks such as lead generation, demos, follow-ups, and sales proposals will help both the remote employee with efficiency and the manager with performance monitoring.

There are many remote work management tools (e.g. ClickUp and Asana) that are great for synchronizing and managing sales tasks across different teams.

4. Use technology and get involved

Some of the greatest ideas were hatched in the office kitchen, around the coffee machine or at the water fountain. Most companies (e.g. Google) try to design their offices in such a way that these moments, i.e. H. Synergies and cross-fertilization among employees are encouraged. But what if you work from home?

Professional social networks like Salesforce Chatter are very effective at keeping remote employees connected.

Conferences and quarterly meetings provide the kind of face-to-face interaction that really helps build team cohesion. But they are neither cheap nor regular.

Video communication software, on the other hand, can add a personal touch to communication between remote employees for little money and without much effort. So arrange a video meeting once or twice a week to share successes, tips and news.

5. Focus on the outcome

Time is a state of mind, as they say. The same goes for deadlines and remote work.

As a remote seller, you are the master of your own time - and not the other way around. After all, this is one of the main differences between remote work and regular structured work. What does that mean?

It means that a task that has a deadline of one week does not necessarily have to be completed in 5 working days. You'll be surprised at how much you can accomplish if you simply relabel the deadline in your head.

The faster you complete a task, the sooner you can move on to the next, and the next, and the next until it becomes a habit. Suddenly, you'll notice that you're always completing tasks ahead of time, which increases your chances of making more sales.

This is a practice that separates the best salespeople from everyone else.