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For years, we’ve been hearing about the perks of remote work. Bottom line: employees love the flexibility, employers love the access to talent pools unlimited by geography.
But sales teams face unique challenges when they go remote. And that’s true even when they’ve had plenty of time to plan for that transition — i.e., putting the right tools in place, hiring people who can handle a certain level of independence, etc.
So when your sales team unexpectedly and hastily goes remote...well, that’s even harder.
Perhaps the biggest struggle we hear on repeat: How do I create a sales floor buzz when there’s no sales floor? How do I keep the energy up and the momentum strong when I know half of my sales team is probably taking calls in their PJs?
We’ve got three great solutions, so keep reading. (But first: Tell your people to put some pants on.)
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1. Real-Time Alerts
We all know the value of public recognition: it highlights and reinforces positive behavior, and it gives teams the opportunity to celebrate wins together, which is critical for a healthy sales culture.
It’s important for public recognition and celebration to happen in real-time to keep spirits and momentum high throughout the day. That’s easy enough to do on your sales floor. In years past, sales teams relied on their trusty sales gongs; now, more modern teams opt for sales TVs so the whole sales floor is alerted when triggers or anthems go off, signaling meetings set, opportunities converted or deals closed.
If you’re remote, good news: real-time is still possible, thanks to integrations with Slack and email. Use triggers to blast into Slack to not only recognize your reps and fuel them to do more, but to deliver visibility into the size and specific details of the deals.
Need a little inspiration? The Phoenix Suns team recognizes a rep who books 4 meetings in one day with an alert to the team sales TV. If the team is in the office, the TV on the sales floor fires the alert and corresponding anthem, which will fire off in Slack for remote teams.
2. Remote Sales Contests FTW
You don’t have to kiss competitions good-bye just bc you’re not sharing the same office space.
In fact, they’re all the more important to keep your team connected and collaborating (and trash talking, of course) when your team isn’t used to being distributed.
The key: make sure your TV leaderboards are accessible through URLs and that your alerts are integrated with Slack (see above!).
Need a little inspiration? Ambition customer Hear.com runs recurring,week-long contests that award points based on activity score for remote reps.
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The setup: 1 point per activity point (the activity is calculated in a multi-metric scorecard format)
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Duration: One week long, Monday - Friday
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The Prize: (varies)
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Why it works: Competing on activity keeps remote sales reps engaged each day. It’s especially great for new hires who are still ramping to feel like they are contributing to the overall company goals — even if they aren't booking meetings at the highest rates or closing deals just yet. It shows managers which team members are on task, and the competition drives more discretionary effort from sales reps.
3. Daily (or Hourly) Activity Targets
A lot of sales teams set daily activity targets — and that’s a smart way to keep your reps on track to hit their objective targets and achieve results.
When your team is remote, keep them motivated by setting targets not just every day, but for specific points throughout the day. Why? It gives your people a reason to get to work, even if they’re not actually going to work.
Need a little inspiration? Ambition customer CVent has a “10 calls by 10 a.m.” target. To ensure their sales team is on the phone and working in the morning, Cvent schedules a daily email alert to managers that show who on their team has made less than 10 calls by 10 am. This lets them check in with individual reps who may be falling behind for the day — and it motivates reps to get to work bright and early.
