leaderboard will be virtual. To keep everyone on the same page and motivated, you can keep your most current data in your CRM, in your communication channels, in spreadsheets, or wherever it’s easiest for your team to see it. Regardless of how you share your sales data, the dashboards and the CRM platform you use should always be up to date.


BALANCE TO AVOID BURNOUT As productive as working from home can be, the setting creates some challenges. One is the distraction that comes from sharing space with family members who are also working or learning from home. It’s important to be understanding about the interruptions and tasks your team members have to deal with while they’re working remotely. Another big challenge is the need to unplug and recharge. At home, it’s hard to get away from your work. It’s especially hard to decide you’re not going to respond to an email from your boss after hours, which is how some people end up working almost around the clock. This can lead to burnout, and it’s on leaders to pro- mote and model work-life balance. Reach out to team members who’ve been working long hours and tell them to take a break. Set boundaries, too. For example, I don’t email my people after hours even if that’s when I’m working, because I don’t want them to feel obligated to respond right away. Instead, I write the email and schedule it to be delivered during their normal work hours. I’m able to write the message and I don’t have to remember to do it the next morning, but I’m also respecting my team’s work-life balance and boundaries.


COLLABORATE CONSISTENTLY Supporting your team requires one- to-one coaching, pipeline meetings, strategy calls, and other modes of collaboration. The key is having these interactions consistently, which is hard to do in an office and even harder when you’re remote. However, this consis-


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tency helps us feel more connected and motivated. For example, a Monday morning sales meeting and Friday morning pipeline review help everyone stay prepared and excited about work. You can also set up what we call virtual ride-alongs. In an old-school ride-along, a sales leader would “ride along” with a sales rep on their calls to see how they’re doing and offer feedback. You can do the same thing over Zoom or Teams – joining calls as an observer or maybe as a participant. However, the ride-along is most effective if you let your team lead while you take notes instead of taking over the call.


OFFER REMOTE TRAINING AND EVENTS


The best teams work well together as colleagues and as people – but get- ting to know each other well requires time. To help our remote teams bond, we alternate monthly Webinars and what we call “lunch and learns.” These events are optional, and typi- cally a few hundred folks have their lunch during the session while they get training on a topic like sales strat- egy, methodology, or case studies. At these events, allow the team to interact instead of just controlling the mic yourself. That way your team has a chance to learn more about each other, like their families or their inter- ests outside of work. It’s important for companies to embrace that kind of conversation in an era where teams


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I write the email and schedule it to be delivered during their


normal work hours.


can’t meet up for a coffee or a drink. Another way to strengthen your teams is to livestream any on-site events so they can participate. For ex- ample, if you have a guest speaker at the office, off-site employees need to be able to join in remotely. Treating all your employees the same goes a long way toward maintaining morale.


REMOTE SALES TEAM SUCCESS If we’ve learned anything from our remote teams during this pandemic, it’s that work can be completed at home as long as employees have the right technology, up-to-date informa- tion, and opportunities to connect and share ideas. As long as your employees feel connected and have a level of trust, they’ll feel like part of the business no matter where they are – which means they can do great work from just about anywhere.


David Fletcher serves as senior vice presi- dent at ClearSale, where he spearheads business development, sales, partner- ships, and alliances with top e-commerce organizations.


VIDEO: HOW TO SELL IN A VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT


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