Salestrail Blog of Sales Excellence

Working as Remote Sales Reps: How to Sell Effectively from Home

Written by Vy Dang | 4/1/20 10:58 AM

Hi you, how are things going these past few days? If everything feels fuzzy and dizzy, that’s normal. For the first time ever, everyone is muddling through this curtain of uncertainty together.

But if we speak up our struggles and share useful tips, this scary ride will be more of a learning curve than a nasty fall to the bottom. That’s why we wanted to write this blog and share our learnings in adapting to the “new normal” in our sales department.

5 challenges faced by remote sales reps nowadays

According to the McKinsey report, “large-scale quarantines, travel restrictions, and social-distancing measures drive a sharp fall in consumer and business spending until the end of Q2, producing a recession.

Coupled with valid concerns about friends and family’s health conditions and financial insecurity, this means the difficulties salespeople are encountering are specific in these ways:

  • Delayed decision-making
  • Cancelled / postpone meetings
  • Completely shifted work environment & routines
  • Uncertainty and anxiety
  • Isolation from social distancing

#1 Taking care of yourself

It’s an understatement to say that everyone is stressed out by now. But more than ever, now is the time to double down on healthy habits, calm and kindness towards yourself and others.

🧘‍♀️ Give it time to process this full situation

  • Mindfulness - scheduling one to two 10-minute breaks every day to practice mindfulness can help to calm and center yourself. There are a lot of options for free meditation videos on Youtube, Headspace, Calm, etc. 
  • Express your feelings - remember, great amount of uncertainty and unfamiliarity can evoke a wide range of feelings, from fear to frustration. It's important to acknowledge and process your emotional states. 
  • Connect with others: colleagues, customers, friends, family - we are all in this together!

🏡 Take this opportunity to design your own workspace and create new routines

  • Rearrange your spaces: maybe both you and your partner are now sharing the kitchen and your kids are at home entertaining around the house. There is no transition from "work" to "home", so try your best to create them!  
  • Explore new habits that help you feel better: a new environment setting invites new routines to be established. Instead of dropping by your favorite coffee shop on the way to work, maybe try making your own coffee and make sure to fully enjoy it (coffee lovers know best!). Little things of joy matter! 
  • Stick to healthy habits: Be it a healthy diet or physical exercise, try your best to stick to those to keep both your mind and body in good shape. 

 

#2 Creating a new sales playbook, fast

Everyone is going through a hard time, but that doesn’t mean that we should just sit around, wait until someone else tells us what to do. Acting fast is a key element in any crisis situation, here the steps we recommend every sales team to go through:

👉 Check for the industries that are least exposed to the Covid-19 pandemic

👉 Reach out to your clients, with a relevant, empathetic message 

"Hi, there is no doubt that this is a very difficult time for all of us. And I'd like to make sure that we've done our best to support your business. Is there thing else we can do to help you and your team?" 

👉 Anticipate future objections - these might include: 

  • "This is not our main priority / focus right now." 
  • "We don't have the budget  for any purchases." 
  • "We can't move forward with a decision until further notice." 

Yes, the reasons and circumstances sound helpless. But if you take a step back and view it as mere objections in any business, why would you stop closing the deals?  

👉 Support buyer decision-making by sharing relevant, supporting materials & resources 

  • How your product/ service can help their business situation?
  • What are the costs of "the choice to make no choice"?
    • Money-wise
    • Labour-wise
    • Time-wise

👉 Be creative in ways to help your prospects and clients

#3 Adopting sales tools facilitating remote working

This overwhelming shift requires a more agile and quick reaction to keep moving forward. Here are tools that our team swear by that would make the whole world of difference to your daily sales activities. 

Sales outreach from home

Online meeting + screen sharing

Sales pitch deck

Reporting / Visualizing sales activity

The switch from physical presence to online presence can easily create slow, misaligned communication. That's why transparency and visibility of your sales activities within the team can help to maintain work morale and productivity. 

  • Salestrail for logging calls, emails, events automatically to Salesforce + assigning tasks within your team
  •  Databox for automatic dashboard of sales activities metrics (compatible with HubSpot, Salesforce, etc) 
  • Geckoboard also for automatic dashboard of sales activities metrics (last time we checked, HubSpot was not on the list of integrations). 

Product demo video

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The story of Covid-19 pandemic is one without a clear ending. Our hearts go to those who are at the front-line frontiers, suffering physically, financially, mentally from this ❤️ . We hope this blog and Salestrail can make your work day easier. Let us know in the comment below!