Most of Europe and the United States has been in a state of response to the novel Coronavirus pandemic for a few weeks now, and most of us are settling into a new sense of “normal.”
For sales teams, the new “normal” probably includes a lot more working from home, a good deal less travel, and, in many cases, working harder and smarter for the same (or lesser) results, due to a global economy that is in shock mode.
There is very little that is certain about this situation, but one thing that is almost always true: For every decline, there is a bounce-back. And those who are best positioned to manage the bounce-back will be the ones who benefit most from it.
Here’s how to prepare your sales team now for the bounce-back after this crisis.
1. Revisit your strategy
Hopefully, your sales team is spending a lot of time these days talking with customers about what’s going on for them. You should be gathering this as data (in a structured way) so that you can adjust your sales strategy around customer needs and behavior.
A customer-focused strategy is always important to a sales organization, but in these times when everyone is examining their budgets and looking for ways to do more with less money, it’s especially critical to make sure that you are on-point and make changes accordingly.
2. Modify your process to align with the new strategy
Based on your customer-focused strategy, review the sales process your salespeople use and adjust it to accommodate your new understanding and best practices for the current environment. Get it out there fast, including a message about why it is important and how to actually perform the extra steps and activities that are needed.
3. Evaluate your sales tools
Sales tools are a major source of hidden overspending in sales organizations. Take the time to review your entire sales stack and eliminate tools that are not returning on your investment and/or don’t support your business processes.
Review your central tool, the CRM, and make sure that it meets these criteria:
- It allows you to easily embed your process in the salespeople’s workflow
- It’s easy to customize quickly to accommodate a changing marketplace
- It’s beautiful and intuitive to use so your salespeople don’t require expensive and time-consuming training just to get started
- It is not stealing productivity by having bloated screes that take forever to load and requires unnecessary task- and tool switching
This could be a good time to consider whether using an overly complex, cumbersome CRM just because it’s the “done thing” is still right for you. The CRM decision you made years back was probably the right one back then, but is it the right one today, and in the futere?
4. Consider the people on your team
In times like these, “consider the people on your team” has several levels. First and foremost, remember that your salespeople are humans with human emotions, and this may be a difficult time for them. Have your coaches and managers check in on the people in their line of report and connect with them on a human level. Try to provide as much support and reassurance as you can. Besides being the right thing to do, this approach will be beneficial to your bottom line. People who feel secure and supported will perform better and bounce back better.
Second, take the time to review whether you have the right people in the right seats. Times like these can force difficult personnel decisions. As much as possible, make those decisions from a place of clarity about the correct fit for each role, which roles are necessary for stability, growth, and expansion, and not from a place of emotion or fear.
Then make sure that the people on your team are supported by the training, coaching, and enablement you provide.
5. Provide MORE training and coaching, not less
As tempting as it is to draw back on training and coaching during difficult times, that is the wrong approach if you want to come back strong. Your team needs new skills and encouragement in order to continue to perform in this new environment.
Training should be aligned with your new strategies and processes, and it should be reinforced in coaching and in the CRM. Coaching, in turn, should be aligned with training. Make sure you are providing your coaches with the data and tools to see where their coaching time can best be used and how best to approach each salesperson on their team.
6. Put it all online
Most of us are now working from home. Many of us have been for a long time, but others may be more accustomed to an office environment. Working from home presents many challenges. Among them is the difficulty of executing new strategies, processes, training, and coaching when your team is remote and/or widespread, and when you can’t just bring them into the office for training.
However you do it, it’s critical that you be prepared to manage every aspect of your team and their performance online for the foreseeable future.
7. Remain flexible and agile
Long, long gone are the days when you can develop a master plan and expect it to remain unchanged until the next year’s annual planning meeting.
You must be prepared to be flexible, agile, and able to execute new strategies and processes across widespread teams at a moment’s notice.
Your technology should be flexible, customizable, online, and capable of fully enabling your sales force with access to everything they need to perform their best.