Remote Team Management
Transform Boring Sales Meetings to Engaging Conversations
%
of CFOs plan to make remote work a permanent option
Source : SiriusDecisions
%
of those surveyed believe their employer will continue to support remote work after COVID-19
Source : Owl labs
%
of respondents said they would be more likely to choose an employer who offered remote work compared to those who didn’t
Source : The Bridge Group
%
of the workforce (36.2 Million Americans) will work remotely by 2025
Source : Hubspot
There’s something graceful about remote work – flexibility
Flexibility of working in your comfort zone (no dress codes or strict office protocols), zero need for a daily commute and hopping from one virtual meeting to another. This seems like the perfect job – After all, you get a fat paycheck monthly, so there’s little to groan about.
In reality, managing a remote sales team is the most strenuous task any sales manager can ask for. It involves several moving parts; for instance, you have to ensure everyone does their bit- reaches their monthly quota; closes the right deals at the right time; attends strategy meetings, partakes in training, and stays motivated despite the distance barrier.
An excellent example of a company whose sales manager has a lot to do is Buffer – the popular social media tool for business owners. Despite operating an onsite workforce for years, transitioned to a remote workspace in 2020, a decision influenced by Covid.
Their numbers back in 2020 include – 3,500 remote workers across 10 different time zones. Given the company’s size and reputation, you would expect them to crack the code regarding remote team collaboration.
But, that isn’t the case.
The problem
Unique Struggle of Every Remote Sales Team
Buffer’s state of remote work report in 2020 highlighted 2 key areas their remote teams struggle with: collaboration and communication, while loneliness comes next.
What is certain is that Buffer isn’t alone in this struggle. Every remote Sales Manager we’ve interviewed shared the same struggle.
This shows that the biggest hurdle for sales managers is getting everyone to work collaboratively rather than individually and increasing engagement during sales meetings.
Talking about sales meetings, they’ve earned a reputation of being the most boring meeting in the world because they’re monotonous: everyone takes turns speaking just as we see teenagers do in a science class. Sales Managers are therefore tasked with healing this boredom and creating an interactive atmosphere hence a series of familiar questions arise:
How do I ensure everyone is on the same page?
How do I identify the top performers and low performers in my team?
How can I monitor what everyone is doing (See who’s slacking off)?
How can I ensure seamless collaboration between onsite and remote workers?
We built SalesDeck to answer all these questions as we aim to offer a platform where sales managers can manage remote teams spread around different continents without combining 5 – 6 tool stacks (as it has been the norm for collaboration to take place).
Leveraging SalesDeck
Distance Shouldn’t Hinder Your Revenue Engine.
Leveraging SalesDeck, we’re optimistic that remote sales management will be transformed since it will allow sales teams to achieve:
Work-life balance
Minimize loneliness and boredom
Say focused amidst distraction at home
Feel among even while separated by 4 oceans
Track performance and see how it compares to teammates
Sync into what everyone is doing.
Within SalesDeck, sales teams will be able to stay in sync by leveraging three tiny steps.
The Process
3 Steps to Remote Collaboration with SalesDeck
Ditch old tools
What are the existing tools sales teams currently leverage for collaboration?
Video conferencing tools such as Google Meet and Zoom tops the list (and let’s not forget all-time favorite – Slack)
Unfortunately, none of these tools is designed to ease the stress of remote management, and most teams have to combine several tools to create a flawless workflow: a typical tool stack will include Trello for tasks; Calendly for scheduling meetings; Zoom for video chats; and let’s not forget Notion – For workspace management.
What makes SalesDeck different is that all a Sales Manager needs to bring remote teams together are provided in one place, saving you the cost of investing in various tools.
Secondly, you can pair Salesdeck with video conferencing tools such as Zoom to record every minute of the meeting – video and audio. Meanwhile, at the end of the meeting, Salesdeck users will have separate access to recording of card play offs. This serves as a summary of how each card was used during the meeting, so sellers can make improved choices moving forward.
Also, at the end of every one-on-one customer meeting, sales reps can review meeting activities, analyze potential buyer behavior and forecast the opportunity of converting each prospect to paying customer- do you need to schedule one more meeting to close? Or are they convinced and ready to click “buy”?.
Help Onsite and Remote Workers Sync Together.
Both onsite and remote workers can be added to Salesdeck. We believe this will enhance collaboration and also improves existing sales processes.
At the end of every meeting, each sales rep reviews their recording and picks out some unexpected questions and objectives that cut them off-guard. Such feedback leads to the creation of new cards that will be added to the deck to ensure each teammate is better prepared for the next meeting.
This is a good way for each team member to see what everyone in the team is up to – the number of closed deals, weekly meetings and customer feedback.
Leaderboard and badges to track top performers
On Salesdeck is a built-in scoring and leaderboard to reward top performers. We’ve added a scoring system that identifies the best performer for the week or month. Each seller sees how they are faring relative to their mates.
Low performers will be motivated to do better – no one likes to come last, while top performers will be proud to know that their strategy is working.
Conclusion
Final Thoughts
As you can see, all three steps combined help improve collaboration with remote teams scattered worldwide. With recordings and replay, absent members can catch up on what they’ve missed – cards that have been added and useless ones that have been removed.
All this boils down to one factor – getting sales teams to work collectively rather than individually. Schedule a live demo to see how SalesDeck works for remote team management.