Bringing Sales Teams Together in a Work from Home Environment

After a big adjustment in 2020, it looks like remote work is here to stay, and sales teams may continue work from home. For many, the transition from a long commute to home-office life has been a positive change. But despite the convenience of working from home, many workers still find themselves feeling isolated from coworkers and bosses. After all, it’s hard to catch up with peers in a casual and spontaneous way when everything is facilitated over video chat.

In order to foster a sense of community and common purpose, team leaders have had to implement creative solutions for remote workers. From team building exercises to better collaborative technology, there are many ways to upgrade the remote work experience. Here are our tips on how to bring your sales team together in a remote work setting.

Be Clear with Expectations and Tasks for Sales Teams that Work From Home

In any managerial relationship, it’s easy for expectations to get lost in the shuffle. In a remote work environment, it’s even more difficult to make sure everyone is on the same page. With fluctuating schedules, too many digital platforms to juggle, and disparate elements to organize, workers find it difficult to keep track of expectations and stay organized.

This is why it’s important to lay out clear and concise tasks and expectations for all your salespeople on a regular basis. Don’t be afraid to delegate, and remember to always communicate your expectations clearly. To help facilitate collaborative projects, consider implementing online platforms built to organize collaborative work. When every team-member has a clearly assigned role, there’s much less chance for miscommunication and confusion.

Facilitate Communication

Communication is the most important tool you have to keep business running smoothly and to encourage a sense of community in your team. Create opportunities for effective communication by implementing live chat services for all workers.

Professional chat services offer team members the opportunity to stay connected in real-time in a secure, convenient location. Online chat services provide workers with the resources to ask questions, offer advice, brainstorm, and problem-solve all while working in separate locations.

Be A Resource

Many remote workers feel like they are in the deep-end without any support from their bosses. Remote work can be extremely isolating, and there’s no opportunity for workers to drop by a manager’s office to ask a quick question.

To combat this sense of disconnectedness, reach out to team members and offer support. Make sure your employees know that you’re there to help them navigate their new work set-up. Consider offering open meeting times every week, so workers can schedule a time to chat about projects, issues, or ideas. Communicating your availability to your employees is a great first step to ensure sure they know you’re a resource.

Sales Teams That Work From Home Still Need to Collaborate with Multiple Departments

Although your sales team might primarily work within the sales department, facilitating meetings and collaboration with other departments is a fantastic way to encourage new company-wide connections. Consider hosting online activities with other departments like marketing or public relations to enrich your sales team’s perspective on your company as a whole. Plus, this may be a productive opportunity for implementing an omnichannel approach to marketing and sales.

Focus on Opportunities to Socialize

Last but not least, create opportunities for employees to socialize. Whether you offer remote team-building activities, host virtual events, or simply schedule casual time to chat, promoting regular social interactions is one of the best ways to bring team-members together.

Ideas for remote events include:

  • Hosting a remote happy-hour on Fridays for employees.
  • Facilitating team-building icebreakers, games, and activities online.
  • Hosting remote learning opportunities like webinars and discussion groups.
  • Inviting employees to attend remote lunches together.
  • Hosting regular friendly competitions like trivia or game-nights online.

Although it’s not the same as gathering in-person, making space for these online activities creates a sense of community no matter how far apart you are. This makes employees feel valued beyond their professional contributions, and gives you the opportunity to get to know coworkers in a different setting.

Bringing Your Team Together with Acquirent

When you think about team-building, hiring an outsourced sales and marketing service might not be the first thing that comes to mind. But working with an outsourced team to take on time-consuming tasks like prospecting and qualifying leads actually gives in-house employees more space to collaborate and connect with one another. Plus, Acquirent provides quality marketing management and employee training services, designed to increase the productivity of your sales force, and promote a team-oriented atmosphere.