With the uncertainties thrown at us by COVID-19, remote working has gained a lot of momentum. For salespeople, however, remote working can be extremely difficult. 

It’s especially difficult to balance expectations after spending time face-to-face with customers and prospects each day and suddenly not having a team to compete against. Since remote working is now commonplace, all communication usually occurs through email, chats, or phone calls.

While working from home, potential efficiency loss and a lot of home distractions pose a threat. In addition, there are some unique challenges to working from home that are caused by behavioural factors:

1. The resistance by salespeople to try or explore something new. This resistance occurs as it is perceived that trying on something new will require extra effort. 
2. The lack of practical communication skills, which undermines confidence and fails to maintain transparent and continuous communication.
3. And the lack of management principles of planning, decision making, and execution without any authoritative intervention

All of these challenges can be detrimental and threaten the abilities of salespeople to meet and exceed their goals. Thanks to technology, these challenges can be easily overcome through:

• Daily virtual communication to reduce the fear of less social interaction.
• Efficiency and progress-tracking tools to increase productivity.
• Guaranteeing more closures remotely and aligning team effectively

Now, no matter where you work remotely, here are some tips to help you make the most of your workday!

5 Effective Remote Selling Tips

1. Set clear goals and stick to them

It is important to set a goal before working on any task. Effectively setting your goal, makes you focus on what is important, it allows you to measure your progress and helps to overcome procrastination.

It is vital to communicate clearly (with your manager or with your employees) and make sure that everybody fully understands your expectations and objectives. Because a single miscommunication can have adverse effects. 

Ideally, discuss a 30 days sales plan, agree on the best approach to reach your goals, and counter other potential challenges that might come along. This can be done by setting the expected number of daily calls, meetings scheduled, emails sent, leads closed, and reports generated.

1. Make a timetable

Having a routine structure your workday. Although remote working offers greater flexibility, sometimes too much flexibility will drain your energy and distract you from your end goal. So, it is crucial to ensure you create a remote working timetable that will help you stay focused and productive. 

Here are some ideas on how to create a routine:

• Dedicate a workspace at home that is away from any noise and distraction.
• Keep the mornings for strictly sales-related tasks, perhaps some prospecting or strategic planning.
• Assign a time during the day for emails and to communicate with your manager or colleagues.
• Block specific times during the day to monitor performance and productivity.
• Take time to rejuvenate yourself

You can create other routines based on your daily tasks, requirements or other personal commitments. Also, devote time to polishing your remote selling skills.

1. Practice effective time management

Working from home allows you to either get extremely productive or extremely distracted. And working from home doesn’t mean you should get less done, so don’t allow distractions and procrastination to act as threats to your productivity. 

Here are some effective time-management tips:

• Start with a to-do list. Creating a to-do list sets the tone for your day. Ideally, create it the night before and follow it throughout the next day. Check off the tasks which you finished.
• Avoid multitasking. Switching your focus from one task to another will hurt your productivity.
• Stay away from the internet for personal browsing and endless social media scrolling.
• Introduce yourself to the self-management methodology (Getting Things Done), capture everything, clarify what you have to do, organize the actionable tasks into results, review the system and get to work.

Think and test out different ways that can work to increase your time management efficiency as it is one of the most essential remote selling skills to master. 

“If you saw The Pursuit of Happiness movie, you might remember a scene where the main character, Chris Gardner, worked hard to squeeze in extra minutes to increase his cold calling efforts. He describes how he was able to gain an extra 8 minutes per day if he doesn’t hang up the phone in between calls.”

Hence, precision in time management is the key.

1. Leverage tech and engage tools

Gear yourself with the right infrastructure. There are many useful productivity apps that guarantee an increase in your productivity without the need for any supervision. For example, a tool like NeoDove helps you through a variety of different features. It is a powerful web and mobile-based telesales CRM that helps to maximize your calling output. 

The right platforms guarantee that you effectively manage, monitor and develop stronger customer relationships. Consider investing in tools that:

• Keep you connected with the team
• Increase your productivity
• Keep track of your performance
• Automate your communication process
• Help you with collaboration

Also read: Sales management tips

Here are some tools to consider:

• NeoDove, for sales automation
• Zoom, for video meetings
• GetAccept, for electronic signatures
• Google Docs, for documentation
• Basecamp, Trello, or Zendesk, for project management
• Slack, for internal communication
• Notion and Google Hangouts, for work collaboration

1. Balance remote working and virtual learning

Remote working saves you a lot of time, so use this time to upgrade your interpersonal and remote selling skills and increase your level of awareness for the industry you operate in.

You can enrol for free online certification courses or paid ones also. Some popular learning sites are Udemy and Coursera. You can also watch educational videos on Youtube or read books and articles that give you effective remote selling tips and techniques.

The ball is now in your court!

As a salesperson, what do you think about remote working? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.