Category: Lifestyle

Daily habits to excel at your remote sales job

Posted on by callingly

Remote working is gaining momentum like never before. Just about every industry has transitioned to remote work. Sale reps are also selling things to people from the comfort of their homes. According to Salesloft, ten inside/remote sales reps are being brought on right now for every outside/field sales rep being hired.

The word is that no one can’t stop the remote working wave and especially in the sales sector. So wouldn’t it be better if we just start to absorb the remote culture bit by bit? Well, many sales reps are doing just that, but they are facing some issues to excel at their new remote sales job.

“Depending on what they are, our habits will either make us or break us. We become what we repeatedly do.” – Sean Covey.

In today’s piece, we’ll list down some daily habits you can opt to excel at your new remote sales job.

Start Selling In The Morning

Although the work environment has been shifted, no pandemic can replace the potential of working in the morning. There’s a reason why Benjamin Franklin quoted,

“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”

World leaders, innovators, legends, and you name it; all these people had one thing in common, they started working in the morning. They made tough decisions and worked hard in the morning when their mind was sharp and fresh.

As a remote sales rep, your job is to sell. And you’ll only be able to achieve this goal is by dedicating your most essential tasks for the morning. Remote sales reps who are acing their job have reserved their mornings for any stuff that will lead to a sale.

No matter who you are, a night or a morning person, to excel at your remote sales job, sketch up an early morning routine for yourself. When you’ll have zero distractions in the morning and total focus on selling, you’ll be thanking us.

Every night, allocate around 30 to 45 minutes to decide what and how you are going to approach your goal in the upcoming today. And make sure to tie important sales-related tasks when everyone is in their warm and comfy beds!

Maintaining A Routine & Time Blocking

As a remote sales manager or a rep, you have the flexibility to work whenever you want. But sometimes, too much flexibility can hurt your workflow and progress. Setting up & maintaining a routine along with time blocking will help you to achieve great things in the long run.

Firstly, set-up a routine that suits yourself and your job requirements. Lay down all the things that will help you to sketch up the best possible routine to excel at your remote sales job. After that, try maintaining the routine and inject it into your daily habits.

Assign strict email hours, meeting gaps, lunchtime, etc. And most importantly, concentrate on one thing at a time to boost your productivity. As you are working remotely, keep in mind about your teammates or staff’s locations and time zones as nobody likes to receive a skype video invite at midnight.

Time blocking means dividing your day into small blocks of time. Block specific chunks from your time to carry out particular tasks. For instance, you can’t send emails at night, block a specific time in business hours to schedule, or send emails. Along with time blocking, try to recognize which tasks are draining you out more quickly and shift them in your morning block.

Track & Contact Customers Effectively

So you or your team got a lead, but the customer is still waiting for human interaction. That’s wrong! In your remote sales job, you or your team must efficiently track and contact customers or leads as soon as they are being captured.

As the sales sector is shifting to the digital world, it’s now simple and straightforward to track and contact leads asap. Lead Response Management or LRM platforms provide speedy interaction with leads as soon as they are captured.

One such software is Callingly, this software lets you respond faster and close more. With Callingly, whenever a new lead comes in, it automatically calls your sales team to connect with the customer. If nobody is online, Callingly keeps on trying to connect with one of your sales team members. When your sales rep picks up the call, he/she hear a custom whisper text about the lead’s information. After the call, everything gets synchronized with your CRM, website, or Lead Platform.

In today’s digital world, it’s essential to invest in a Lead Response Management software as manually juggling between leads can cause you to lose customers. Be smart and start tracking and contact customers effectively with Callingly or any other LRM platform!

New to remote sales? Avoid these mistakes

Posted on by callingly

Pandemic has made us realize the importance of working from home. With that said, remote sales teams are increasing and making their way into the mainstream. The sales departments of most businesses are going remote.

Setting up remote sales teams are helping companies and especially sales managers to pick talented people from around the world. Furthermore, it’s benefiting productivity and increasing cash flow.

The trend of remote sales team is on the rise! But as everyone is new to the “remote dimension,” mistakes are also skyrocketing. Although the errors are common, it’s holding back the full potential of a remote team.

Here are some common mistakes that you must avoid if you are new to remote sales.

Forgetting Professionalism

It’s easy to forget professionalism when you’re working remotely. However, it’s great to be friendly with your remote sales team. But at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is the end result! You and your team must sell in order to run the business.

Being too friendly or casual with your team can relax them. And believe me that it can ruin the whole sales operation of your business. Try stressing on professionalism whenever you feel like things are going a little casual.

Don’t go all harsh on your team members. But try maintaining a professional work environment where “sales” are your number one priority. Professionalism in a remote sales work environment can include – attending the meetings, reporting on time, being punctual, and whatnot.

Not Eliminating Distractions

Distractions can play a vital role in drowning your remote sales operations. The barking of Tommy, knocks on the door, and noisy neighbors can easily make you fall in the pit from where it’s hard to come back.

Both managers and team members don’t take distractions seriously. That’s why remote sales teams fail. Do your best to eliminate all the distractions. Forget you’re working from home and turn your room into a workplace.

Lock the door of your room from where you’re working, ask your family members not to disturb you, etc. Make arrangements to eliminate distractions and see your productivity level rise.

Disrespecting Routine of Your Team Members

So you’ve planned a meeting on Monday morning at 9:00 am sharp. But what if some members of your team are living on the opposite side of your time zone? According to us, you’re asking way too much.

Even if everyone is living in the same time zone, we all have different routines. Taking a poll from your team will come in handy to easily handle the situation. Everyone will feel that you, as a manager, respect their routine.

Some managers arrive late to scheduled events or take more time of members than allotted. That’s disrespecting the routine of your team members. Avoid this mistake and see your team investing more than what you have asked for.

Disregarding Socializing

We, humans, are called “social animals” for a reason. Unlike office environments, members of your remote sales teams can’t socialize enough. You, as a manager, need to make arrangements so everyone can socialize.

The consequences of isolation are insane; you must encourage your team to socialize. Set happy hours where everyone gets to share their personal stories, experiences, and more. Plan a movie or game night so that the cycle of socializing doesn’t stop.

Socializing builds trust, improves collaboration skills, and affects mental & physical health. Plant the seed of socializing in your team’s root to see beautiful results!

Picking Wrong Tools

Tech-scene is moving fast!

It’s easy to pick the wrong tools and waste the capital of your company. As a manager, you must keep an eye on software that are beneficial for your remote sales team.

Don’t just buy the tools right away! The world of internet is BIG, look for reviews and guides to learn about the tools you are going to buy. Ask your team members and see if any geek in the circle knows about a better alternative to what you are buying.

As highlighted by Callingly, some essential tools for your remote sales team are Krisp, Slite, and Ambition, and more.

Use multiple perspectives and put them in one place to draw out the conclusion as per your business nature. Look for tools that are user-friendly or have in-depth official guides so that your team members can easily learn them.

Providing Feedback, Come Again?

Know Your Team conducted a survey in which 80 percent of employees wanted more feedback regarding their performance. Lack of feedback can kill the urge of employees to pull out wonders.

As a manager, you must provide honest and genuine feedback to your team members. Even if they aren’t doing great, hand them out some pointers. It will help them to learn from the mistakes and do better in the future.

Feedback is essential, and there’s always a room left for it. Don’t forget about providing feedback to your remote sales team. From suggestions to ideas and pointing out mistakes, your feedback can be anything! Just don’t disregard it.

Poor & Vague Communication

Communication is the key to set-up a great remote sales team. If your organization is lacking communication than it’s time to do something about it. Without proper communication, your team will not be able to perform well.

Take every single person on your team into consideration when you are communicating with them. Take names while assigning tasks and encourage them to ask questions. Don’t scare away your team members by lack of communication. Be there go-to door for asking questions and taking suggestions so that they don’t have to roam around in the assumption loop.

Conclusion

If you don’t repeat the mistakes, you haven’t done any.

And if you have learned from the mistakes of others, you are on the path of success. Startup founders, remote sales professionals, and managers can learn from these common mistakes and avoid regretting later.

Analyze your remote sales team, and one by one, eliminate every mistake you have learned in this piece. Implement the solutions and see your remote sales team fly high!

Hit a Sales Slump? 5 Stress Management Techniques During the COVID-19 Crisis

Posted on by callingly

The results of a recent poll showed that 45 percent of adults in the U.S. have had their health negatively impacted as a result of worrying about the effects of COVID-19.

Does this sound familiar to you? Have you experienced a decrease in sales at your company because of the virus? Are you concerned about how your business is going to stay afloat in the wake of the pandemic?

Stress is a serious issue for a lot of people right now. Luckily, though, there are ways to cope with your concerns. Listed below are five stress management techniques you can use to stay calm during (and beyond) the COVID-10 crisis.

The Effects of Unmanaged Stress

It may be tempting to try and just put your head down and “push through” while you’re dealing with the stress of COVID-19. The sooner you address and work to manage your stress, though, the better off you’ll be.

When stress goes unmanaged for too long, it can lead to all sorts of physical and mental health issues, including the following:

  • Depression
  • Anxiety disorders
  • Increased risk of cardiovascular disease
  • Obesity
  • Poor skin and hair health
  • Gastrointestinal issues

Before you start hyperventilating, remember that our goal in sharing some of the effects of unmanaged stress is not to make you feel more stressed out. We just want to make sure you take your mental health seriously and take action to improve it.

COVID-19 Stress Management Strategies

Not sure how to take action? Here are some simple, yet effective, stress management strategies you ought to try today if your sales slump has got you in a rut:

1. Meditate

Practicing meditation even for just a couple of minutes per day can have a bit impact on your mood and stress levels. It can help you to feel calmer, more patient, and more in control. It’ll help you stay focused and more present while working or homeschooling your kids, too.

A lot of people might be turned off by the idea of meditating initially. They might assume that they have to sit cross-legged on a cushion and chant for hours on end, and that, understandably, is not appealing.

The good news, though, is that there’s no need for chanting or twisting yourself into a pretzel to experience the benefits of meditation. It can be as simple as you need.

Try setting a timer just one minute. Pick a position that’s comfortable for you — sitting on the couch, lying on the floor, etc., then close your eyes and start to breathe deeply. Try to focus on the feeling of your breath coming into and leaving your body. If your mind wanders, don’t beat yourself up. Just redirect your attention back to your breath and start again.

2. Prioritize Your To-Do List

You might find that, during a very stressful time (such as a global pandemic), you have a harder time getting things done at work. You may struggle to stay focused, or you may get overwhelmed more easily, for example. If this is the case for you, make an effort to prioritize your to-do list when you first arrive at the office (or sit down in your makeshift office at home).

Take a look at what you need to get done for the day and identify the top two or three most important tasks on your list. Make those your priorities and cut yourself some slack if you don’t get to the rest of the list that day. You can at least rest easy knowing you did the things that matter most.

3. Get Outside

Whenever possible, try to get outside and enjoy some fresh air and sunshine.

You should still practice social distancing, of course, and keep at least six feet of space between yourself and others. Make an effort to break out of your house or the office, though. Go for a walk around the block, take a trip to a local park, or just sit out in your driveway or on your balcony.

Spending time outside helps to increase your vitamin D levels. Vitamin D essential when it comes to boosting your mood and helping you to cope with stress. It’s also nice to take a break from the computer every once in a while.

4. Limit Screen Time

Speaking of taking breaks from the computer, make an effort to limit your screen time. This is especially important if you’re spending a lot of time on news sites or social media. It’s true that it’s good to be informed, but spending too much time on these kinds of sites can cause you to feel more stressed and anxious.

Give yourself a time limit screen exposure as much as you can. You may want to consider using an automated lead to call system or other automation tools, too. That way, you can take time away from the computer without worrying that customer inquiries are going unanswered.

5. Find Ways to Have Fun

Remember, you’re allowed to still have fun during a pandemic. In fact, finding ways to bring a little laughter and lightness into your life might be more important now than ever before. Look for opportunities to have fun and smile throughout the day, both when you’re working and at home.

Consider starting some kind of challenge or contest with your co-workers to keep them motivated and engaged, or have a game night with your family once a week. Little things like this can make a big difference and help everyone to feel a little less stressed out. Try These Stress Management Techniques Today If you’re feeling more stressed than usual, it’s totally understandable. Lots of people are in the same boat, especially those who are still doing their best to generate leads and make sales to keep their companies afloat.

Give these stress management strategies a try today so you can feel more at ease and stave off some of the long-term effects stress can cause. Keep in mind that you can also reduce stress at work by automating certain aspects of your job, such as keeping tabs on new leads to respond to. For example, with Callingly you can boost lead call-back times by having Callingly notify you when a new lead appears through a phone call. You can immediately dial them back through your phone or schedule them in for when you’re free. No more checking CRMs frequently, or odd-hour phone calls. This will free yourself up to focus on other things (or even take a little meditation break or walk outside).

Are you interested in automating lead response for your business? If so, contact us today to learn more about how Callingly can help.