The current pandemic has caused many businesses to change their operations, especially where and how employees work. The change has roused many questions for teams that will be impacted by this decision. Sales teams in particular have been affected by this change and in the recent months have taken the decision to protect staff and work from home, which may have impacted team collaboration and customer engagement. Whether you have taken the decision to return back to your office or continue to work remotely the effect the pandemic has had on your sales organization may be lasting so finding strategies that will maintain your current and future operations is vital.
Tools for the New Normal
Video calling is now one of the most important tools for sales teams working from home or even for those with a partial return to work. While Zoom and Skype are great tools, it’s a good idea to consider a more robust solution such as RingCentral and Aircall.
Other changes to consider are cloud apps. If you don’t currently work with cloud apps, they are a good alternative to any software that cannot be accessed remotely and known for their high security. A lot of CRM tools are cloud based so it would be worth investing now.
Maintain Your Workflows
Collaborative work is the backbone of a smoothly run sales team and as workforces turn to working remotely, maintaining those smooth workflows are ever important. Sales teams are more likely to rely on their CRM systems now to increase fluidity and communication within their teams. While an increase of utilising automation tools can help foster better collaboration and boost productivity within your team. In this case automation should be used to support and not replace your sales team. Automation can help with task assignment and streamlining multi-channel customer data making it more accessible and efficiently organized.
Maintain or Improve Customer Engagement
Sales are decreasing as customers move towards focusing on buying essential items only. Currently, as this is set to increase as people return to work keeping up customer communication is absolutely crucial. Your CRM system is a magic tool for strengthening current customer relationships in order to retain their business at this time, especially if you work with an operational CRM software, it can allow you to bolster your processes and keep consistent contact in place. If you want to learn more about operational CRM softwares, CRM.org goes into great detail on operational CRMs and how they can benefit your business.
Team Wellbeing
Working from home will be a major shift for some of your employees. As well as the health risks of the virus, moving into a space where both work and leisure will be conducted at home may impact the mental wellbeing of members in your team. Equally, returning to work during the pandemic may be stressful for some. Ensuring that your team is happy and healthy and ready to continue being a kickass sales team member will help strengthen your sales team and be more adaptable to the current changes. Though UK based, Time to Change has lots of useful information if you think a colleague may need mental wellbeing support.
While the dust isn’t beginning to settle yet where COVID-19 is concerned we are now seeing more businesses comfortably adapting to the changes facing them. With the right tools and the right approach COVID-19 doesn’t have to negatively impact your sales organization.