Building a successful and unified sales team requires a lot of work and can be tough even in the best circumstances. Trying to do it virtually is a whole different ball game—it means you need to rethink how your team can be unified when spread across different work environments.
As part of the XANT Sales Development Summit, Matt Loria, Senior Director of Sales Development at Salesforce, hosted a session on how he and his team have found success while working remotely. Below we detail three keys he has found to help keep his sales team engaged, motivated, and successfully hitting their goals while working virtually.
Centralized Communications Have Never Been More Important
According to Harvard Business Review, virtual work has widened the gap between efficient and inefficient companies. One study estimated that the best-performing companies increased productivity by 5{da2ef7ff2781dfb5887db3e3a6cf03c7c894e23a27536de3f64bd799872794d1} during lockdowns. Less-productive companies saw meetings grow by nearly 13{da2ef7ff2781dfb5887db3e3a6cf03c7c894e23a27536de3f64bd799872794d1}, and the number of attendees increased as well.
When trying to find more time for your teams, it can be tempting to cut meetings. But Loria says it can be detrimental to your organization to take this approach. Don’t simply eliminate meetings, he says, optimize time spent together. Make trades for a more optimized environment. As an example, Loria has traded long, monthly all-hands meetings for shorter weekly meetings.
To determine if a meeting is necessary, Loria recommends asking the following questions:
- What are we doing?
- Why are we doing it?
- How will we measure success?
- How do our organization’s goals align with your personal goals?
If you’re in a meeting and you can’t answer the four questions above distinctly and clearly, it’s probably not the best use of time to have everyone on that call.
Build a Milestone-Driven, Virtual Friendly Enablement Program
During his weekly meetings, one critical piece of content Loria shares is a centralized selling resource. He uses this document to help reps understand the primary business drivers for the quarter and ensure that every rep knows their focus and the resources that will support it.
Having a visual resource like this is key to continuing to develop talent virtually. Each team member and manager must know what they’re buying into—communicate upfront and often about their responsibilities.
Loria recommends creating and sharing a visual map of what the rep’s job will look like over the course of one or two years. Share how managers will be involved in developing their skills and what will be required, including self-directed learning.
Keeping the Team Involved by Creating Energy
The final key Loria recommends to unify virtual teams is to find ways to create energy. Great leaders unlock their employees’ ability to go above and beyond, but this doesn’t mean employees need to do more than their job responsibilities—or work outside their business hours. So much time is wasted on tasks and work that isn’t optimized for success, can you energize your team and unlock an extra 10{da2ef7ff2781dfb5887db3e3a6cf03c7c894e23a27536de3f64bd799872794d1} of optimized time each day?
Companies that minimize wasted time perform 40{da2ef7ff2781dfb5887db3e3a6cf03c7c894e23a27536de3f64bd799872794d1} better than the rest. Those companies that use their time efficiently understand the importance of helping their team members develop a sense of purpose. When reps dedicate their time, talent, and energy to a purpose—they understand their work has a bigger impact than just helping them reach their quotas.
One effective tactic Loria suggests is calling out and highlighting those doing exceptional work. He recognizes them through personal phone calls, callouts in weekly meetings, and inviting them to share best practices slides for the team.
While the job and communication can be more challenging in a virtual environment, Loria says one message he ensures his team hears is that even though challenges present everyone with many reasons not to be successful, it makes it feel so much better when you overcome these and celebrate success at the end.
Utilizing XANT Playbooks helps you overcome the challenges of working in a virtual world, bringing your sales team into a more connected and efficient sales process. Optimize your teams’ time by leveraging smart and advanced tools to find the best contacts and ways to engage with your prospects while eliminating wasted time cleaning up data.
Get in touch with XANT today to learn more about Playbooks.
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