Redefine Productivity: How Do You Know If Your Remote Work Salespeople Are Working?
Employees that work from home are not a new notion. Many sectors adopted a remote work approach a long time ago, thanks to the advancements of the internet and its technologies. Customer service, web development, graphic design, and sales are just a few examples of businesses that have long embraced remote work rules. Although the adoption of remote working was expedited in 2020 due to the epidemic and consequent lockdown, it was always a matter of time. Now that remote working is a reality, new difficulties emerge in the workplace, one of the most significant being how to manage a remote workforce while maintaining efficiency and efficacy.
A remote team, according to Employees Alchemy, “is made up of a group of people with extensive corresponding knowledge who are committed to completing certain tasks to meet their business objectives while working from a mobile work environment”. It appears straightforward…until you reach the “mobile work environment.” Remote work expands company possibilities and boosts the availability of remote employees, from reduced travel time and costs to the possibility to work for organizations halfway around the world.
Employees and companies alike have challenges when it comes to remote working. Employees may experience loneliness and disconnection as a result of not having to go into the office (especially for salespeople as they tend to be very social and outgoing). Remote companies have no way of knowing if their staff is working. Time theft is just another danger that remote workers must contend with.
Here are some metrics/KPIs to know if your remote team is working:
Call Volume
Call volume is a metric that shows how many calls each rep handled in a certain time frame. When working remotely and don’t have face-to-face interactions with customers, call activities become even more vital.
Deals Closed per Rep
While this metric is crucial for all sales teams, remote teams can benefit even more from keeping a close check on closed deals. When compared with the call volume, you can get a fair picture of how effective your team’s phone operations are at bringing in sales.
Income Generated Per Rep
How much revenue is generated based on the activities of each rep? Keeping track of this data might help you determine how effective your team is when working remotely.
Leads from Various Channels
There is a multitude of techniques for remote salespeople to create leads. It’s critical to determine where your most viable leads are coming from to influence future remote sales strategy, whether it’s through social selling, email advertising, or networking at virtual conferences.
Have you noticed a drop in the performance of your remote team and don’t know what to do? Here are a few things to do:
Organize Each Day
Having a strategy for each day ahead of time can provide structure and boundaries for your remote staff. Assigning duties to them daily and receiving completed task assignments back from them at the end of the day will reveal if they worked hard…or barely worked.
Reduce Distractions
Encourage them to turn their phone upside down and turn off all notifications. They can stay on track for extended periods by taking a little break every hour or so to check for missed calls and text messages.
Time
It’s critical to establish remote workers’ working hours and ensure that they complete their tasks consistently within those hours. To prevent needing to use valuable personal time to finish chores, set reasonable targets to fulfill them within these pre-defined working hours.
Engage Frequently and Build Relationships
Schedule daily stand-up meetings to keep in touch with staff who work remotely. It’s excellent to invest in low-cost software that allows you and your team to stay connected by chatting and sharing files. As a manager of a remote workforce, it will be your responsibility to foster excellent relationships with both your remote employees and your co-workers. Make small chat now and again with remote work salespeople.
Conclusion
Today, remote teams and remote work are the norms. It’s crucial to be able to keep everyone on the same page and consistently generate effective results as a group. To effectively manage remote teams, you should use project management software that may help you optimize processes, measure time, and align teams, resulting in increased employee productivity.