It is business unusual!

This year, thus far, is one for the books – with most borders still closed, N95 masks now becoming an everyday accessory and daily restrictions in our movement – most salespersons have no choice but to sell from home. But is this temporary? – Maybe, but what if it’s not?

According to various authorities around the world, the economy will begin reopening as early as June/July for some countries.

This means we will soon be back in office! Wrong. A lot of us will still be at home. Here’s why:

Reason #1 – School: School is still out, and it is a strong possibility that it will remain this way for majority (if not all) of the year; as a result, we may have to start getting used to the idea of working from home with our kids until the virus is controlled.

Reason #2 – Efficiency: Once your salespeople have begun to sell not only remotely, but virtually via videoconferencing, you’ll quickly realise that they can meet with 6-8 prospects and/or accounts per day, compared with 2-3 when they’re physically travelling in a territory.

Reason #3 – Cost: Depending upon your business model, the cost of fuel, vehicle maintenance, meals, and entertainment can be drastically reduced or even eliminated when salespeople are selling virtually.

Reason #4 – Coverage: Many companies don’t have enough resources to service the entire island or region; as a result, salespeople are usually deployed where there is a high concentration of their target audience. With virtual selling, your salespeople can broaden the horizon.

Reason #5 – Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Compliance: Salespeople usually have great excuses for not keeping their CRM up to date – “Oh, I was travelling”, “on the road”, “away from the computer” plus other excuses; however, with virtual selling they are literally selling via the same tool that the CRM is on – so no more excuses! This will allow you to finally have the visibility in real-time data that you wanted when you invested in your CRM platform.

The aforementioned points have a lot of us thinking that the coronavirus was not so bad after all; however, as is expected with this virus, there are still some restrictions and challenges to consider if you are going to be successful in this time of uncertainty. For example:

Is your sales team disciplined enough to work independently from the office without physical and/or constant supervision? A recent study highlighted that only a mere 41 per cent of salespeople are well suited to work from home in an effective and efficient manner – which leads me to the next point.

Sales managers will need to significantly increase the time they spend on coaching by huddling with their team at least twice per day. It is important to note that only seven per cent of all sales managers have the coaching skills required to coach a remote team.

For the past three years, selling has been pretty easy with a little over 50 per cent of salespeople meeting or exceeding their quota; however, it will be difficult for a while with companies/customers spending less now than before. With that being said, it is time for salespersons to build their immune system with the competencies below in order to meet their targets.

Competency #1 – Consultative Selling – only 15 per cent of all salespeople effectively differentiate by listening and asking great questions.

Competency #2 – Value Selling – only 41 per cent of all salespeople have the ability to be of value to their customers.

Competency #3 – Qualifying – only 31 per cent of all salespeople can thoroughly qualify an opportunity.

It is said that the true test of a good pilot is not being in the cockpit of a plane when the conditions outside are good, but when there’s poor visibility and the conditions are treacherous. The conditions are now treacherous, but by employing the right techniques in an agile manner sales professionals and leaders will be able to take flight and weather this storm.

Duane Lue-Fung is an award-winning entrepreneur and is the founder & chairman of the Caribbean’s #1 sales development company, Think Grow Lead. For more insights on sales training, sales recruiting, and sales outsourcing please visit TGL’s website: www.tgltrainers.com/ www.tglsalesschool.com or e-mail me your comments at topsalesguruja@gmail.com