How to Manage a Hybrid Sales Team
Over the last 18 months, your company, your employees, and you have likely gone through some drastic changes. Some of these changes may feel temporary, but many, especially a hybrid workforce, are likely here to stay. As your organization transitions to a structure that includes a combination of onsite, virtual, and work-from-home employees, you are presented with both opportunities and challenges as you adjust to this new normal. How you adapt to this new work environment can be critical to the success of your company.
In the past, your entire team likely used to do the same thing, with most or all your employees from an office. Based on this structure, you established several best practices and processes designed to maximize the success of your organization. As you shifted to a hybrid environment, you may find that some of those processes do not work as well as they did in the past.
Sebastian Lane Consulting helps clients recognize the value of a hybrid work environment by providing outsourced sales management services catered to their business and needs. Now more than ever, a proven & repeatable sales process is a critical tool as companies adopt a primarily virtual workforce. We partner with you to deliver exceptional results designed to help you capitalize on the opportunities presented by today’s shifting landscape.
Find Value in A Hybrid Work Environment
While you have likely encountered some challenges as you and your company transitioned to a hybrid work environment, you have also likely identified some key advantages. The goal is to maximize the benefits of the new normal and allow for growth and positive changes. In our experience, this shift to a hybrid workforce has allowed for numerous benefits, including a more flexible approach to meetings, an opportunity to better understand your client, and a focus on the preferences of your team. By maximizing the value within each of these benefits you can help your business continue to thrive, even amidst change.
Better Connectivity
One of the greatest benefits of a hybrid work environment is the ability to expand your market reach with ease. In the past, your sales organization may have relied heavily on face-to-face meetings, which often require a lot of time and resources. Today, especially given the recent and rapid shift to virtual meetings, you can easily connect with multiple clients located anywhere in the world. Yes, video conferencing is nothing new, but how heavily we now rely on it certainly is. With greater flexibility, you can not only better serve your customers, but you can also improve the efficiency of your service professionals by freeing up their time so they can focus on what they do best.
Focus on Client Needs
While the needs of your client are always at the center of your sales approach, now more than ever, understanding their business is crucial to your success. By learning how they best like to communicate and conduct business in a hybrid environment, you can develop a sales process catered to their needs. Some clients will surely still prefer to meet face-to-face while others have adopted virtual meetings. Your ability to accommodate their preferences while also continuing to provide exceptional service will help you strengthen your business relationship.
Understand Your Team
As you and your company continue to navigate the new hybrid work environment, you have likely heard some employees proclaim they are happy to work from home permanently while others are more eager to return to the office. We have seen companies big and small address this issue in a variety of ways, but ultimately the decision comes down to what works best for your employees.
Gathering this information can be difficult but it also presents you with an opportunity to connect with your team and understand any challenges they may be experiencing so you can adjust expectations as needed. An effective and simple way to find out what is and is not working for your service professionals is to keep open lines of communication. Whether it be regularly scheduled checkpoints, individual meetings, or open forum group discussions, keeping in touch with your team will maintain a dialogue that will allow you to identify any potential issues before they become too large. Not everyone has the same communication preferences in a hybrid environment so take the time to learn the preferences of each member of your team, whether it be through email, a video conference, a phone call, or a combination of the three. This will ease the transition to a new working model and continue to foster open and effective communication.
Set Expectations
One of the more challenging aspects of operating in a hybrid environment is setting and maintaining expectations. The flexibility of a hybrid environment offers greater freedom for employees, but it also can lead to underperformance if proper boundaries are not set.
As a leader within your organization expectation-setting begins with you and your behavior. If you create an environment that sets different standards based on whether a service professional is onsite or remote, or even set expectations that you do not follow yourself, you may create rifts or a negative culture. Instead, set the example by maintaining consistent and realistic expectations. Communicate these expectations with your team often to ensure that they are clearly understood. Also, this will foster an opportunity for your team to provide input as the landscape continues to shift. Having some flexibility within your expectations will allow you to quickly adapt to your team’s needs as they arise.
While your team may not all be in the office like they were in the past, it is also important to maintain the same high expectations you had in the past. By keeping expectations high, you foster a competitive environment that incentivizes your team to accomplish their stretch goals. With high expectations should come high visibility and recognition. Don’t forget to celebrate team and individual accomplishments, both big and small, to maintain the same camaraderie you likely had while working in an office.
The shift to a hybrid work environment provides you and your company with a wonderful opportunity to reevaluate your current sales approach and adapt to the changing landscape. The experienced and accomplished team at Sebastian Lane Consulting will help you find value in this new normal and set you up for long-term success.
If you have questions about how to maximize the benefits of a hybrid work environment or want to learn more about our outsourced sales management services, we are here to help. To schedule your free initial consultation, call Sebastian Lane Consulting at 443-534-6783 or email us at jesse@sebastianlaneconsulting.com.