Skynamo changes the sales conversation. Even now that many salespeople are forced to operate from home only, your sales team stays connected to information, to customers and to one another. Here are 10 steps you can take to move things forward, even though your job looks a little different right now.
“It is an ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way” – Rollo May.
Many of us feel like we’ve lost our way a bit at the moment. The only difference is, “running faster in the wrong direction” doesn’t even seem to be an option. Instead, no one is moving anywhere. No playbook prepared us for this moment, and anxiety and frustration are normal responses at this stage.
The good news is that there are alternatives to simply waiting it out. Slowing down allows you to catch up on that important work you always put off because it’s not showing immediate results. This is the time to adjust your strategy. There are various ways to stay in touch with people, and prepare yourself to hit the ground running once quarantine restrictions are lifted.
Here are proactive steps you can take to move things forward, even though your job looks a little different right now:
Before you do anything else, make sure communication channels to your team and your customers are in place. The most obvious downside to remote working and social distancing is the breakdown in face-to-face communication. Many of you use video conferencing on a regular basis but to some of you it’s never been necessary until now. Video conferencing software allows you to hear, see and interact with groups of people like you would in normal conversations or meetings. You can do this using your smart phone, tablet, laptop, or computer at home.
At Skynamo, we rely on Zoom Meetings to stay in contact with one another, run demo sessions with prospects, and interact with customers. This video conferencing tool is great for hosting online meetings with multiple participants. The version that’s available for free can host 40-minute meetings and now caters for up to 100 participants while people are practicing social distancing and operate under lockdown.
Want to compare Zoom to a few more paid for or free options? Read more here…
An updated customer database makes communications so much easier, but it’s one of those things that feels like it gets in the way of more urgent tasks. Instead of keeping customer contact details in separate files on your laptop, why not upload it all to Skynamo? This will allow you to call and email them directly from the app. It’s not necessary to struggle between different databases, store it all in one place instead.
In sales, there are always loose ends. Usually you find yourself so busy chasing the next query that you rarely get the opportunity to follow up and close earlier conversations. Thankfully, you’ve been noting down information in your Skynamo app. Now is a great time to go back and find those quotes that never converted. Is there still a way to get the customer on board? If not, why was this deal lost and what can be learnt from it?
Catherine Naudé, Skynamo Business Development Manager, on how to ‘log visits’ while working form home.
The first and most important step for better planning is to segment your customer base according to their value to you. The next step is to identify what each of these segments needs from you and how often you need to see them. Once you know how often you need to speak to each customer, you can start working on planning based on either fixed call cycles, flexible visit frequencies or a combination of the two.
Read more on how to manage and streamline your planning with Skynamo here.
Visits don’t need to be onsite to add value. Call them to check in with them. Or even better – use a video conferencing tool, such as Zoom Meetings (remember the free option we mentioned in step 1 above?) to keep your “face-to-face” visits regular – even if they are virtual. Understand where their heads are and how you can assist them during this difficult time.
Use this time to strengthen your relationship with your customer. Build some personal rapport with them by sharing with them some of your own personal experience working from home and ask them how they’re coping. We’re all experiencing this together – it’s the first time we’ll have something in common with so many people at once.
Continue logging your phone (or video conference) visits via the app. Once a call is completed, make comments on the customer timeline via the web portal. This way you maintain records of what has been discussed and are able to make the best decisions going forward. Where customers ask you to contact them at a later date, add the visit to your calendar, ensuring that you don’t forget to follow up.
What’s very important at this stage is maintaining relationships and helping where you can. While circumstances change, relationships can remain strong and constant.
We can assist you with a form with specific questions you can ask your customers which will ensure you consistently receive feedback. Contact your Account Manager for more information.
The various video conferencing tools we’ve referred to above, along with other means of digital communication makes nurturing leads, whom you can’t visit in person, easier than ever. And don’t stop using the tried and trusted, yet still overlooked, means of email. This is a great time to rethink how you’re using email to communicate with leads (and also customers). Hubspot provides brilliant, concise advice on why and how to develop an email campaign and what email best practices look like.
Skynamo provides great analytics for better decision-making, drawn from the information added by sales reps and managers. Sales managers who haven’t previously used this can find out more about the analytical insights they can gain here.
All managers should have a look at the number of analytics credits they have, or purchase new ones to continue using our reporting to add value.
This is the perfect time to log into Skynamo Academy and brush up your understanding of how to practically apply app features. You don’t need to leave the safety of your home to get the most out of Skynamo. You have full access to all our online training content and videos on demand by completing the courses online. These can be accessed at your convenience, anytime, anywhere.
As a customer, you will have received login details from our training department to access this great resource.
Skynamo changes the sales conversation. Whether you’re out in the field visiting customers or forced to communicate online-only, your sales team stays connected to information and one another. As a manager, you continue to have insight into conversations with customers and can coach your team through this challenging time. As sales reps, you can continue collecting and sharing valuable information with the rest of the team. Regular communication is key.
Staying connected goes beyond just getting information across during meetings. Skynamo has figured out various ways to stay connected as a team and a company, making sure things remain as normal as possible while working under such different conditions. We’ve mentioned Zoom Meetings a few times already, but it’s such a helpful tool right now. We continue to ‘gather’ for Milestone Mondays, where we celebrate individual achievements, birthdays, work anniversaries. The same goes for social hour on Fridays, mimicking our usual end-of-week get together. We’re also an active bunch, which means the physical trainers that used to visit our offices now connect with us via live streaming platforms or share training schedules via platforms like Strong App.
Other than these, we’re constantly experimenting on Slack, an app designed to bring remote working teams together, often in fun ways. An example would be a Slack tool called donut, which connects three or four people from across the company to take a coffee break at the same time and catch up over Zoom. These random groupings change on a weekly basis, so each week you’ll connect with different people. We also do daily departmental check-ins just to say, “Hello, how are you?” or, “How are you finding things that are not work related?” Some teams do this first thing in the morning, while others prefer doing it at the end of the day before they start switching off from work mode.
Yes, sticking to usual daily rhythms and dressing up for work even though you’re working from home are helpful ways to maintain a sense of normality. At the same time, this is a good time to try out new routines, reports, methods for sharing of ideas, etc., where the usual ways aren’t currently adding value. At Skynamo, we’re doing our best to make sure it’s business as usual, but to do so we’ve been running a few experiments of our own.
Let us know if you need assistance with any of these suggestions and share how you’ve found Skynamo to be especially helpful during this time. Contact Skynamo support with any urgent queries.
