The management landscape is changing drastically as more salespeople move to remote/home offices within their territory. Yet, many aspects of sales seems to be moving more towards relationship-based sales. Yes, relationships have always been a key part of selling, but it seems to be the greater piece today. Information flows freely on the Internet so the differentiation between companies is being pushed onto their salespeople. So we have arrived at the place where relationship-driven salespeople work remotely instead of at the corporate office.
The strain of this new arrangement falls squarely on the sales manager. The modern-days sales manager has to work with limitations that were less common just 10 years ago. The greatest impact is in communication as seen in this Wall Street Journal article:
“It’s about relationships and understanding nuances and building trust,” he says.
Working with distant employees makes that process harder, because you can’t see the subtleties of how people react and it’s harder to create a bond with people you can’t grab a cup of coffee with.
The article then brings up a good point regarding technical aptitude for communicating remotely:
Communicate each person’s role and business objectives regularly, and establish agreed-upon ways to resolve conflicts and solve problems early on, says Mr. Eicher. Find out how technically savvy your remote employees are — and get them trained in technologies you plan to use to keep in touch, he says. Remote employees should be comfortable with voice over Internet protocol, or VOIP; video streaming; and instant messaging.
A remote salesperson without a basic understanding of these technologies will struggle…greatly. The gist of the article states that managers still have to get out and do the face-to-face time. This approach is especially critical for newly hired salespeople:
“Having that first face-to-face meeting of the team — building relationships, reviewing roles and performance objectives — better enables far-flung employees to work effectively,” he says. And, he adds, that first meeting can help subvert the hesitation people have connecting with and asking for things from people they don’t know very well.
That is true. We had a customer hire a remote salesperson who they only brought in to the facility one time. The salesperson ended up getting lost in the onramping process. The manager was not available and their was no set structure to the communication. In the end, the salesperson left within 90 days due mainly to a feeling of apathy from the corporate-based sales manager.