Over the last few months, lots of sales teams have started doing remote work and have quickly found that it can be quite challenging. Are you part of this group? Are you feeling overwhelmed at the idea of making sales while working from home?
Building a killer remote sales team is a great first step. However, you and your team also need to have access to the right tools if you want to succeed long-term.
You’ve heard of (and might even use) options like Slack and Zoom. There are lots of other effective tools you ought to have in your arsenal, though. Read on to learn about some of the best ones that your remote sales team ought to be using.
Common Challenges for Remote Sales Teams
If you’re new to the idea of remote sales, you likely have some questions about the most common challenges you and your team are going to face. Remote work has plenty of benefits, but there are also some potential obstacles to be aware of, including the following:
- Keeping team members engaged during training sessions and meetings
- Staying productive and avoiding distractions in the home
- Staying in touch with team members and monitoring progress from afar
- Keeping up with workflows and making sure current and potential clients don’t get ignored or lost in the shuffle
Types of Tools Every Remote Sales Team Needs
These challenges can definitely get in the way of running a successful sales team. With the right tools, though, it’ll be easier to make sure all of your team members are on the same page.
Here are some of the most important types of tech tools to invest in for yourself and your team:
- Communication tools: Look for software that helps you and your team to stay connected and communicate back and forth (via chat and video) with ease even though you’re all in different places
- Scheduling tools: Schedules might be a little more flexible for remote workers, but they still should have a clear idea of when they’re needed, as well as when meetings and training sessions are being held; scheduling tools can help with this
- Productivity tools: Investing in products that can improve your team members’ home offices and at-home work experience will help them stay focused and minimize costly distractions
- Workflow automation tools: Tools that automate various parts of the sales process are especially valuable when everyone is working from home; for example, Callingly automates lead call back and ensures every lead gets reached out to in a timely manner
Best Remote Sales Tools
Now, let’s get into some of the best remote sales tools you and your team members might want to start using. Here are some of our top picks:
You don’t have to pay an arm and a leg for great remote sales tools. Vidyard is a totally free Google Chrome browser extension that will make your training sessions much easier.
Vidyard allows you to record your screen and create short, clear videos for your sales reps. When you’re finished recording, you’ll get a link to share with each member of your team so they can all get up to speed. Using Vidyard, you can also track who’s watching your videos to ensure everyone on the team is completing their training.
Do members of your sales team complain about their kids making noise or dogs barking while they’re trying to conduct sales calls? Have your own training meetings been disrupted by your cat playing with a toy in the background?
If outside noise is creating distractions and affecting the quality of your team’s work, you might want to start using Krisp. Krisp is an AI-powered noise-canceling app that mutes background noise and creates a more peaceful environment. With Krisp, you can easily remove sounds coming from you or coming from the other end of the call with the push of a button.
All teams, including remote sales teams, need to be able to collaborate and share ideas. If it’s been harder to brainstorm and come together to address potential problems with the company, Slite can come to the rescue.
Slite creates a place for team members to share ideas in writing and store important documents to reference later. You can use it to keep track of notes, ideas, templates, company documents, and more. Slite provides lots of organization options, too, so it’s easy for everyone to find what they need when they need it.
For pretty much every remote sales team, the goal is to close more deals using phone and video calls. If you’re worried about your team members’ ability to do this, or if you just want to light a fire under them and keep them motivated, Ambition is a great product to start using.
Ambition lets you gather all of your team’s sales data into one place for easy analysis. It also offers a gamification platform so you can tap into your team members’ competitive sides.
You can use gamification to maintain engagement and motivation while also rewarding positive behaviors and encouraging team members to beat their personal bests. It’s fun and improves productivity. What more could you want?
Start Using These Remote Sales Tools Today
As you can see, there are lots of great tools out there that you can use to keep your remote sales team on task and set them up for long-term success.
Of all these options, pay special attention to workflow automation and your lead call back software. Your team needs to stay on top of things to succeed, especially when it comes to getting back to potential leads and converting them to paying customers.
Callingly will help you and your team ensure that every lead gets a call back as quickly as possible. It integrates with lots of other remote sales and productivity management tools, and you’ll never have to worry about potential customers falling through the cracks.
Contact us today to learn more about Callingly. You can also sign up here for a free two-week trial.