With nearly every salesperson conducting their workday from home nowadays, we wanted to compile a list of the best WFH tips for salespeople. We asked some of the top experts, some of whom have years of experience working from home offices and some who are brand new to it. Keep reading to see what they have to say about working from home in sales.
Stay hydrated
“Always keep a full glass of water next to you at all times, as talking for hours at a time can get you dehydrated. When that happens, your voice starts to sound more hoarse and can crack, which you don’t want when you’re on the phone with an important client. So always make a habit of refilling your glass of water on the way back from the bathroom or anytime you have a reason for getting up off the couch.”
—Sharon Van Donkelaar, Chief Marketing Officer at Expandi
Surround your workspace with your “why”
“This should consist of photos of why you are doing what you’re doing. It could be photos of your family, a car you want, a goal, photos of a house you want, people you admire, etc.
When you look at them they should influence you to make that extra call, to keep on going when it gets tough. If they don’t then your goals are not compelling enough.”
—Sean McPheat, CEO at MTD Sales Training
Batch your emails
“In order to keep myself sane in a day where my structure has all but disappeared, batching my emails has empowered me to reclaim my schedule. I only check and respond to emails twice a day, usually from 10a to 11a and from 3p to 4p.
The rest of the day, I keep Outlook offline. This stops the barrage of urgent emails from flooding my inbox with distractions. I quickly realized that few emails are really as urgent as they first seem, and oftentimes, the proper team member responds instead of me feeling obligated to always chime in.”
—Brian Kantor, Digital Account Director at Hearst and Founder at Pour My Party
Designate a workspace
“A designated workspace is a must. Make sure to have a desk, good lighting, and attractive background for video calls. Invest in (or make your employer invest in) tools like a large monitor, ergonomic office chair, etc. It’s also important to have a clutter-free and inviting space so that you can be your most productive self every day.”
—Tolga Sakman, VP of Enterprise Sales at JotForm
Schedule a break
“One of the biggest challenges in WFH is to stop working, step away, and establish a balance between work and life. Without a scheduled interruption, I just continue to work, since there is always one more task to complete. To counter this, I start the week by looking at my calendar and the weather forecast. Then I block 3-4 hours on a day with great weather in the forecast and use this time to bike, hike, or sail.”
—Henning Schwinum, Chief Evangelist at Vendux Interim & Fractional Sales Leadership
Establish ground rules
“Establish ground rules for other people in your home or who, while you work, share your room. When you have kids that come home from school when you’re already training, they need straightforward guidelines on what during the period they can and can not do.
Furthermore, just because you’re home and will allow help workers into the house or take care of pets doesn’t mean that other members of the family could believe you’re still going to do so. If that’s how you plan to break the household labor, that’s good, but if you just take it all on by chance since you’re home, you will feel taken advantage of it, and you might benefit from your efficiency.”
—David Meltzer, CEO at East Insurance Group
Meditate
“The pandemic has forced all of us to dive deeper into the digital communication world than we ever have before. While there are a lot of benefits to it, there are also some drawbacks. The lack of human interaction coupled with the perceived pressure of 100% work-uptime can become all-consuming.
Take time for yourself daily, make sure you reground when you get spun up. Not taking this time can have diminishing returns on your productivity.”
—Ed Carroll, Vice President of Sales at JRNI
Maintain a morning routine
“Maintaining a schedule, and more importantly, a morning routine has helped keep me energized and productive while working from home. Waking up at the same time I normally would when working from the office and completing my personal morning activities, i.e. workouts, meditation, etc. helps me start on a positive note and sets the tone for my day.
Scheduling meetings, to do’s, and breaks, as well as continuing my normal work hours and shutting off when the workday is done also helps with work/life balance as it is very easy to blur the lines when it all takes place in the same environment.”
—Gill MacPherson, International Commercial Growth Strategist at OnCrawl
Wear your shoes
“When I first started working from home (WFH), I struggled with motivation. My workdays felt like weekends, and my sales suffered.
One day, I forgot to take my shoes off after running an errand. I felt reinvigorated that workday. Was this because of the shoes? The next day, I wore my shoes again and experienced the same motivation. The following day, I closed a significant new account.
Wearing shoes was tricking my brain into thinking I was in an office. I made wearing shoes while I worked from home a habit. The weekend vibes evaporated, and I started crushing my sales goals.”
—Christian Banach VP, Business Development at Genuine Interactive and Outbound New Business Consultant at ChristianBanach.com
Segment your life
“I highly recommend segmenting your life. For example, you should not work in your bedroom. If you have a home office or spare room you can dedicate to work, that is best. If not, try using the living room or kitchen. Just make sure you get out of the bedroom!”
—Kevin Miller, CEO at The Word Counter
Check your appearance
“My number one working from home (WFH) tip is to focus on routine maintenance. When working from home, it’s important for me to keep an office-like routine. I get up at the same time, eat the same breakfast, and approach the day in the same way. I also wear office-appropriate clothes every day, because you never know when you’ll need to jump on a video call with a prospect. Nobody wants to buy software from someone wearing flannel PJs and a sweat-stained cap. Your online appearance makes a real difference, so I also routinely check my surroundings to make sure what’s behind me puts our company in the best possible light.”
—Pat Criss, Sales Director at RFP360
Keep networking
“WFH has limited salespeople from doing what they do best…networking! It’s imperative that sales professionals find (or create!) virtual opportunities to keep their network alive and connections warm.
Rather than viewing connections as purely transactional, Noam’s sales secret was constantly creating opportunities to keep his network warm and not to let important connections go cold. Examples could be sending interesting articles to those he knew would appreciate them or going out of his way to introduce two strangers in his network that would benefit from meeting.”
—Noam Weisman, CEO at Hunterz.io
If you follow these tips, you’ll be hitting your quota in no time! If you need help tracking your commissions and quota attainment, sign up for QuotaPath today!
