Your Greatest Vulnerability?

by: Steve Jensen

10 min read

Quarantines.

Social Distancing.

People wearing sanitation masks to the grocery store.

Inability to purchase hand sanitizer.

The handshake may never be part of business ever again.

As organizations have responded to the COVID-19 Pandemic around the world, workers have left the corporate environment and retreated to the safety of their homes. To organizations that already supported the work from home environment, this may have been a small change.  To other firms, this has been a massive change, requiring teams to retool some of their salespeople that were not equipped to work from home.

In the past 2 weeks, I’ve had dozens of conversations with sales leaders around the world about their plans for Crisis Survival and more important, Crisis Recovery.  As I’ve spoken with these outstanding leaders I’ve been impressed with their commitment to the members of their teams and their family members.  It has been interesting to discuss new go to market sales strategies.

But in every case, the most immediate concern was not lost revenue.

As these teams have decentralized and moved to a fully-remote deployment, there is something much more foundational at risk that every sales leader needs to be focused on nurturing if they are going to successfully navigate this challenging time:

Culture.

As I’ve had the opportunity to work with sales leaders in companies of all sizes, I’ve learned the foundation of organizational success includes culture.  In fact, at Xvoyant, we believe that it is “Culture first, Skills second.”

Your culture drives everything.  A company’s culture is an always-evolving set of collective beliefs, values, and attitudes.  Culture has more of an impact on the strategic direction and success of any organization.  Culture affects all business functions from accounting to production.

Culture can take years to create, but it can erode very quickly.  With your team dispersed you lose the benefit of spontaneous interaction.  You lose the camaraderie that comes from getting coffee together, grabbing lunch, discussing opportunities, sharing best practices, and so much more that comes from being part of a team that works closely together.

As you build your strategy to work from home, don’t just focus on the changes to the mechanics of selling.  It is equally…if not more…important to work on the mechanics of leading and building a strong team regardless of where you sit.

While each leader will have nuances unique to their team, here are a few places to start as you make sure culture is the foundation of your ongoing success.

  • Define your Culture. Write down what you stand for.  What do you do to make these beliefs and values come to life?  For example, If you had a daily stand up…still have that meeting, just do it via video conference.  You may have to change the mechanics of how you create experiences, but don’t stop creating the experiences that exhibit your culture.  Make a list of the non-negotiables that create the experiences that define your team.  In your first conference call or video meeting, send this list to everyone and discuss it.   Give people the opportunity to collaborate and contribute to your plan on how you make sure you create the experiences that matter.  Don’t stop training.  Don’t stop role-playing.  Don’t stop collaborating.  Just change the mechanics that you use to do this.  The culture doesn’t change.  Only the mechanics do. The act of writing these things down and discussing them with your team will make sure you get more than buy-in.  You’ll get ownership.  And your team will see just how important culture is to you.
  • Gear Up. Remote work will require new tools.  One sales leader I spoke with shared with me that equipping their team to be fully functional was more of an effort…and expense…then he had anticipated.  It was more than laptops and mobile devices.  It was VPN for everyone (they are in the financial services sector.)  It was high-res webcams.  Expanded Zoom licenses.  New usage situations for Slack.  Chorus for conversation intelligence.  But don’t focus on the cost and what you have to give as much as you focus on what you get.  Not equipping the team to be FULLY functional in a remote capacity sends a message that “this too shall pass.”  And while the “Covid Effect” certainly will pass, you don’t want the cultural elements relative to your company’s mission to pass in the interim.  Part of the culture of any high-performing team is that you will equip them for success.
  • Take a close look at your sales process in this new environment.  The experiences required for your customers to make informed decisions haven’t changed.  But the mechanics required for a salesperson to effectively create these experiences have.  Take a close look at every experience required to go through the sales process and evaluate what tools you need to create those experiences in the remote environment.  I’ve found that the early-stage activities change more than the later stage activities do.  But every company and every sales process is different so you need to take a close look at this so you can effectively lead your team into this new environment.
  • Overcommunicate. This is a scary time for people.  Everything is changing fast.  Whatever your level of communication was in a previous model, increase it now.  Now more than ever, people are thirsty for information.  I’d recommend more frequent, shorter information updates and confirmations than less frequent, lengthy manifestos.  Start every day with a quick update on what happened yesterday and what the team goals are today.  This will help focus efforts and keep people productive and engaged in the moment.  You want to help keep a focus on the day, not the week.
  • Recommit to the 1:1. The 1:1 will now be more important than ever before. The 1:1 has always been the only meeting 100% about the success of the individual rep.  Now, it is also a lifeline and connection to the company.  You may want to have more frequent 1:1 interactions.  Some formal, using your 1:1 agenda.  Others less formal, but equally important.  You’ll need to make more intentional interactions in this model than when you work in the same office.

With new mechanics required to create critical customer experiences, you’ll have new things to coach on.  Practice and joint calls will be very important.  But this creates a fantastic way to shore up your culture as you help each rep not only stay productive, but more important, experience your commitment to their ongoing development.

Culture First, Skills Second.

Your team will only develop the skills that your culture requires…and encourages…them to develop.

Protect your culture.  Use this opportunity to strengthen your culture.  And as you do, you’ll find you come through this stronger as a result.

Your leadership has never been more important than it is right now.

Your reps and your shareholders will thank you later.

___________________________________________________

Steve Jensen is Vice President of Marketing at Xvoyant

Want To Know More About Xvoyant?

Our insight comes from combined decades (no, really) of business experience. The technology and methodologies behind our Employee Coaching & Human Capital Performance Platform will take your sales team to a whole new level you never thought possible.