Consumer Discretionary

<p><strong><u>New Challenges for Sales Managers</u></strong></p><p>Sales managers face pressure to deliver above-market growth at the best of times. With the current global pandemic, that demand has never been more acute for businesses across the globe to drive revenue. The challenge for many is adapting to a new way.</p><p>Though sales strategies have constantly been evolving over the years, COVID-19 has only accelerated the move to a more modern, digital way of selling for sales managers and their teams. As a result of this global crisis, there are 3 emerging must-do&rsquo;s for sales managers to elevate their skill-sets and support their teams.</p><blockquote><strong>1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Lead the mindset shift</strong></blockquote><p>Traditional sales organizations are now facing significant changes moving to remote sales and the effective management of remote teams. Sales management mindset must shift to embrace the new world and ways of working &ndash; particularly if they want the team to do the same.</p><div class="slate-resizable-image-embed slate-image-embed__resize-right"><img src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C5612AQGTKqC5wFZwHg/article-inline_image-shrink_1500_2232/0/1600261052837?e=1643241600&amp;v=beta&amp;t=_yUSE7Lzeurlggrf4EmSMQTk3iGSjHpH7KcuNNwoNi8" alt="No alt text provided for this image" data-media-urn="" data-li-src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C5612AQGTKqC5wFZwHg/article-inline_image-shrink_1500_2232/0/1600261052837?e=1643241600&amp;v=beta&amp;t=_yUSE7Lzeurlggrf4EmSMQTk3iGSjHpH7KcuNNwoNi8" /></div><p>How can sales managers achieve a mindset shift? It starts with you;</p><p>&gt;make the decision and lead the change in approach.</p><p>&gt;understand what you have to unlearn and relearn and put together a plan (ie technologies for communication, collaboration and customer engagement; remote management skills etc)</p><p>&gt;Let your team see you leading the way and encourage them adopt it themselves.</p><p>&gt;This is the age of empowerment &ndash;&nbsp;- So unleash your team to take more ownership for their business and support them with coaching and the broader development they need. This is the perfect time to also encourage experimentation and find new, creative ways to engage your team, and for your team to engage and win with their customers.&nbsp;<strong>Empowered teams will embrace it!</strong></p><p>Most importantly, celebrate the shift &ndash; catch people doing it right, acknowledge, then build and share on successes within the team.</p><blockquote><strong>2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Adopt and embrace&nbsp;<u>digital</u></strong></blockquote><p>The choice is endless when it comes to digital tools. These are the tools that are crucial to help you and your team effectively collaborate, communicate, and most importantly, engage with clients and prospects. This will underpin both productivity and performance in the new world of selling and customer relationship building.</p><div class="slate-resizable-image-embed slate-image-embed__resize-left"><img src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C5612AQGjrfP0DGDA6A/article-inline_image-shrink_1500_2232/0/1600261119521?e=1643241600&amp;v=beta&amp;t=DS3D1LYv12WPZv8Rhel0zb9eG-H_f0v08QAHhynCzwY" alt="No alt text provided for this image" data-media-urn="" data-li-src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C5612AQGjrfP0DGDA6A/article-inline_image-shrink_1500_2232/0/1600261119521?e=1643241600&amp;v=beta&amp;t=DS3D1LYv12WPZv8Rhel0zb9eG-H_f0v08QAHhynCzwY" /></div><p>Investment of your time is critical to explore the most appropriate tools, as well as the provision of any support and training needed to master and utilise each tool to its full potential. Some of the tools&nbsp;<em>most used&nbsp;</em>in the past few months, between suppliers and their customers, have included:</p><p>-Google MEET</p><p>-Zoom (The number 1!)</p><p>-MS Teams</p><p>-Slack</p><p>-Workplace by Facebook</p><p>-Trello</p><p>This becomes part of sales management experimentation. Testing our the technologies which are most appropriate for you and your team and your customers.</p><p>Once the appropriate technology is in place, then everyone needs to learn it! How to use it, what functions work best, creative tools that may be included, and more.&nbsp;</p><blockquote><strong>3.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Focus on wellbeing and support</strong></blockquote><p>These are uncertain times and the companies that are making progress understand their people are the top priority. Changing how we do things can be stressful at the best of times, especially for traditional sales teams who have thrived on the human touch; in-person meetings and presentations, fast-paced activities and more &ndash; suddenly how they operate has changed.</p><div class="slate-resizable-image-embed slate-image-embed__resize-right"><img src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C5612AQEIlBSdnaT44g/article-inline_image-shrink_1500_2232/0/1600261195514?e=1643241600&amp;v=beta&amp;t=5UkNUVpnAWvil_Cb7PZkShKJ3nLYoE9jKglJW9NycvI" alt="No alt text provided for this image" data-media-urn="" data-li-src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C5612AQEIlBSdnaT44g/article-inline_image-shrink_1500_2232/0/1600261195514?e=1643241600&amp;v=beta&amp;t=5UkNUVpnAWvil_Cb7PZkShKJ3nLYoE9jKglJW9NycvI" /></div><p>It is crucial that for remote teams there needs to be the necessary support, a demonstration of empathy, strong performance guidance, regular communication and collaboration to ensure there is engagement within the team. And in turn it's how the sales team itself engages with customers. Underpinning all this, in high growth companies that have found success through COVID 19 times; there is a high focus on the mental health and wellbeing of individuals.</p><p>For example, Spotify founded their internal podcasts to explore how their employees were adapting to working remotely. This proved so popular they were made available externally. They have since collaborated with some of their customers to do the same &ndash; focused on wellbeing topics within and outside of COVID19 times.</p><div class="slate-resizable-image-embed slate-image-embed__resize-left"><img src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C5612AQF9yltX0vzI9w/article-inline_image-shrink_1500_2232/0/1600261242689?e=1643241600&amp;v=beta&amp;t=iTAc_fUbtyXoJm5hYBZXpji7aa7YZTg8hu1SJcZjBHo" alt="No alt text provided for this image" data-media-urn="" data-li-src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C5612AQF9yltX0vzI9w/article-inline_image-shrink_1500_2232/0/1600261242689?e=1643241600&amp;v=beta&amp;t=iTAc_fUbtyXoJm5hYBZXpji7aa7YZTg8hu1SJcZjBHo" /></div><p>This mindset is broader than focus on just Spotify employees. It recognizes their customers and listeners may benefit from it too. This enhances the relationships with Spotify as a supplier and puts them in poll position with customers; as well as doing the right things in support of their employees.</p><p><strong><u>Final word:</u></strong></p><p>To succeed in a remote setting, it is critical there are tools and structures to communicate in the virtual environment and build relationships both internally and externally with customers/prospects. A successful sales team is made of engaged team members that are open to change, who will then thrive in times of transition as they have the blueprint, tools and support of their sales leader.</p><div class="slate-resizable-image-embed slate-image-embed__resize-full-width"><img src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C5612AQGdzomnylObKw/article-inline_image-shrink_1500_2232/0/1600261334677?e=1643241600&amp;v=beta&amp;t=38yV4LWIxfxOyZYVzPVg61fBye-0X14CU2ZOd0SWyfo" alt="No alt text provided for this image" data-media-urn="" data-li-src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C5612AQGdzomnylObKw/article-inline_image-shrink_1500_2232/0/1600261334677?e=1643241600&amp;v=beta&amp;t=38yV4LWIxfxOyZYVzPVg61fBye-0X14CU2ZOd0SWyfo" /></div><p>Effective sales managers need to evolve and be advocates for change, leading the transition of the team as a whole. Successful managers recognise that the essential components to change is not only providing the right technology and tools to prospect and hunt sales opportunities, but additionally critical collaboration tools to connect their teams to build morale which focuses on communication. Add to this an increased need for focus on wellbeing and mental health, for all our remote teams, and it becomes clear that the traditional role of sales managers needs to adapt to new ways of working.</p><p>If a sales manager adopts these 3 key points, then they will find their team is engaged, mobilised, mirroring the approach with customers (on a more human level), and will be on the right track for success.</p><p>The time to make that shift is now.</p>