FROM THE CEO
The Role of Sales Readiness When Unforeseen Circumstances Affect Business The COVID-19 health crisis has thrown us all
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Reliance on sales readiness
into an unprecedented situation. While the
technology: we use our own platform to
health and safety of all employees is paramount,
ensure that sales training and coaching
companies have also been reimagining customer
can continue uninterrupted, reps are
engagement and how they can better prepare and
message-ready with the latest information
equip their workers for unexpected changes to
and important sales meetings or events
their jobs.
are conducted virtually; we can also quickly spin out video-based content to
As soon as the Coronavirus situation took hold, the jobs of sales reps immediately changed. Quarterly goals, quotas and other performance
communicate urgent updates •
have daily or weekly stand-up meetings
numbers suddenly became uncertain and
so teams can connect, share what they’re
many reps were relegated to a remote work FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER @Greg_Flynn
working on and strategize about the latest
arrangement, making it more difficult to have face-to-face meetings and other interactions critical to the sales process.
Stand-up meetings: many of our teams
challenges •
Leader and manager communications: we ensure that our leaders and managers
As a result, the roles of sales enablement and readiness professionals took on new challenges. They were faced with preparing reps for this unchartered territory and keeping them on track
are staying in touch with teams and the company as a whole; we often send out Brainshark presentations via video or PowerPoint with voiceover
as much as possible. With the help of technology and some creative thinking, many companies have been able to pivot quickly, embrace remote work and come up with new sales strategies for as long as they are needed.
Sales enablement and readiness have never been more important than in these unprecedented times. The companies that will make the most of these tough situations are the ones that will
For more than 20 years, we have been helping companies train and prepare remote teams. At Brainshark, we’ve seen the following tactics
forget the status quo and embrace new methods to keep their employees safe and their sales engine humming.
work well: •
Staying connected online: we have Slack
Greg Flynn
and Skype for Business so teams can stay in touch and communicate in group chats; for calls, we encourage everyone to turn on their webcams via Zoom video conferencing
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CEO, Brainshark
