8 minute read
How to win at working from home
How to win at Working From Home 6 tips for staying productive in your home office.
BY JON GOLDSTEIN
Apiping hot tumbler of your favorite coffee, accompanying you on the morning commute. The fresh air of a construction site, not a cloud in the sky. Lunch breaks with the team. They sure sound nice right about now, don’t they? Working from home can be tough at times. Like church and state, there’s meant to be a clear separation between your work life and home life. But now, because of COVID-19, all of this has changed. So, how does one succeed at work while housebound? How do you stay focused when every day is like Ground Hog’s Day, but without Bill Murray to keep things interesting? Here are a few tips to help you stay the course.
Dress for success (This doesn’t mean PJ’s)
A simple act, but a necessary one, getting dressed is a symbolic gesture that you’re starting the day. Now this doesn’t mean you need to go putting on a tie. Think of it like it’s Casual Friday at your office, except that every day is Friday. That’s how you should dress. Be comfortable but confident that should a video conference happen, you won’t need to speed-button a button down shirt.
Define your time
Be sure to set boundaries for when you’re working and when you’re not. Start at 9. End at 5. Start at 8:30. End at 4:30. Do whatever works for you but be consistent with your timetable. Consider keeping your exact office hours the same to ensure a smooth transition once social distancing measures lift and you can return to work. If everyone in your office keeps the same hours, it will remain easy to communicate with the rest of your team throughout the day.
Over-communicate
While working remotely, it’s easy for tasks to fall through the cracks if everyone is not regularly communicating with one another. Make a plan with your boss for how often you should check in each day. Come up with a plan for how new projects should get kicked off. And by all means, don’t limit your communications to email and text messages. Try video conferences. Try the oldfashioned method of just picking up a phone and making a call. Phone calls and video meetings can help you actually talk things out instead of volleying emails back and forth, wasting time and productivity.
The Pomodoro Technique
Did you see what’s trending on Yahoo news? How about that free agency deal on ESPN? Any word from college friends on Facebook messenger? At work, it’s easy to get distracted. And it’s even easier to get distracted while working from home. This is why you should consider a method like the Pomodoro Technique. This time management tool divides your workday into 25-minute segments. Set the timer for 25 minutes and when it goes off take a 3-5 minute break. After completing 4 of these timed cycles, take a longer break. Then start over. By establishing official break periods, you’ll be encouraged to focus on the tasks ahead of you. Because a break is just around the corner.
Stay connected
Reply to emails, return calls and answer voicemail messages promptly. When not occupying the same workspace, people become hyper-aware of timing and whether or not they’ve heard back from you. Even if you don’t have all the answers to someone’s email, you can still reply to them confirming receipt of their message and letting them know when you plan on following up. Always keep lines of communication open. The more that is said, the less confusion there will be between members of your team.
Stay social
While working from home, it’s easy for a company’s culture to fall by the wayside. Work becomes all about the work, and less about the comradery and teamwork that goes into it. To help keep your company’s culture strong, schedule social events with your colleagues. Throughout the country, businesses are holding virtual happy hours—video calls where everyone gets online just to talk about life without any business agendas. As weeks become months, and as the coronavirus continues to keep us at home, it’s important for us to succeed as remote workers. What we do from afar, every day, is what will keep our businesses afloat. Sources: inc.com | npr.org | themuse.com
It’s no surprise that CCN has some of the best salespeople in the home improvement business. It’s not uncommon to hear that our sales performance is roughly triple of what is considered to be “highly successful”. There are many factors that contribute to this, but it all comes back to our belief system. We need to believe we will be successful in order to become successful.
Below are the key characteristics of a highly successful CCN salesperson.
As you look at and study these characteristics, skills and talents, you'll realize that you already possess many of them yourself. Some of these skills and talents are more dominant than others and will play a greater part in your being or becoming successful. These are the things you do well. The things you do easily and effortlessly. These are your strengths. For example, it may be easy for you to get people to like you. When you find that you need a skill or talent that you don't have, we have proven, effective resources that will help you learn our best practices and help you close the gap. For example, many salespeople have a difficult time asking for the order or making the “close”. At CCN, we have developed a series of Bridging Questions and a SCSP that automatically asks for the order, without the salesperson having to say, “Well, are you ready to go ahead?”
Here are the 8 characteristics. Which do you possess? 1. A passion to excel
Successful CCN salespeople have a well-defined purpose. A definitive goal. They know what they want. They aren't easily influenced by the thoughts and opinions of others. They have willpower and a passion to succeed. They have ideas on how to improve the success of their sales. Their strong passion triggers extraordinary results. They do what less successful salespeople feel can’t be done. They are not limited by the following feelings: n I feel the economy is holding me back n I feel the low-ballers are holding me back n I feel I don’t have enough qualified leads n I feel my customers are different and will not respond to the
CCN processes n I feel uncomfortable asking for an appointment with the complete buying party when I get resistance n I feel uncomfortable with the SCSP so I don’t use it Successful CCN Salespeople are those who produce results, not excuses. Anybody can come up with excuses and explanations for why they can’t sell, or for their low sales performance. Those who want to succeed badly simply do not make those excuses.
2. Just the right blend of ambition and motivation
Successful CCN salespeople want to be the best they can possibly be. They have enthusiasm, commitment and pride. They have self-discipline. They're willing to work hard and to go the extra mile for both the internal and external customer. They have a burning desire to succeed. They're willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. They know that joy in life comes with working for and producing the results that help achieve their dreams. They take great satisfaction in closing sales, writing their sales success on the Daily Sales Activity Board, seeing their name in the weekly newsletter and receiving awards at CCN Quarterly Conferences.
3. Hawk-like focus
Successful CCN salespeople concentrate on their main goals and objectives. They don't get sidetracked. They do not participate in water cooler talk. They do not participate in negative salesperson talk. They don't procrastinate. They work on the steps of the CCN Sales Process that are important, and don't allow steps to wait until the last minute. They're not just busy, they’re productive.
4. A hunger to learn
Successful CCN salespeople acquire their skills, talents and knowledge to get the job done. They learn what needs to be learned, not just the things they are passionate about. They are willing to work hard and commit themselves to fully understanding that which they aim to sell.
5. Problem-solving skills
Successful CCN salespeople are opportunity minded. When they see opportunities, they take advantage of them. They debrief their Measure Calls and focus on these 4 questions: 1. What will the customer buy? 2. Why will they buy it from me over anyone else? 3. Why will they buy it upon completion of my presentation? 4. What is the most probable reason or reasons they won’t buy from me? They have proactively prepared solutions, so they approach the Follow-Up call prepared to get the order, not an excuse.
6. Self-Reliance
Successful CCN salespeople have the skills, talents and training that are needed in order to be successful. If leads are slow, they self-generate leads. They use their skills to differentiate themselves from the competition.
7. Resourcefulness
Successful CCN salespeople know the things they need to know to be successful. And when they need specialized information, knowledge, or skills and talents that they don't possess, they know how to find it. They connect with peers who know the information. They listen to recordings and read books. They do the hard work, beyond just using Google.
8. Collaborative spirit
Successful CCN salespeople have positive, outgoing personalities. They surround themselves with people who offer them help, support, and encouragement. They reach out and try to help salespeople that are not as successful. They help people dispel negative thoughts that are limiting their personal growth and achievement. They are leaders within their companies. For help in further developing these traits of a successful CCN salesperson, do not hesitate to reach out. Your success is our success. We look forward to being of assistance.
