What Does the Shift to WFH Mean for New Business?
The shift to working from home (WFH), which boosts productivity and job satisfaction while reducing attrition, requires sales teams to adapt by being patient with slower communication, reevaluating sales metrics to reflect longer sales cycles, and developing WFH-friendly onboarding processes to effectively pursue new business opportunities.
While avoiding Zoom happy hours, attending meetings in pajama pants, and calling the dog your “assistant” are all stale jokes now, working from home certainly isn’t. According to a Morning Consult survey first reported by Bloomberg, 39% of respondents said they’d consider quitting if their bosses weren’t flexible about them working from home. So, while we remain in our comfy clothes, what does the shift to WFH (as the kids call it) mean for new business opportunities and sales outreach?
To, once again, reiterate that WFH is here to stay:
- Working from home increases productivity by 13%. (Stanford)
- In the same study workers also reported improved work satisfaction, and attrition rates were cut by 50%.
- 77% of those who work remotely at least a few times per month show increased productivity. (ConnectSolutions)
- In the same study, 30% of workers reported doing more work in less time while 24% do more work in the same period of time.
Keep reading to uncover five ways your sales team can adapt its new business strategy to WFH life.
1) Be patient
WFH means both sides of a new business relationship have changed. Your contact at a prospective company may take longer to respond because their colleagues aren’t as readily available as they were in an office. Communication may be stiffer, too. Remote work has increased our reliance on Zoom and Google Hangouts while decreasing our dependence on the good old-fashioned phone call. I, for one, don’t want to work on my personal cell phone. Remember that delays don’t mean you’re being ghosted.
2) Reevaluate your sales metrics
These waiting-games will affect your sales cycle and, ultimately, your success metrics. Instead of missing goal each month, take an honest look at your goals versus the trends of the last two quarters. Are they still realistic? What else has changed other than slowed down communication? Maybe new clients now need a more WFH-friendly onboarding process with individualized training or support. If you’re not sure where to begin, send a survey to current clients asking them how their processes have changed.
3) Relationship-build
Sales has always been about relationships. Success depends on nurturing existing clients as well as acquiring new ones. One of the best things to come out of the pandemic, for me at least, is speaking to people from an environment they feel safe in, their homes. Leads may be more relaxed and personable, allowing salespeople to connect on a human-to-human level instead of buyer-to-seller. Be engaging and authentic. Open the conversation asking about creating their office space, the pet wandering in and out of the frame, or the children’s art hanging behind them.
4) Track everything
If you work for a company that has a good CRM, take advantage of as many features as you can. Intelligent software can help you keep tabs on current and potential customers, personalize communication, and customize each step of the customer journey. Failing to maintain connections can cost you. Once you automate your processes, you’ll wonder how you ever got anything done before.
5) For managers — motivate your new business team’s performance
Recognize the challenges that WFH selling presents. While performance metrics are important, look beyond the bottom line and create a supportive space to discuss remote-work related pushback, decision-making lags, and employee happiness. How do you measure happiness? Use an employee feedback tool to uncover what’s working and what isn’t. Check in regularly and allow for honest feedback to maintain trust and collaboration.
At the end of each week or month, ask:
- On a scale of 1-5, how would you rate your week/month? Why?
- What’s working? What are you proud of?
- Where do you feel stuck or confused?
- Do you have any questions about our sales process, company, or team?
- What is your personal goal for next week/month?
Related
Find Decision Makers with 5 Sales Intelligence Must-Haves - Winmo
The article from Winmo emphasizes that effective sales intelligence tools, especially for targeting national marketers and agencies, must include five key features—most importantly human-verified data—to help sales professionals quickly identify and engage decision makers, thereby accelerating lead conversion, shortening sales cycles, and allowing focus on relationship-building rather than tedious research.
Winmo Solutions for AdTech Companies
Winmo offers adtech companies exclusive, human-verified sales intelligence and predictive tools to identify and target key marketing and ad technology decision-makers at over 36,000 advertisers and agencies, enabling precise lead generation, industry-specific targeting, and early identification of sales opportunities with up to 80% accuracy.
What Sales Tools Do Top-Performing People Use?
Top-performing salespeople use a variety of specialized tools including CRMs like Pipedrive, Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, and Zoho to organize and track prospects, as well as marketing automation platforms like Hubspot to create targeted campaigns and stay competitive in a crowded market.
How Winmo Addresses Common Sales Pain Points - Winmo
Winmo addresses common sales pain points by saving time in prospecting through providing verified decision-maker contacts, optimal contact times, and unique insights via WinmoEdge—a daily digest highlighting key company events like RFPs, new CMOs, and funding, combined with API access to Pathmatics' historical ad spend data—to help salespeople efficiently identify and prioritize high-potential leads, especially in the competitive and evolving adtech startup landscape.
You Found a Sales Opportunity, But What Next?
The article outlines seven strategic steps sales professionals should take within Winmo after identifying a promising sales opportunity, including researching the prospect's advertising spend and creative consistency, understanding their agency relationships, pinpointing key decision-makers by title, and tailoring outreach by knowing the contact's personality, to effectively advance the sales process beyond just finding potential clients.
SponsorUnited Competitive Analysis - Winmo
The analysis compares Winmo and SponsorUnited in sales enablement, highlighting Winmo's superior contact accuracy through a rigorous 60-day US-based verification process and detailed sponsorship insights across major sports leagues, enabling personalized outreach by mapping over 230,000 decision-makers and their full marketing spend, whereas SponsorUnited lacks transparent data verification and offers more limited sponsorship connection details.