The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed how businesses operate. Most sales teams had to work from home or create a hybrid workplace where they could work remotely with some services in-house.
Sales leaders today struggle with the decision of bringing back their sales team to the office or keeping them working remotely. Here are five factors you need to consider as you make this critical decision:
1. What happened over the past two years?
How did your sales team perform when working from home? It can be challenging to compare working before and after the pandemic as remote working changed everything.
However, you can assess and account for the variables and then look at the team's performance before and after the pandemic. If they did better at home, staying remote might be the best option.
2. How does the sales team feel?
Most workers found working remotely to be a substantial positive change in their lives. Not everyone in your sales team is ready to come back to the office. Talk with them to find out what they feel about working from the office again.
If returning to the office is a crucial requirement, then determine how many people the team you may lose. Use the information to weigh the effectiveness of returning to the office or staying remotely.
3. How did remote working affect your bottom line?
Most businesses have reported that remote work saves a lot of operational costs. A remote sales team will be an excellent financial decision if remote work enables you to achieve higher revenue by reducing costs.
The sales team is among the business departments that can work perfectly in the office, remotely, or in a hybrid workplace. Look at how much you saved and the benefits and disadvantages or bring them to the office.
4. What are your sales team dynamics?
Businesses with large junior team populations feel the need to bring them to the office. Other companies opt for hybrid plans where the team comes to the office on specific days of the week.
There’s learning that takes place just from people being around each other, as well as relationship building. There are also organizations where people would be more productive and happier if they didn’t have to waste time with a daily commute. Every company is unique.
5. What’s the willingness to invest in training your team?
Every business faces two truths: life is about change, and managing people gets challenging each day. Managers are facing new challenges, especially when it comes to switching back to office work. It is crucial to invest in developing and supporting leaders to be equipped for this new era of work.
At YOSD Consulting, we believe every business has its unique preferences when bringing their sales team onsite or continuing with remote work. The execution is far more critical than the decision, and leaders need processes and frameworks to be effective regardless of the path taken.