Remote working is commonplace in nearly every industry. This is especially true for sales and marketing. Knowing how to manage your remote working teams is an essential part of your company’s growth and success.
According to The New York Times, “43 percent of employed Americans said they spent at least some time working remotely, according to the survey of more than 15,000 adults.”
The remote team approach has also increased in a majority of industries . . .
Remote sales and marketing teams need to be efficient and highly productive to achieve company aims and goals. Luckily, there are a variety of best management practices you can employ to make your remote employees as productive as your in-house team.
From finding the best remote workers, to ensuring they have clear goals in place, the following remote team tips will make management as seamless and painless as possible.
1. Find the Best Remote Workers for Your Company Culture
The first place you can turn to when it comes to managing remote workers is your HR and company recruiter. Let’s face it, superstar sales and marketing employees, whether remote or not, often need less oversight.
However, this means that you should ensure you are offering competitive pay and benefits for remote workers. Just because they are remote doesn’t mean they have less of a burden on payroll.
2. Have Clear Aims and Goals in Place for Remote Workers
One of the most common missteps in remote team management for sales and marketing is not having clear aims and goals in place. When minimal supervision is the case, it is absolutely necessary to set goals on tasks and projects.
There should be short and long-term goals in place with a calendar for remote teams to follow. This will keep them on track with clear goals and deadlines for them to follow.
Goals for remote workers should encompass the following:
- Goals need to be aligned with the company aim and mission.
- They should be very clear and easy to understand.
- Ensure there is ownership of goals by remote team members.
- Make all goals measureable.
- Each goal should have a clear beginning and ending.
- Sales and marketing goals should also have incentives.
- Set achievable goals for your remote teams.
You can also set up a Google Sheet to track progress of your remote team tasks and projects. Instead of continually asking your remote workers for updates, you can simply check the Google Sheet to see if tasks and projects are moving forward in a powerful way.
3. Utilize Task-Tracking Platforms
Google Sheets is a great start, but what if you want to take your sales and marketing remote team management to the next level? The good news is that you can employ a number of task-tracking platforms.
Online task-tracking platforms are often cloud based and give your remote workers access to to-do lists, project feedback, client notes, and a variety of other important components.
From home office, to co-working spaces, remote workers have a lot of options. You need your remote team to be able to access vital information from anywhere, and at anytime.
A few task-tracking platforms you could use for sales and marketing include:
Having these task-tracking tools in place will give you a bird’s eye view of tasks and projects. You can then match that with the clear goals you put in place for your remote teams to ensure efficiency and productivity are at the forefront.
4. Use an Online and Mobile Ready Messaging Platform
Integrating messaging platforms will help keep your daily sales and marketing activities on track. This is especially useful when remote team members need information or important answers quickly.
Skype and Slack are two of the most common messaging platforms businesses use to manage remote workers. You can easily set up group chats for different teams, share files, and even connect with clients.
For on-the-go messaging, it is also optimal to have FaceTime or WhatsApp available to connect with your employees. These are not as geared toward business, but will serve as an effective way to communicate if needed.
These online and mobile ready messaging platforms allow you to keep in touch with your remote sales and marketing teams when you are on the go as well. Checking in with team members and receiving timely updates daily can be a powerful asset for managers.
As the workplace changes, so do management tactics. Many aspects of managing a remote team are the same as your in-house employees. However, you will find the above tips helpful when taking your management skills to the next level. What other tactics do you use to manage your remote workers?
Nick Rojas is a self-taught, serial entrepreneur who’s enjoyed working with and consulting for startups. He concentrates on teaching small- and medium-sized enterprises how best to manage their social media marketing and define their branding objectives. You can follow him on Twitter as @NickARojas.
