Whatever your opinion on employees working from home, the COVID-19 pandemic has made it the new normal for most American companies.

The good news is there is a slew of research out there that shows at-home workers are actually more productive than their prairie-dogging contemporaries.

However, working from home requires a different motivational skillset than simply getting up every day and heading into the office where managers and peer pressure play a key role in maintaining and improving performance.

Most companies with successful work-from-home programs carefully wean their employees off coming into the office to give them a chance to develop new work habits while still receiving regular doses of supervision.

In the face of COVID-19, the potential for gradually migrating your employees to their new reality has been eliminated. It’s not an ideal situation but neither are the circumstances we now find ourselves in as a nation.

In this article, I’d like to offer you the next best thing: The tried and true 10 Commandments of Working from Home I’ve developed during my decades-long career in sales and sales leadership.

I’m sure following these important steps will help you and your employees adjust to your new world more quickly than going through all the trial and error I had to over the years. I’m also certain that by following these steps, you’ll come to love your new “workplace” and the high levels of productivity it inspires. Here are my commandments:

1. It’s time for a family meeting

Talk to your family about what the boundaries are while you are working from home. Make sure they understand that you are at work. While it may be cute to have your son or daughter interrupt your meeting internally, it’s important you can stay focused on the task at hand. Be as far away as possible from where they play. You can’t expect small children to be quiet all day. The same logic applies to pets and you might want to think about covering up the doorbell.

2. A home you call an office

Create a dedicated workspace that has a door, if possible. When the door is closed during the day, you are at work. No disruptions! Treat this area as you would your workspace in an office setting. Keep it clear of clutter and other distractions. Make sure you have plenty of internet bandwidth and good cell phone service

3. Set a schedule and stick to it

We are creatures of habit so set an alarm and do something every morning to get yourself in the right frame of mind for the day ahead. Make your bed. Ever wondered why the military does this? Leaders recognize the importance of starting every day with a consistent accomplishment. It also helps creates normalcy.

4. Act as if you were going into the office

When you feel more professional, you will act more professionally. Get up, take a shower, shave and put on what you would wear if you were going into the office (e.g. no baseball caps). Eat a nutritious breakfast and then go to work. Clean out your email before you start the day.

5. Video proof your room

Buy a good video camera with a mic. Use a video tool like Webex or Zoom to conduct online meetings and calls. Don’t forget you’re on camera and everyone can see you. Wear pants! Clean up the clutter behind you or better yet, use one of the program’s available digital backdrops. Use a headset or earbuds; they reduce outside noise. Make sure you look as professional as you would for a team meeting at the office. Even if it’s just audio, act as if you were on camera and stay out of the bathroom.

6. Prepare for Online Meetings

Just because it’s not happening in person doesn’t mean it requires any less preparation. As the salesperson, you are responsible for creating an agenda. Have a goal and take notes so you don’t miss any key takeaways. Keep attendees engaged by asking questions and sharing screens. Encourage your customers and prospects to interact with each other (remember, they aren’t together). Make yourself relevant. Eliminate distractions by turning off your phone and keeping your email Inbox closed or minimized. After the meeting, send out an email summarizing next steps for everyone who attended and suggest shorter (less than an hour), follow-up meetings to see everything through to resolution.

7. Invest in yourself

In an online work environment, it’s important you stay on top of your own professional and personal development. Fortunately, there are a plethora of personal and professional self-help and training platforms. Join Audio Books. Set aside some time daily to listen to or read a chapter or two.

8. Give to others

Just because you’re all not in the same building doesn’t mean you should forego teambuilding and camaraderie. Have a virtual happy hour. Select a self-help book that you can discuss with each other. Think of those people on your team that might be struggling more than others because of isolation or family issues. Make the effort to stay in regular contact with your team to maintain as much normalcy as possible.

9. Reach out to your prospects and customers NOW

People don’t care what you know until they know you care. Reach out to prospects and customers to see how you can help. Listen to them. Help them prepare to get back to business. Educate them on how the supply chain could have tremendous bottlenecks once this crisis has passed. Work through what they may need. Work on having orders ready to place to be first in line. Taking the time to find out what they’re going through personally and professionally will show them you care and help develop a lasting relationship that may be beneficial for both sides over the long haul.

10. Get energized

Take regular mental health breaks. Maybe dust off the exercise equipment in the garage or go for a walk. Take a YouTube yoga class. Watch something funny or inspiring. Help a friend or a neighbor with a quick chore. The possibilities are endless!

SUMMARY: Within reason, working from home lets you be the master of your own schedule so you can plan how to use your time to achieve peak professional performance. Following these commandments will help provide you with a whole new set of skills that will stand you in good stead when the COVID-19 crisis is over.

About the Author: David Sanders – Vice President of Strategy & Talent Acquisition at The Sales Coaching Institute: From small VC-backed firms to some of the world’s most successful technology companies, David has a stellar history of sales leadership success. He is passionate about leading sales teams and has a well-earned reputation in IT as a catalyst for growth. In environments characterized by constant change and organizational restructuring, he consistently raises the bar by optimizing salesforce productivity leading to double-digit year-over-year growth in newly created and integrated sales organizations.

At the risk of doing yet another blog that draws parallels between sales coaching and sports coaching, there is one quote from the great Vince Lombardi that holds true for both endeavors:

“Coaches who can outline their plays on a blackboard are a dime a dozen. The ones who win get inside their players and motivate.”

If you’re not familiar with Lombardi, he was so successful as the coach of the NFL’s Green Bay Packers in the 1960s that the Super Bowl trophy is named after him.

Lombardi became the GOAT using players who weren’t exceptionally talented running plays that weren’t particularly complicated or innovative. His singular talent lay in preparing his players and motivating them to do whatever was necessary to win.

The reason why this story is applicable to your sales team and how you should train them is simple: Few companies have a Vince Lombardi on their staff.

Ask somebody from HR to handle the team sales coaching and one-on-one sales coaching for your employees and you might get some well-researched plays on a blackboard, but they probably won’t have the sales chops to get inside their colleagues’ heads and truly motivate them.

For that to happen, you need to bring in an expert just as the Packers did when they enlisted Lombardi to bring about a change in the franchise’s sagging fortunes.

The Secret Is Out

A recent study from CSO Insights revealed a direct correlation between sales coaching and one-on-one sales coaching and quota attainment. Not only that, it even measured the success rates of salespeople who received exceptional coaching versus those who received average coaching.

When exposed to expert coaching, almost 95% of the reps studied went on to meet or exceed their quotas while that number dropped to below 85% for those who received average coaching.

A Tide That Lifts All Boats

From the study, it is apparent that any coaching is better than no coaching but the trick for business owners is to identify and retain highly skilled coaches to work with their employees if they hope to optimize results.

Top coaches like those at the Sales Coaching Institute are constantly evolving to stay up-to-speed with the latest results-driven ­techniques designed to sharpen the core selling skills of even the most elite reps.

By bringing in an outside expert to customize a sales coaching program and provide one-on-one sales coaching to key employees, businesses can lower costs and boost their bottom line.

Experience Matters

Sales coaching is a highly specialized area of expertise. When choosing a coach, you need to make sure the coach has the experience to connect effectively with your sales team as no other productivity investment is as impactful as sales coaching.

An experienced sales coach can teach salespeople how to pinpoint a buyer’s motivation, how to create effective action plans, how to persevere in the face of obstacles and most importantly, how to set and achieve goals. With the right coaching, your reps will learn to sustain higher levels of energy over longer periods of time and increase the number of sales they make.

Speaking of increased sales, it should not be the only reason you bring in an outside expert to work with your team. For example, professional development – and the success that follows – is proven to be a key factor in employee retention, job satisfaction, and motivation.

Be In It For The Long Haul

Research shows most sales curriculums don’t last much longer than employees’ memories of the initial session. Truly effective sales coaching relies on consistent, long-term reinforcement which is why you should look for a trainer who can provide highly specific one-on-one sales coaching to your managers. This enables those managers to continue coaching their teams long after the coach has gone.

The right coach will help your managers become good mentors and coaches in their own right while helping your organization to accomplish its goals by building a strategic, engaged and complete sales organization.

There Are No Shortcuts

While there’s no doubt finding the right coach for your sales team will make your business more successful and your employees happier, it’s important to understand that you have a serious task in front of you.

As the great man Vince Lombardi said:

“The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.”

Are you one of those companies that is currently leading the pack in your industry? Is staying on top of the most effective selling strategies one of the reasons for your success? How did you discover these strategies and who taught them to your sales and marketing people?

Obviously, what you’ve figured out is that effective sales training and coaching must be a priority for any company if it hopes to be successful. That said, if your sales managers are too busy putting out fires and problem solving to stay up to speed on all the latest strategies and techniques, you should consider bringing in an experienced professional sales coach to instigate a performance-based program to keep your sales people operating at peak levels.

In the spirit of making 2020 your most successful year yet, here are the Top Five reasons to be thankful for expert sales coaches and trainers this year:

They Improve Selling Skills

Sales training tends to focus on the development of the sales team while sales coaching targets each individual rep’s selling skills. Targeted skill areas, especially for new hires, include call prospecting and call planning. The right coach will also introduce more senior reps to negotiation skills and how to effectively present value.

They Boost Closing Rates

Sales coaching is used to improve individual sales rep’s closing rates. Normally, this involves focusing on opportunity coaching, a methodology that plays to the strengths of sales managers, especially those who previously excelled in closing sales. Just as with skills coaching, the temptation to tell the rep what to do rather than inquire about opportunities in the pipeline must be avoided. What is essential is to help the rep think through his or her closing strategies.

They Help Sales Managers Get Better

Typically, sales training and coaching experts focus on sales reps but they can also have a significant impact on managers. By working with sales managers, the right coach can help them become good mentors and coaches. Bottom line: While the sales reps are being trained and coached, don’t forget to include the managers in the process.

They Speed the Development of New Hires:

New hires invariably attend programs that often include sections designed to teach them improved selling skills. Normally, this coaching is left to the sales managers which can be hit or miss if the manager is not a particularly skilled instructor. Better to bring in an expert who can teach the new hire exactly what they need to know and leave the sales manager to focus on their primary role.

They Create Leverage

If sales managers get into a habit of just telling their reps what to do all the time, they will find themselves in a situation where the reps stop looking for their own solutions to problems they encounter. This reduces the sales manager to the role of problem solver which is not a good use of their valuable time. Bringing an outside coach is like teaching the reps how to fish instead of just giving them fish all the time. This frees up the manager to devote more time to developing sales strategies which will be far more beneficial to your company.

Sales coaches and training experts help companies develop a coaching culture. Although it may take time and patience, the result – an empowered sales force – is well worth the effort.

Sales coaching and sales training is critically important. Ask any industry leader in just about any field you can think of and they’ll confirm this statement.

However, for every successful company out there that has benefitted from bringing in outside expertise, there are just as many excuses being offered by less successful companies for not doing it.

Sales training and sales coaching is a highly specialized field and no matter how good they are at their real job, your average sales manager lacks the teaching skills needed to complete this task effectively and efficiently.

A sales manager, after all, has different priorities. They need to focus on getting their teams to make more sales. They simply do not have the time it takes to keep up with all the latest sales and marketing approaches and techniques. Nothing against them. There’s only so many hours in a day and if teaching was their strength, they probably wouldn’t be working as sales managers.

Aside from trying to get one of your more senior managers to conduct training in-house, the next most common short-cut is to enroll employees in a skills program or send them to a seminar. While better than nothing, these options do little to help the employee tackle all the work they have on their plate as they’re learning the new techniques and skills.

Bringing in an outside sales trainer addresses all these issues as they are able to be onsite helping your employees learn in the “real world” working on actual tasks.

Ask yourself: How do the top companies in my industry train and coach their sales employees? Chances are they don’t ask a sales manager or someone from HR to take on the additional responsibility. They understand hiring a true sales coaching and training expert is always going to better – and more cost-effective than a DIY approach.

Truth be told, the benefits of sales coaching and sales training are obvious as the recent spike in the industry attests. All you need to do now is find an experienced professional with a stellar track record to help your sales people scale new heights of selling success.