{"id":41193,"date":"2020-09-25T16:03:02","date_gmt":"2020-09-25T16:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/?p=41193"},"modified":"2020-09-25T16:03:06","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T16:03:06","slug":"qa-how-inside-and-outside-sales-teams-adjusted-to-a-new-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/news\/stories\/qa-how-inside-and-outside-sales-teams-adjusted-to-a-new-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A: How Inside and Outside Sales Teams Adjusted to a New Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There was no pandemic playbook for businesses before this year, and because of that, sales leaders were flying blind and sales reps were doing the best they could under challenging circumstances. Published this morning, the fourth edition of our State of Sales<\/a> research report looks at how sales teams worldwide are adapting to this new normal, and data shows that pandemic changes have hit outside sales teams hardest. To better understand how these insights translate to real-life experiences, we got on a (virtual) call with two sales leaders from our very own sales teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jen Lee, regional vice president of enterprise sales, leads a sales team that is focused on the consumer goods industry, and works with companies that are already our customers, as well as what we call green prospects \u2014 companies that have no prior experience or relationship with Salesforce \u2014 so her team is used to being on the road and in in-person meetings where they can gain the trust of their future customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lynn Knaak, vice president of SMB Central, on the other hand, leads an inside sales team based out of Dallas, specifically selling to small and medium businesses, and is used to interacting with customers through phone calls. Her team was in the office Monday through Friday with just a handful of face-to-face customer meetings per month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q.<\/strong> Let\u2019s go back to those initial days in March when companies and cities were shutting down left and right. What was that like for you personally, and your teams? What were the first steps your teams took to shift to work from home so suddenly? <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Jen: <\/strong>I had a few new people join my team recently, so not only did I have to quickly pivot on how we got to know each other, but how to work with one another from afar. I was traveling every single day of the month. My team was used to face to face meetings, doing live lunch-and-learns and social and volunteer events, and all of that stopped overnight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We started daily standups, where every morning and afternoon we\u2019d have a cup of coffee or a drink so we could talk about the human elements of what was going on, because no one really knew what was happening and it was a scary time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also spent a lot of time curating a list of customers that might have been affected \u2014 we heard about plants shutting down, production issues, or companies doing layoffs or furloughs. We took that list to see what kind of businesses we could support. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I admit we did put pause on the business for a bit, until we understood what was actually transpiring for ourselves personally in our home lives. And then we wanted to figure out quickly what was taking place with our customers, and how we can help them accelerate and go digital. First and foremost we had to get comfortable from a human standpoint, and then we could worry about whether or not we could do business together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lynn: <\/strong>I was used to working in the office a few days a week, and working from home a few days a week, but without my kids around. So, with an eight, four, and two year old, they are very much at the ages they want to be near me, and those early days of full time working from home were hectic. I was battling the feeling of not doing anything well \u2014 not being a good mom, or a good employee, or a good leader for my team \u2014 and dealing with endless amounts of guilt. But then you kind of settle into it. I have a few employees with young kids, so I reached out to them first to make sure they were okay, and I also have younger employees that are sitting alone in their tiny apartments that I was worried about. It probably took two or three months to settle into it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The data confirms we transitioned to working from home pretty easily \u2014 we were a team that was already adept at selling from our laptops and over email. Once we realized this wasn\u2019t just a temporary thing and that it would be this way for awhile, we had another pivot where we were able to rethink, \u201cwhat does my day look like when I don\u2019t have to shower and commute to an office? How can I still hold myself accountable?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Lynn KnaaK (L) and Jen Lee<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n
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