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It’s Only Common Sense: Motivating the Team During COVID

With COVID's Delta variant rearing its ugly head, and mask and social distancing making a comeback, many of us are feeling "COVID fatigue." This is especially true of our salespeople who have had enough. They are tired of not visiting customers, of not being to talk to them face to face, and most of all not being to engage in real live productive conversations.

They are sick and tired of being sick and tired, and I cannot say that I blame them.

But as sales leaders, we cannot give up and throw in the towel. We cannot cave and, more importantly, we cannot allow ourselves to commiserate with our salespeople and join them at that pity party. It is our responsibility to show our sales team the way into the future. It is our duty to show them the way. Remember the rule, “When you are going through hell, keep going because sooner or later you will reach the other side.”

Actually, this applies to all our team members not just sales. Inside sales and customer service people are not having any fun either, nor the folks in the back of the shop.

As leaders it is our job to lead the way, from developing a communications plan to keeping people’s hopes up. Here are some ideas:

Develop a plan: Make sure that you establish a plan for the team to follow. If they cannot visit customers, then develop another way for them to stay in front of customers. Newsletters, blogs, interesting emails, the ever-unpopular phone call, texting, tweeting and even snail mail. Develop a plan that will guide your salespeople on other ways to get in touch with and communicate with customers and would-be customers.

Create a vision: Show your team the future if they follow the plan. Start with the end goal and work backward. If people can see the future clearly laid out for them, they will be more inclined to follow you to that future.

Mission: Make your plan a mission, an honorable one that defines the very purpose of what you are doing and why you are doing it. Create a movie scenario that you are all a part of. Make them a part of the “noble quest.”

Direction: Set the path, show them the direction that you want to go in. Remember that most salespeople are social animals, not prone to social distancing. In fact, many of them will be emotionally paralyzed by not being able to meet with customers. Show them how to handle this with a step by step directional plan. The step-by-step part is very important. I know I have spent a great deal of the time in  the past year and a half instructing salespeople on how to work from home. Many of them got lost when facing this dilemma.

Communication: As always, communication is the key, and now more than ever. Make a point of communicating the plan, vision, mission, and the direction of the company. And do it again and again. Hold regular team Zoom meetings, have one-on-one meetings and do regular check-in meetings to make sure that your team is always in sync. I would urge your team members to communicate with one another, and to hold meetings without you. You might consider breaking them into smaller teams and working on projects together. Remember salespeople are not loners; they want to work with other people so create opportunities for them to do just that.

Motivation: Your job as leader is to be the head cheerleader. Come up with ways to keep the team motivated. Set up success milestones that will create small wins along the way to making your goals. Try to have fun with this. Remember these folks are pretty down after a year and a half so you  are going to have to work all the harder to keep their spirits up. Your job is to find ways to do that.

Creativity: These are challenging times and times like these times take even more creativity from leaders to keep the team engaged. I would urge you as a leader to find ways to be more creative. Don’t be afraid to find ideas, books, and videos. Check out what other people are doing and use those ideas. Do whatever it takes to come up with creative ideas to stir things up during these challenging times. It is a shame to waste a crisis.

Engagement: Keep your team engaged by using all the tools listed above to make sure that they are engaged to even the point of passion. Check in often with them to find out what they are thinking and feeling. This is critical because, with times like these, people are prone to fall into a malaise that will slow them down to the point of discouragement.

Finally, show your team that you care. Find out what is going on with their families. This is the time in history where we will get by, by sticking together and looking out for each other. Make sure you do that.

I would also suggest that you show your own humanity and vulnerability (within reason, of course). It will not hurt to let your team know that you too are greatly concerned with that is going on with this pandemic and your concern for your family’s safety as well as your own. This is no time to play fearless leader.

It’s only common sense.

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group.