Over the last few years, many companies had no choice but to move to remote operations. While it took some adjustment, many organizations learned to adapt and succeed. Today, remote work environments are more prevalent than ever, and employees in a wide range of positions can be successful without having to be in the office full time.

But there are some noticeable changes you can't avoid. Whether you have a flexible part-time remote schedule or are working with salespeople from across the country, you might notice that the lack of structure makes motivating virtual sales teams challenging. The old-school methods of pumping your team up and encouraging them to meet sales quotas are long gone.

Fortunately, there are other ways to empower your sales team and give them the tools to succeed no matter where they work. If you want to learn how to motivate a remote sales team, you've come to the right place!

1. Create a Structure for (and Culture of) Communication

One of the biggest challenges of remote work is the change in communication. Sure, you can turn to Zoom, slack channels, and other messaging platforms to stay up to date. But your team needs to do more than keep in touch with sales managers and join virtual meetings during work hours. Remote work eliminates many of the small, natural opportunities to speak with coworkers and leaders. Your salespeople may feel like they are working alone, which could negatively impact their individual and team performance.

Sales is inherently competitive, but everyone on your sales team is working towards the same collective sales goals. On a traditional office sales floor or call center, your agents can motivate one another, share tips, and create a general sense of accomplishment between one another when closing deals. That camaraderie is suddenly gone when you move to a remote work environment.

It can be a demotivating change that many team members don't realize affects them. Combat that issue by providing your team with the means to communicate openly in both structured and unstructured settings.

In this way, you can foster a culture of communication. Encourage everyone to participate and ask open-ended questions to keep the dialogue going.

2. Invest More in Onboarding, Training and Coaching

Best practices say that companies should always invest more in training and ongoing coaching when they go remote. Working in separate environments from your colleagues and leaders means you have fewer chances to learn by example. Believe it or not, many sales professionals acquire their skills by simply watching others in action. You can learn new techniques by merely being around coworkers and learning the ropes through workplace osmosis.

Because the element of in-person interactivity is no longer there, you must provide more structured learning opportunities. That means putting resources into onboarding, training, and regular coaching sessions.

You can work with managers and other leaders to develop lessons in a digital classroom that is accessible to whoever needs them. Create comprehensive training programs and establish an onboarding process for new hires. There are many types of training content available. Try creating virtual lessons, engaging classroom-style lectures, examinations, gamified coaching sessions, and more. Combine techniques to empower your team and make it easy for them to reach their full sales potential.

3. Encourage Peer-to-Peer Learning and Enablement

Peer-to-peer learning is another sorely missed aspect of in-office work when your team is remote. As mentioned earlier, many sales reps learn valuable skills by simple observation. There's nothing better than being around successful colleagues and learning new strategies. Even if they're not directly coaching you, it's fantastic for relationship building. Plus, it's easy to find little takeaways you can apply to your own sales approach.

A big part of motivating a remote sales team is providing easy access to peer-to-peer learning opportunities. Establishing a structure of communication goes a long way. Once you have that platform in place, much of the heavy lifting is over. But you can't expect your teams to work together without some encouragement.

Consider making peer-to-peer learning a designated part of your training efforts. You can pair agents up to share ideas and discuss new market strategies. Alternatively, you can try encouraging your agents to share insights in real-time through previously established communication channels.

Make sharing competitive intelligence a regular thing in your remote office. Agents learn new insights about the competition and the market at large pretty often, even if they work remotely. Having the channels to share that with colleagues can lead to success across the board.

4. Recognize and Reward Sales Rep Success

Don't forget to reward agents whenever they do a fantastic job. You don't have to baby your remote team and throw a party every time they make a sale. But, it is important to recognize their hard work. No one likes to feel that their efforts are unappreciated or overlooked. Unfortunately, it's easy to feel that way without face to face interactions in a remote work environment.

At least in an office, you're surrounded by people who can pat you on the back after a special shoutout. That doesn't exist for remote salespeople, so you must create those special moments.

As a sales leader, it's a good idea to reward your representatives when they make an impressive sale. Think about giving them a shoutout in your live communication feed. You can record the details of the sale to make their successes known to everyone on the team.

Rewarding hard work goes a long way. Plus, it allows you to capture winning moments and possibly create lessons out of them. Recognizing success gives your experienced sales reps a chance to shine, talk about their processes, and teach others how to replicate them. It all goes back to open communication, ongoing coaching, and peer-to-peer learning.

5. Create a Fun, Socially Engaged Sales Community

Our final tip is to take steps to create an engaging community. Just because you're working remotely doesn't mean you can't have fun together. The goal is to create a digital environment your team will love logging into daily. Some of the best ways to do that include keeping discussions going, having regular video meetings, maintaining open lines of communication, and encouraging constant coaching.

There is no shortage of great tools to help you create a captivating remote work environment. From engaging communication spaces to gamification software that puts a fun spin on success, it's easier to make things fun than most realize. Think outside the box, go above and beyond to keep your team motivated, and maintain a high level of employee engagement every step of the remote work journey.

Flockjay Equips Your Team with Tools to Learn, Grow and Win

Flockjay is the perfect solution to motivating a remote sales team. It's an all-in-one platform that can connect remote sales reps and empower them to crush quotas. With Flockjay, they can stay connected and engaged as if they were all on the same sales floor. It doesn't matter how big your team of salespeople is or if they are in multiple different time zones. Powerful features like sales tracking, a real-time communication feed, gamification elements, and more make it easy for your agents to succeed from their home office and beyond.