How to Encourage Work/Life Balance on Your Sales Team

As I write this, our country is smack dab in the middle of a global pandemic. By now, most of us are self-quarantined or sheltering in place depending on where we live. That means a lot of time at home and a lot of uncertainty about our economic futures. With all of this time at home, it will be tempting for many of us to throw ourselves into our work in the name of “getting ahead” or “just catching up.” But the truth is, you shouldn’t be working more than you already do. You should still be striving to achieve work/life balance from home. So, don’t forget to build in those pauses and moments for personal time that we talk about during normal times. Now more than ever, we all need to take care of ourselves.

Keep reading to learn how you can encourage your sales team to strive for work/life balance.

Use tech to work smarter

There are so many great tech tools available to sales reps, but many may not be using them right if they still feel like they are drowning in emails or failing to follow up with a prospect. That’s why it’s important to set your salespeople up with the right technology. Using tools like Groove email to schedule follow-up reminders, Gmail to create folders for “read now” and “read later,” and Google Calendar to designate their own work hours can save a lot of time and increase efficiency and productivity. Team members won’t be spending their evenings catching up on email, so they’ll have more time to have dinner with the family or hit the gym.

The buddy system

Aristotle said the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This quote gets used a lot but it’s pretty accurate when it comes to teamwork in companies. In fact, Google conducted a study to find out what makes certain teams so successful, and they found that teamwork was the number one factor. Salespeople in particular feel like they have to be on call all the time. What if that phone call at 9pm is the one that closes the deal? But, our families often don’t understand this logic, and rightly so. That’s why encouraging sales team members to pick a support buddy is a useful strategy. This way when they are at their kid's soccer game, they can focus on it instead of constantly checking their phone--because they know their counterpart has them covered for a couple of hours.

Flexibility

Being a micromanager and tracking every move your salespeople make is not going to make anyone more successful or productive--it will just make you annoying. Instead, trusting your employees to get the job done is much more effective. Allowing team members to set their own schedules and check out early on Friday if they worked an out-of-town trade show helps boost morale and gives employees a little extra time to take care of themselves in whatever way they would like. Let your salespeople go to their kid’s school play at 3pm on a Wednesday. As long as they are meeting their goals, does it really matter if they are sitting behind their desk?

Set an example

If you want your employees to take work/life balance seriously, you need to do it yourself. Take days off for important family events, take care of yourself and don’t keep putting off that dental appointment, and take a vacation! Encourage your salespeople to do the same. Encourage them to take vacations to recharge their batteries. Time off from work makes everyone better at their jobs when they come back.

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