Wouldnt it be great if everyone could just work from home? You wouldnt have to worry about beating the morning traffic, making sure your shirts are pressed and there would be no one to yell at you for wearing your pajamas to work. But is it a reality?
With the invention and maturation of internet technology such as instant messaging programs and the ability to host conferences and webinars via webcams, many firms are having their sales representatives work from a home office. Depending on the firms location in relation to the sales representative, this is either part time or on a full-time basis. While some may worry about not having enough control over their employees if they work from home, I believe that there are more advantages than disadvantages to this situation.
As long as the employee has the opportunity to go through the necessary in-house training and has management support available to them as needed, working from home can be beneficial to everyone.
Improved Productivity
The entire purpose of having a sales representative is to increase the top and bottom line of your company. However, before you begin to see revenue, your employee will most likely go through a sales cycle of about one to three months, if not more. Until then, your sales representative will most likely not be meeting with any prospects.
We all know that time is money. During this phase of the sales cycle when your sales rep is not making top dollar, time spent working is all the more valuable. Unless your sales representative has a commute less than twenty minutes, I strongly suggest saving everyone time and having them work from home.
If you do the math, having the representative come to the office everyday can lose you up to 20 hours in work. By the time your sales representatives wake up, get dressed, make their coffee, drive their children to school which may be in the opposite direction, feed any pets, etc., you have lost a minimum of an hour and a half of work from them before the day even begins. Coming back from the physical office, you can add another hour of lost prospecting time as well.
Given the opportunity, a good sales representative can easily put in ten hours of work per day.
But what if you would like to see this representative face to face? Easy! Modern technology has made instant communication highly versatile and accessible. Skype is extremely cheap, reliable, has good video feeds, great sound quality, and works instantly. Since webcams have also started becoming mass produced, a decent one shouldnt set you back more than $20.