Sales News, December 2021

This month we explored topics like gifting and readability. As one final gift to you, here are a few sales news stocking stuffers to help you prepare for the new year.

WHEN YOU ASSUME, IT MAKES AN . . . (YOU KNOW THE REST)

A new article came out from MIT Sloan Management Review discussing past strategies companies should consider revisiting to manage the new expectations customers have. This shift in expectations comes from the way in which customers have interacted with each other and retailers over the past two years due to the pandemic. The article tackles five customer assumptions that have been challenged.

My favorite assumption tackled is “the old way is the right way.” The last two years have shifted so much of our lives, and they have sparked many innovations in the way that we engage with the world around us.

FOCUS ON YOUR RELATIONSHIPS AS YOUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION

Being an entrepreneur, startup founder, or small business owner is tough. (I moonlight as Captain Obvious.) Many of us are still primarily working from home, and we are around our significant others for extended periods of time. It can be difficult to separate our work lives from our personal lives, and our work stress can sometimes seep its way into our relationships. As employers start shifting to hybrid workforces permanently, the stress will remain. To help combat this, Businessweek shares seven small acts to help you tend to your important relationships.

Along with your personal relationships, focus on ways you can improve your business relationships. One way is to have some rhythm . . . circadian rhythm. Do you think of yourself as an early riser or a night owl? Your answer may be an indicator of when you are most influential and charismatic . . . and it’s all based on where you are in your circadian rhythm.

Keep your circadian rhythm in mind when planning those meetings in which you’re trying to persuade or impress someone. But it’s not just your own circadian rhythm you need to think about. Not only are morning people more charismatic in the morning—they also perceive others to be more charismatic in the morning.

SAY ‘HY’ TO HYBRID

Many companies set the last quarter of 2021 as their goal to begin transitioning their workforces back to the office. As time has gone on, more and more companies have started embracing the idea of a hybrid workforce (employees who can be full-time in-office, full-time remote, or a blend of both). Revisiting the assumptions in the MIT Sloan Management Review article, the old way (of work) may not be the right way (of work). In other words, being completely back in the office full-time may not be the best approach.

As companies begin to transition to a hybrid workforce, it introduces new challenges:

• How will they engage with employees in an inclusive and equitable manner?
• How will they maintain (or rebuild) company culture?
• How will they avoid “out of sight, out of mind” for those who choose to work remotely?

If your company is moving to a hybrid workforce model, be deliberate in how you measure the dynamics of your sales team. Relationships may feel more solid as you engage with team members in-person again. That may be because you are better able to observe other people’s visual cues in person. In some cases, others may mirror the visual cues you display (e.g., smiling, nodding hello, waving) which are empathetic responses.

In virtual communication, the ability to mirror can be severely limited. As a leader, you shouldn’t let the high energy or cohesion of your in-office team members create a blind spot to the challenges your remote team may be facing. Not sure where to start planning your hybrid sales team? See these three tips from Gartner on how to better enable a hybrid sales team.

AND FINALLY, THIS YEAR’S HOTTEST TOYS

Hopefully, by now, you’ve already done your holiday shopping. If you haven’t, take a look at our Gifting 2.0 blog post which discusses the neuroscience of gift-giving. If you still have no idea what to get someone, Today created a list of the 52 hottest toys from toddlers to tweens, and The New York Times has several curated lists of the top gifts to give adults. What’s at the top of my list? It has to be the Gund Baby Animated Kissy the Penguin Plush Toy I found on Today’s list.

Thank you for reading, and thank you in advance for getting in touch with us at mastery@maestrogroup.co to schedule your training for next year!