In sales, you are only as good as your last deal. Every day, week, month, or quarter is a fresh start where, once again, your team needs to gear up and deliver.

Great sales leaders are able to push or pull a team whether they are at 120% or at 50% of their goal, and they are able to recruit and maintain high-performing sales teams over a long period of time.

There is no silver bullet for sustaining a high performing sales team, but here are a few things that I think are important:

You win the battle on the battlefield

Any great sales leader has had to be a top self-contributor in the past, which means that she or he has what it takes, and, deep inside, loves the kill.

Alas, when climbing up the sales management ladder, many sales managers find themselves spending more and more time sitting behind a desk managing through spreadsheets and analytics.

While a solid sales plan is a necessity, sales leaders are measured on their team’s performance. Great sales leaders lead by example, pitching in the most difficult meetings and taking the hits with the team.

It’s critical (though hard) to find a strong sales operations manager, but when you have one, look for parts of planning you can outsource.

If you have team leads, make sure they, just like every other salesperson, have personal sales goals. By doing that, you are keeping them sharp on the pitch and setting them up for success.

As a sales leader, do what you need to do to make sure you find yourself in the front lines — you win the war on the battlefield with your team — not behind a desk.

$$$ isn’t as important as you think

Contrary to what most people think, a great salesperson’s top motivation isn’t money, but a much more basic thing: it’s the need to win.

While most will not openly admit it, the best salespeople also love a tough fight, whether it’s a challenging client to close, they are displacing a competitor or because the velocity of deals needed for hitting the goal is high.

Ideally, though, it is all of the above. They thrive on winning, and when they do, they want to get fairly compensated. If you are a smart sales leader, you build a plan that is easy to understand and monitor — and you never cap the upside.

A strong uncapped seller can produce like two salespeople, at the cost of one and a half (you pay base salary only once no matter how good they are).

Spend time on building a simple compensation plan that is aligned with your goals, and give your team the tools and freedom needed to win; monitor performance and always be present if they need you.

Remember: the wolf climbing the hill is always hungrier than the wolf on top of the hill so if you set challenging goals and have the right type of salespeople, you will enjoy seeing them fight hard and yes, get compensated, when they win.

A plan is a basis for change

Demand that your salespeople ALWAYS have a plan for the next few weeks. Yes, I know your salesforce is experienced, and know what they’re doing, and you don’t think they’ll appreciate this “micromanagement tactic.”

I am also experienced, and yet, if I build a plan, I am focused on executing or updating it instead of winging it in real-time.

How many times has one of your salespeople gotten a “hot lead” that caused them to drop everything to pursue it, only to end up losing that deal and screwing up their whole plan for the week? A plan is a basis for change .

If your salespeople are as experienced as you think they are, great — let them change the plan at any point in time without updating you, but help them by ensuring that they have one.

If you can, make sure that the plan is ready on Friday evening. You just saved the seller from spending Monday morning in the office building a plan – great salespeople will appreciate that they have a plan that allows them to sell 5 days a week instead of losing Monday morning to planning.

Clear, transparent, weekly tracking

If you did a good job setting clear sales goals for your team that do not require a Ph.D. in order to understand, the next step is to create a culture of transparent weekly reporting towards that goal.

Years consist of quarters, and quarters of weeks — each person on your team should at any point of time understand how they are tracking towards the goals, and understand how that what they are doing today and tomorrow gets them closer.

If you manage this correctly, the compensation meeting at the end of the quarter is simply used to review the cash that the seller will see in their bank account. That’s important: clear pacing towards a goal is what really helps drive daily and weekly performance.

I also believe that the sales team’s goals and tracking to goals should be something that everyone on the team, or even in the company, can see. I know some salespeople cringe at the thought of their numbers being put on the board, but my philosophy is that every seller will have a bad month or two, and ultimately, character and salesmanship is measured when you are behind the ball.

If you are killing it, great — your colleagues will see it, and if you are behind — not fun — but your colleagues will still see it.

If you are the right kind of seller, being at the top or bottom of the list should motivate you to improve or to or keep doing well. It is as simple as that. And if you can’t handle the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Just enough running space

Every seller will want more “running space” and it always feels like the low-hanging fruit is on the neighbor’s side of the grass. It’s not and one of the sales team’s worst enemies is the “sack of money waiting for them in the vast uncharted territory where no seller has ever ventured to before…”

The problem with new territories and verticals is, well, that they are new… and all the time the team has spent in the past signing deals, building verticalized case studies and customer referrals doesn’t really help in the new territory or vertical.

So make sure that your team has just enough runway for growth. Make sure that they’re challenged but not overwhelmed. New things can be hard. Traveling can be a time drain.

Protect your team’s time, and they will thank you for pushing them to take another good look at their possibly less exciting but familiar, territories when they hit their numbers.

Your job is to help them focus and to make sure they have enough running space to hit their goals, but within bounds so that they can deliver results.

You are not alone!

Sales jobs are harder than they look. Always being measured, always on the road, always waiting for that response from the prospect that never seems to come on time. There is a lot of “alone time”: being alone on a plane, eating dinner alone, driving a rented car for hours, in an Uber on the way to the hotel in the middle of nowhere.

This solitude is even harder for salespeople who are social creatures by definition.

Technology is a great help in this area. Now more than ever, you can feel connected to your colleagues and team even if you are in a different state and time zone.

At Sunbit we have WhatsApp groups so that teams can communicate in real-time. It’s a great way for our salespeople to share what’s going on where they are, celebrate customer wins, and put names to faces as if you were in an office together. These quick messages create both a sense of togetherness and motivation.

Technology, in a split second, reminds your team that they are not alone, in a world where we have never been more physically apart.

Share the big picture, to help keep focus

Great sales teams want to do much more than just sell great products – they want to represent a great company, brand, and vision. They want to understand the business, the economics behind it, the product road map, and what the long-term strategic priorities are.

You have to find a way to provide this information. If you don’t have full visibility to these things, bring in the executives that do. Magic happens when the team that represents your company multiple times a day is aligned on strategy.

Despite what some might think, sharing the full strategy with the team actually helps them to stay focused on the day-to-day tasks. The hardest thing for a seller to do is to walk away from what seems like an amazing opportunity, but once the long-term strategy is clear, then the discussion is a very easy one: If the opportunity is aligned with the long-term strategy, it’s a go.

If it isn’t, what might have once been a long painful discussion with emotions and seller frustrations turns into, “While this might seem like an interesting idea, it’s not aligned with where we want to go. Let’s focus on our core strategy so we can win!”

Smart salespeople that understand the big picture are better, happier salespeople that sell more.

ABH ( Always Be Hiring!)

If your team is doing great and they are hitting the targets there will be pressure to grab more market share and to grow faster, and you will need to recruit more sales staff. If your team isn’t doing well, then it’s definitely time to hire before you find yourself working on your own CV.

Bottom line, you should always be hiring! I’ve never met a sales leader who thinks that they have too many great salespeople just waiting to join when they’re ready. At any and every interaction you have with a customer, partner, prospect, always be on the lookout for those elusive purple unicorns!

Behind every strong company, you will find a fierce sales team fighting the daily, weekly, and monthly battles. And if you look very carefully you should find a sales leader that is busy recruiting and maintaining that team.

How coronavirus could revolutionize work opportunities for people with disabilities

Did you know we have an online event about the future of work coming up? Join the Future of Work track at TNW2020 to hear how successful companies are adapting to a new way of working.

Working from home has become the “new normal” for many of us during the COVID-19 pandemic. While this clearly has its downsides, one group in particular may benefit a great deal: people with disabilities.

This is important because people with disabilities are often at a significant disadvantage in the workplace . Research shows they often face negative stereotypes and attitudes from able-bodied colleagues and are at greater risk of being laid off in a crisis like this one.

The ability to work from home is an accommodation that may especially benefit those with mobility impairments who find it difficult or costly to travel outside the home or those who need the flexibility to handle frequent breaks from work, for example for medical or therapy appointments.

As co-directors of the Rutgers Program for Disability Research , we focus on understanding the economic, political, and social inclusion of people with disabilities. If a consequence of the pandemic is a new willingness among employers to accommodate work-from-home requests, it may lead to a better future for this marginalized group.

Workplace challenges

Employer audit studies that we and others have conducted show that employers are less likely to express interest in job applications from people with disabilities even when their resumes are identical and the disabilities are irrelevant to job performance.

Other studies have shown that once hired, many workers with disabilities must contend with negative stereotypes and attitudes from supervisors and co-workers that limit their career growth and the quality of their work life. While disability accommodations are generally well-received by co-workers , they can sometimes generate jealousy and resentment.

Employees with disabilities also face a gap in pay after accounting for productive characteristics like education and job experience and are more likely to be laid off by employers when times are bad.

At least some of these employment barriers may be lessened by working from home. Employers may be more willing to hire workers with disabilities for home-based positions due to less concern about having to make accommodations for them.

WFH becomes the norm

The pandemic, which has made working from home common for a large share of the workforce, can be seen as a massive test of employers’ ability and willingness to accommodate workers.

Working from home may be a legally enforceable “reasonable accommodation” under the Americans with Disabilities Act, though that depends on the job tasks and other circumstances. Yet some employers have been resistant to any accommodations for workers with disabilities.

Today, the fact that many employers are readily willing to accommodate all workers regardless of disability due to the crisis has frustrated some people with disabilities who have previously been denied such accommodations.

Employed people with disabilities – especially those with mobility impairments – are already 20% more likely to work from home, based on our calculations of Census Bureau data. But, with less than a third of working-age people with disabilities employed in 2019, it’s very possible that millions more would be able to work if more employers offered this accommodation.

Clearly allowing more home-based work does not excuse employers from creating more welcoming and accessible workplaces. But it could cause them to see what workers with disabilities are able to accomplish when given a telecommuting accommodation – rather than trying to pigeonhole them into a traditional workspace. This may help ensure that their pay levels and raises are determined more by actual job performance rather than irrelevant stereotypes and office dynamics that can disadvantage workers with disabilities.

This is not to ignore the cataclysmic loss of millions of jobs in the current crisis, which is likely hitting people with disabilities especially hard. Without minimizing the current devastation, it is worth considering how the structure of work may change when the crisis is past and the economy eventually recovers.

So, after the pandemic subsides, will employers return to a pre-crisis way of thinking about working from home? Or will more of them recognize that working from home can benefit both employees and the company – and that it’s a reasonable accommodation to make for employees with disabilities?

This article is republished from The Conversation by Lisa Schur , Professor of Labor Studies and Employment Relations, Rutgers University and Douglas L. Kruse , Distinguished Professor, Rutgers University under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .

Did you know we have an online event about the future of work coming up? Join the Future of Work track at TNW2020 to hear how successful companies are adapting to a new way of working.

7 fundamental freelancing tips for developers

I think it’s fair to stay the ‘working from home trend’ is here to stay after the pandemic. Luckily though, this might open up new avenues for people who are looking for new professional challenges from the comfort of their homes.

So if you’re pondering taking up some freelancing to expand your horizons (and income), this article will help you get on the right track.

Full disclaimer: You probably know this by now, but I’m not a freelancer myself, however, all the tips and advice on this article have been collected from people who are successful at freelancing.

Focus on your skill set

The first step towards becoming a freelancer is to jot down a list of all your skills and then only choose the ones you’re most experienced in. Discovering your strengths will help you stand out from others.

Sure, you might be a jack of all trades in your current role, but it’s a lot easier to beat your competitors if you focus on a specific niche.

In the beginning, it’s also very important to build your reputation as an expert in a particular field. This will help you get permanent clients because if they’re looking for quality work then they’ll always prefer an expert over a general-purpose freelancer.

Later on, you may gradually expand your services in that skill to get more work.

Find low competition but profitable keywords

At this point, you’ve selected a skill to provide freelance services. Now, there could be many types of services that you can offer for each skill. For example:

So, the main idea is to rank your profile/service in search results. Clients frequently discover freelancers organically, so it’s important your profile or service show up in their search results — otherwise they’ll probably never find you.

Now to get it right, you’ve got to perform extensive keyword research. It’s absolutely fine if you have to spend a few days on it. A basic understanding of SEO will always be a benefit, especially at this stage of launching your freelance career, so I recommend getting familiar with SEO concepts if you haven’t done so already.

Your main target when you start out is to find keywords for services that no one is working on or has a very low competition. This is because you can easily push up your rank on low competition keywords compared to more popular ones.

Also, remember to find keywords that are profitable . People must be willing to spend money to buy your services, there’s no reason to waste time on services that no one is looking for. Your sweet spot is to go after services people are looking for, but also one where developers aren’t meeting that demand.

Select a few freelance marketplaces

Recently, I published an article about best freelancing websites on Live Code Stream. Have look there and find two or three platforms to get started.

The major benefit of a freelance marketplace is that they act as a broker, which highly reduces the chance of fraud as compared to dealing with clients directly.

The first step then is to create engaging profiles on these platforms. Basically, you have to provide details about your services as well as display an attractive portfolio.

Some platforms don’t let you display the portfolio. So, in that case, simply show your previous work samples to clients when they contact you.

The reason behind only working on a few websites is that you could easily manage workload. Later on, you may expand this list when you have expanded your operation to a full team. For now though, it’s better to start small.

How should I set the price?

You always have to keep a close eye on your competitors. Find out what services they’re offering and at what price. It will help you determine what employers are usually willing to pay for your services.

At first, always set a lower price than your competitors. Let the clients examine your work before you increase your rates, it’s also a great way to collect testimonials for future clients.

Search potential clients on social media

Despite great SEO work and proper preparation, it may still be difficult to find your first freelance project organically. Therefore I recommend you find and reach out to potential customers on social media networks and steer them to your profile on freelance marketplaces.

To do so, share your profile/service on social media platforms. For example, there are many groups on Facebook where people are looking for freelancers with specific talent. Similarly, LinkedIn can also be a great opportunity to connect with potential customers.

Initially, you have to give your best and do a tremendous amount of hard work. But, it will quickly pay off once you start getting continuous work.

Always provide high-quality results

The best thing about freelancing is there’s no limit on how much you can earn in a single day, month, or year. So, if you take it seriously and operate it like a proper business there will be loads of opportunities for growth. The only thing you need to do is to deliver the highest quality results to your customers.

I’ve even found that customer feedback/review/rating is the most important factor that helps you rank higher in search results of freelance marketplaces. So, if your clients are impressed with your work then they will definitely give you good ratings. In turn, it will increase your chances to get hired by more and more clients.

It can happen that you’ll actually need to remind or encourage the client to leave a review after the task is done — and that won’t happen unless they like your work.

So always keep in mind that a good customer feedback/rating is the key to success in freelancing.

Manage time efficiently

Freelancers quickly get overwhelmed when they start getting consistent work. At that crucial time, your time management skills come into play.

Unlike regular day jobs, freelancing is not usually a 9-to-5 job. But, you’re your own boss, so it’s completely possible to create the schedule you want and stick to it.

Conclusion

We’ve all witnessed the vulnerabilities of a regular full-time job during the COVID-19 pandemic… but it’s highlighted the possibilities of online freelancing work like never before.

If you still have any doubts, I’d just like say you did the right thing by selecting freelancing as a career. It’s capable of giving you a way better income source then your current job. But, only if you follow the guidelines mentioned in this article. Put in the work, and you’ll reap the benefits.

This article was originally published on Live Code Stream by Juan Cruz Martinez (twitter: @bajcmartinez ), founder and publisher of Live Code Stream, entrepreneur, developer, author, speaker, and doer of things.

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