Currently (COVID-19 times), it is more and more difficult to meet the client and at infuture.fashion we are wondering how to help in this situation – after all, we work remotely almost all the time. So today we are coming to you with some advice on how to work remotely. We know that still, many entrepreneurs are waiting they don’t want to work remotely. I often hear “it’s not effective”, “our company is specific”. My forecast: you will lose your business on your own wish. Don’t make excuses, create results. Ok, to the topic…

Customers who want to resign from your service only because you will not meet them (that means, they still see the need to work with you), you should offer work via online tools and thus fight your old habits.

An effective webinar, teleconference, online meeting – those are elastic and valuable ways that allow you to run the company with no delays. I promise you, you will save some time and soon enough you will find it more effective than working offline.

If the use of webinars is not new to you, go straight to the “advice” section where we fight for conversion, if it is new and you are also looking for arguments that will help your clients accept a different form of meeting, read on.

Remote work – why is it worth it?

The pandemic will pass sometime
Postponing an important meeting or workshop will cause the entire project to be delayed by several months. This means that you will be working on it during the summer. Even if the holiday season causes another downtime, the fourth quarter will be an earthquake.

Head up, by the way! It turns out that, contrary to appearances, it will be a very busy year. To sum up: postponing another topic, you are not sure that you will find time for the client, because the arrears will come back with redoubled strength. Postponing the project now can also mean that it will never happen because you have to start the whole sales process all over again. Once a client has decided to cooperate with you, it means that they have a need, a budget and see a clear value.

Remote work – take advantage of the downtime
Lack of work or its downtime is the best time for repairs and cleaning in the company and processes. Don’t sit and wait. Create opportunities.

Time to learn
Break the ice. If you do not have experience working remotely with clients, the situation forces you to learn new solutions.

Value!
If you allow the meeting to be postponed by 3 months without offering the client another valuable form of continuing the project, you create a problem not only in your company but also in the client’s company.

Remote work – how to find yourself in it?

Below a few practical advices. I hope that for some of you, after reading these tips, remote work will be much easier than before.

1. Set a specific goal of the online meeting to choose the tool. In 80% of cases, you just need anything that is available on the market. A shared notebook screen where you immediately create a meeting note usually solves the situation.
2. Check out lots of tools. Don’t take chances just because you prefer Skype over Hangout. If the client proposed such a tool, adapt. Respect this and do not try to persuade the client to change their habits – it may make it difficult to acquire knowledge, and this is the most important thing.
3. Clean up the desktop and if you are using a browser, start it in incognito mode. This is the moment when you don’t have to brag about your bookmarks or other documents or data you are working on.
4. TURN OFF NOTIFICATIONS during the meeting. Keep the materials you use on your desktop, when you share the screen, you will avoid sharing the contents of your disk with the rest of the participants and save time spent searching for a file.
5. When you schedule a webinar, make an invitation to the calendar like any other meeting and provide the link directly in the invitation.
6. Call an hour before the scheduled start to confirm the appointment. Inevitably, this form is slightly underestimated in comparison to a normal meeting, because it goes to one shelf with a telephone conversation. We have a problem with someone waiting in the conference room, but we have no problem calling back in the afternoon, even though I had an appointment. Unfortunately – you have to be aware of this, so again, fight for the value for the participants!
7. If the client works in a corporation AVOID any tools that need to be installed. Usually, they do not have administrative access there, which means that to install solutions such as Go to Meeting or Zoom.io you have to ask your IT department. I recommend Google Hangouts or Whereby.com.
8. Connect the computer to power. Running out of battery during a meeting is a hassle.
9. Stick to two rules: We don’t all talk at once. If you have a lot of participants, disconnect their microphones and use the chat because you will not control the chaos, but remember to check the chat regularly so that you do not miss any questions.
10. Make sure you are in a quiet space. At least close the freaking doors.

Will you wait until Covid-19 ends? Or will you create some opportunieties for your company growth?

Hope to see you in the next post,

Patrycja Franczak