Heyo,
Halfway through the year and it’s hard to know how to feel.
You might be out of work. You might be struggling to deal with kids around the clock. You might be working from home with a huge spike in demand, yet a ton of anxiety about the future. You might be grieving the loss of normalcy, the missing of big life events, or the sudden loss of a loved one.
We’re all in our own version of this thing. All affected, yet touched differently. Together, yet alone. Trying to figure out what comes next.
I hope wherever you find yourself halfway through the year, that you’re figuring out small ways to find moments of joy, to feel grateful despite what’s been lost, and to keep striving for better.
With any luck, this week’s 411 finds you with hope.
Four Links
The best remote content tends to come from people who work at fully remote companies. This post by Scott Barker, Head of Partnerships at Sales Hacker, proves the point.
Here are some highlights, though the entire piece is filled with helpful stuff:
Create a team channel to capture your team’s best ideas
Use the <5 Minute Rule: If a task takes less than 5 minutes, just do it (I always use this)
Time-block your calendar and try adding “themes” to your work days (still working on this)
Make time for informal meetings to create connection and community
Create an employee recognition channel to boost morale
Use the cloud for collaboration and to avoid versioning hell (I swear by Google docs)
Have a standardized naming convention for all your company files
As always, David Priemer just keeps bringing it week after week with another great post on things top reps do. The soundbites:
Sell feelings, not solutions
Focus more on “how” you sell than “what”
I know you’ve seen similar tips already, but how many have you acted on? Still seeing a lot of lazy webcam work out there.
The tips from Wistia:
Camera at eye level, or slightly above
Arm’s length away, room for your head at the top
Face the window
If no window or at night, put a light behind your laptop or a monitor on a white screen
Limit background noise
Get a headset with a mic if need be
4. Bold Remote Work Predictions
Chris Herd, Founder and CEO of FirstbaseHQ, put together this list of wicked interesting predictions for remote work over the coming decade:
Third Spaces will emerge (not a central office, not a home, but somewhere in between, possibly with snacks and coffee and other people working)
More time for hobbies will foster more participation in local communities (here’s hoping!)
Moving out of cities for higher quality living (as long as there’s decent schools and fast internet)
Companies that don’t go remote will be left behind
Remote work will facilitate greater diversity and inclusion on teams
More will be measured based on output, rather than time spent
One Job Posting
Businesses got so much SaaS these days, they don’t even know how much SaaS they got.
Enter Zylo. A SaaS management platform for getting your SaaS costs and subscriptions under control. Kinda want the individual version of this tbh.
Anyway, they’re already working with a bunch of big tech companies and they’re looking for an experienced Enterprise Account Executive to help land some more. Creativity, determination and a conversational approach required.
One Quote to Keep You Going
“The clearer you can articulate the shortcomings of your product and where it's superpowers are, the more reciprocity you'll receive in buying signals.” - Belal Batrawy
No one is expecting perfect. So don’t pretend everything is. That’s fake and people know it.
Be upfront and honest with your prospects and they’ll be more upfront and honest with you.
Readily acknowledge the imperfections. That’s real and builds trust.
Now you know,
Steele