In Jola, and also previously at Griffin, we have always started with the desired outcome and worked back. Carefully defining and measuring productivity means that prescribing where and when people work becomes less important.
Like most ICT companies having everyone working remotely was not really a technological challenge for Jola, but it also wasn’t much of a cultural challenge either. Mandatory remote working mostly affected those people that preferred to be in the office and of course inducting and training new starters was more difficult.
The most positive affect of the pandemic was on sales productivity. All face-to-face meetings were done on Teams and partners didn’t feel obliged to small-talk for 30 minutes just because their Jola account manager had driven an hour to see them. Teams meetings were shorter and more frequent, partner training was easier and more effective and, most importantly, Jola partners closed more and bigger deals, more quickly.
Jola didn’t spend thousands every month on mileage and salespeople didn’t need to worry about having to stop overnight just to take a partner out for a meal.
That isn’t to say that real face-to-face isn’t important. That’s why Jola is suggesting a new way of working with our partners – Sales 2.0 if you like.
In Sales 2.0, most sales meetings will be done on Teams but to ensure we don’t lose that personal touch we will be staging quarterly events throughout the country – funded by the savings in travel and entertainment. These will be a mixture of business, entertainment and fun.
Imagine the positive effect on the environment and quality of life if channel suppliers didn’t have to drive around this little island every day of their working lives AND could make more money for them and their partners. Even better if their end user customers embraced Sales 2.0 also.