In the week before the official UK lockdown we took the precaution of moving to homeworking. All of our teams had to change the way in which they work in order to provide continued support to our clients.
Sales Director Michael Coulsey shares some of the ways in which our commercial teams have changed their working practices:
- What works in the office isn’t necessarily going to work for a remote team. The first thing that we did was to book in regular meetings throughout the day that allowed us structured time to discuss the ever-changing picture and respond as necessary, while sharing information from each others’ conversations too. Not all of those meetings are needed today, but initially they gave us a structure to see what was working for each team member and to respond quickly.
- Assume advertising campaigns will need to be reshaped. For example, those that are linked to live events with lead generation objectives need to be reframed following event cancellations. By understanding core objectives, we have been able to build new, innovative opportunities to ensure partner aims are met through alternative channels.
- Add value to the client base. We speak to organisations of different sizes every day and are in a unique position to be able to assure clients that they are not alone in their challenges. Now more than ever, that reassurance and insight can be hugely powerful, so we’ve made a point to share as much industry insight as possible.
- Be sensible; create new rules. While some advertisers are seeing opportunities for growth, we’re very conscious that this isn’t the same for everyone. We recognised very early on that we would need to be flexible on commitments and deal with each advertiser on a case-by-case basis to support clients throughout the pandemic.
- Step up the use of collaborative software. We already used collaboration tools at Think, but over the past month this has grown exponentially. While new software and systems can require a learning curve, they deliver a huge amount of efficiency when used correctly.
- Soak up information! One positive from the past few weeks has been the sheer amount of commentary available. The team have been actively seeking out new research, industry insights and resources to improve their skillset. It’s been inspiring to see the amount of knowledge being shared among the team on a daily basis.
- Have a great sales team. Of course, all the above is a great place to start, but if you don’t have an entrepreneurial, motivated and, frankly, bloody brilliant sales team then it’ll all count for nothing. Luckily, we’ve got the best in the business.
I have no doubt in my mind that we will come out of the other side of this an even more highly skilled, closer and innovative team that works hand in hand with commercial partners.
