Influencing Across Distance: A Critical Skill for Today’s Virtual Work Environment

Description

Organizations are more geographically distributed than ever — with teams spread across different offices or fully remote. Many organizations enacted work-from-home policies due to COVID-19, thrusting millions into a new remote work situation. Many sales professionals have also been forced to cut down on their in-person touch points with customers and clients.

In an office setting, we rely on those seemingly innocuous intersections that happen when we bump into each other at the watercooler, at the coffee machine, or in the elevator. That’s when pleasantries are usually exchanged, but it’s also where influence happens — to make progress on business goals and also for career advancement. In-person touch points are also a staple of how salespeople have been trained to influence customers.

Now that many of us are operating at a distance, how do we continue to have impact from afar? You can’t rely on organic intersections to exchange ideas and influence. You must create a deliberate plan.

Learning Outcomes

• Assess the importance of influencing from a distance to hit business objectives and advance your career
• Get concrete strategies and tactics to influence your key stakeholders remotely
• Create your own personal virtual influence plan to set into motion immediately