Remote (Work) Contingency Plan - A post-COVID approach

In our endeavor to seek more insights on remote work – especially amidst COVID 19, we have yet another episode with Gaper.io, where Jason from RemoteOnline shares about his early days when he freshly graduated. Fresh out of college in early 1990’2, Jason started off selling insurance and then went into stock brokerage. 14 years into that, he then transitioned on to MarketSource. Drawing upon 14 years of experience on Wall Street, Jason was responsible for building the Lead Generation Program. In 2018, his team played an important part in helping MarketSource deliver over $7B of managed sales for its clients.

Jason decided he wanted to go off on his own thereafter. That is how RemoteOnline came to be. They manage and train remote sales teams. After driving demand of remote workers worldwide, they are looking to be the top online job site. They snuck to the top 5 on LinkedIn in the number of followers.

Getting into the Insights – the WorldWide Perspective

“It is definitely a sector that makes sense right now and I’m hoping to be a part of it”

Forbes predicts that by 2027 there will be more remote than office workers, while according to Ink Magazine, by 2030 virtually everyone will be working remotely.

Whether 50% or close to 100% in this decade – there is no question that this virus has pushed everyone in that direction, muses Jason.

Millions of companies around the world, both large and small, are never going to go back, predicts Jason. Commercial real estate office space, for example, has peaked. And as he humbly puts it, there would not be as much “office space” as there was even a month ago. Very categorically speaking that demand for office space is declining and will only further decline post-COVID.

As he aptly puts it – “the cat’s out of the bag and she’s not going back in.”

Challenges amidst COVID and Going Remote

On being asked about the challenges faced by managing sales teams as opposed to engineering (as one has a universal language) Jason shares that if you are in sales, like him, then a multi-channel approach is the way to go. The ability to connect and building relationships helps your conversion rate at least 3 or 4x. Connecting through LinkedIn, YouTube, or Twitter, prior to reaching your prospects through more traditional channels like email and phone calls, it simply enhances to help build your pipeline exponentially at least 3 to 4x (he repeats).

The problem is, 99% of the folks (listening to this) are not creating content or they are not heavily engaged at least an hour or two a day. Which is necessary in order to build a brand and create a level of awareness. So when you do reach out and try to build a relationship with your prospect, they know at some level who you are. So that gives the ability to create an opportunity that much easier.

Remote Work and Post-COVID Perceptions

There will be conversations in boardrooms (both large and small) “We need to have a remote contingency plan NOW”. It will literally involve a playbook – 1-inch-thick – about how you navigated yourself through COVID, Jason shares sagely.

If you don’t have a remote contingency plan you may not survive. You will lose talent. If you are not a flexible organization from this point forward, you are going to see your best people leave in favor of the work from anywhere model. That’s going to be very efficient and quickly be adopted.

“If you are stuck in the 1950s … I’m predicting right now that your best days are behind you.”

Give them that flexibility, Jason emphasizes, in conjunction with the best technology we have today and sky’s the limit.

Our Co-founder at Gaper was truly impressed by the perceptive take that Jason has for remote employment generally, and post-COVID approaches particularly.

What have you put into place at your organization to tackle this unforeseen problem that has blindsided the world? Are you COVID proof?