When you’re walking into an interview for a position on a field team, there are a few things you should always bring with you: confidence, experience, and most importantly, a strong record of accountability. For a remote career with little to no supervision, self-accountability is a must have. You must be your own leader. Yes, your manager will train you and give you a goal to aim for, but after that, it’s all you. To impress your supervisors, you must embrace self-accountability and show them that you don’t need to be babysat for a single second. Show them that you’re worth having on the team. Here’s how:
1) Be organized
As a field rep you will be juggling a lot of clients; both current and prospective. You will first and foremost need a calendar system to keep track of all appointments. Your manager will hopefully have software with scheduling capabilities in place so that the whole team is using the same system. Having such a calendar is great for communication and consistency throughout the team, but with the many tasks that come with each client, for personal accountability, sometimes you have to go a step further and use the simple but handy check-list. With a written or digital checklist you can physically see how much work you have to do, prioritize the tasks, and ultimately manage your time. To-do lists keep you on task, but if you have found that you’ve completed something that wasn’t originally on the list, don’t be ashamed of putting it on the list and checking it off anyway. This will not only remind you to put this task on the list next time, but it will also boost your morale as you feel more productive.
2) Quit making excuses
If you forget to schedule a phone call or follow up with a client within 24 hours of initially reaching out to them, don’t try to make an excuse for it. Own up to your mistakes and develop good habits to stay self-disciplined. If you let something go 'just this one time,' it could well become a trend.
3) Expect rejection
In field work where you contact numerous prospective clients on a day-to-day basis, you are bound to get rejected, sometimes multiple times per day. Rejection can be discouraging, but having a set protocol for what to do when rejected can divert your mind from the negative thoughts and help continue productivity even along a bumpy road. For example, report the details of the interaction with the client. What time of the day did you reach out to this person? In what setting? Would it be worth your time to try again at a different time? Once you complete your post-rejection routine, move on. Afterwards you can analyze the information you get from this routine and look for ways to make changes.
4) Remind yourself why you're doing it
You have this long laundry list of things to do, but actually doing them is another story. Sometimes after making call after call you lose interest and forget why you started doing this in the first place. Make sure you know clearly how your role benefits the overall company and remind yourself of that. In retail, field work is crucial! Thinking about the revenue that you help generate through healthy relationships with clients is a definite motivator. Try to identify a personal goal that aligns with your work as well. For example, the more emails that you send out to prospective clients, the better and more efficient your writing skills will become.
Accountability leads to success at both an individual and managerial level. For more information on building accountability in the field, check out our free eBook below!
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