When was the last time you thought about your team’s readiness? This is a gauge on how equipped your team is to move forward on new projects and with new clients or customers. Do your team members have the skills and knowledge they need? Are they confident and competent? Life moves quickly and offers plenty of surprises—some of them unwanted. That is why your team should be prepared no matter what lies ahead.

Readiness is critical to avoiding disruption during any crisis. If your team members are not prepared with the tools, training and updates they need to perform in these uncertain times, they may buckle under the pressure.

Consider revamping your onboarding process.

It is important to give new team members a strong foundation. With most in-person meetings currently on hold, you cannot rely on your usual training methods for new hires. To help your new team members get up to speed, look at how you can develop an onboarding program for remote use. You may already have foundational resources at your fingertips. Check with your company’s human resources department for videos, quizzes, and information you can share. Even though you may be working remotely, be sure to closely monitor team members progress as they move through the onboarding program. Stay mindful about checking in and providing additional training when it is needed.

Make sure that you provide frequent, standardized communication.

Although your team likely cannot gather in person now, you can keep the lines of communication open. By committing to regular meetings, you can ensure your team members are up to date on project and client-specific and organization-wide announcements and news. You should also make note to share news on process changes, competitors, and customers. Consider communicating through a platform such as Slack since weekly or daily email updates may get lost as reps are inundated with messages.

Commit to continuous training.

Training is a big part of personal readiness. Continuous training is especially important as team members adjust to a work-from-home environment where they are likely in need of specific information about performing effectively during a time of crisis. By keeping team members engaged through leaderboards, social elements, and gamified quizzes. By making training fun, you can contribute to your team’s overall sales readiness.

Provide pipeline visibility.

To remain successful, even during a crisis, everyone on your team should understand what the projects are, what the client expectations and which prospects are in the pipeline. Through this transparency, leaders and team members can have a visual representation of everything that is going on with the company. Team members can use these insights to determine how the pandemic or any other crisis has impacted the company.

Always promote friendly conversation.

People are social creatures. As the team members have adjusted to social distancing, many may long for meaningful conversations. Give them opportunities to communicate with each other. Instead of only sharing vital information, encourage them to talk about their best practices, wins and losses, and how they are doing in this unique season.

When you focus on team readiness, you help set your team up to succeed in the face of change. Start by looking at your onboarding, and then provide regular communication, continuous training, and transparency. Change is hard, but your team can be ready. And this will help you thrive.