Everyone wants to create a healthy sales culture with their employees. It is important to avoid mistakes that could be detrimental to the success of your business. Here are some ways you can create a healthy sales culture with your employees.
A sales culture is a way of life for sales reps, and it's one that can be difficult to change.
The best cultures are those where the company has clear expectations about what they want their sales reps to achieve, as well as a set of values that all employees adhere to.
In this article we'll discuss how you can create a healthy culture in your organization, which will lead to better performance from your team members.
Most sales cultures are not healthy. If sales aren't meeting expectations, there's a good chance that the culture is to blame.
It can be difficult to change once it has been established, as new employees are likely to assimilate instead of work against it - which leads us back where we started!
Here are some things you need to do to create a healthy culture.
- Clarity about what is expected of them and reasonable feedback on how well they are doing
- An understanding of company values. This will be different depending on where you work but should include things like integrity, trust, professionalism
- An environment that is conducive to sales - this may include an office space separate from the rest of your employees or a different location. It could also mean offering free food, paying for travel expenses etc.
- Some autonomy over how they do their work and who they sell to i.e. not micro managed.
You should implement sales initiatives to ensure sales reps are meeting these requirements.
This could be anything from sales training, sales call metrics etc., but it should lead sales reps into the right direction.
A toxic sales culture will also be very difficult to change once it has been established, as new employees are unfortunately likely to assimilate instead of work against it. Here's how you can establish a great culture.
The culture should be a way of life for sales reps, and it's one that can be difficult to change. Most cultures are not healthy - if sales aren't meeting expectations, there's a good chance that the culture is to blame.
The most successful businesses recognise and embrace the fact that they are first and foremost a sales organisation, with a culture that emanates from the top. Because it has to, it pours from the top.
Despite the objections of those who promote bottom-up leadership, the reality is that any corporate culture is established by management's overarching concept, not by the people on the ground.
By the way, that's you.
So, let's pretend you've determined that your organisation needs to accept and embrace a culture for the time being.
Set the mission.: You want sales reps to understand what your company is all about, so they can reflect that in their sales approach.
It's up to you and the rest of management to determine whether sales will be measured on revenue, profit margins or lead quantity; each business has different goals with respect to sales success.
Whatever it happens to be, make sure your sales reps understand it.
Create sales leadership.: Sales leaders need to know what a culture looks like and how it should operate, as well as the specific standards for which they will be held accountable.
This might not take place overnight; consider taking some time to train new sales managers on your company's expectations before sending them out into the field with sales reps.
Communicate sales: You may have sales leadership, but that doesn't mean your sales reps are aware of the cultural expectations.
Regularly meet with sales teams to ensure they understand how you will measure success and what's expected in order for them to achieve it.
Ensure sales training is up-to-date.: Your sales team needs ongoing support and sales training throughout the year to lay a solid foundation.
If you're not sure what your sales team needs, ask them; many reps will be more than happy to share their struggles and how they might go about solving them if given the chance.
Have a High-Performance Sales Force: So far, we've discussed how to align a company's mission, people, and goals around the sales force, resulting in a very sales-friendly environment.
It's now time to ratchet up the pressure on those who are selling. Once you've shaped the company's culture around your salespeople, you have the right and responsibility to demand greatness from them.
To begin, you'll need a capable sales manager. A "strong sales manager" is one who actively tries to build and expand the abilities of his or her salespeople on a daily basis.
Your sales manager should be an excellent coach and developer of people in addition to being a skilled administrator, reporter, and forecaster.
He should be willing to advocate for the sales force's requirements while also expecting the highest level of effort and achievement from them.
To that end, the sales manager should have performance metrics in place to evaluate both the quantity and quality of sales activity, as well as the ability to hold salespeople accountable for those metrics and the outcomes.
Struggling employees should be coached or replaced, while exceptional workers should be praised and coached to even greater heights.
A high-performing sales force does not have salespeople that need to be babysat or constantly monitored in order to accomplish outcomes.
Furthermore, your sales team should be outstanding relationship builders both inside and outside the organisation.
That means there should be no "cowboys" in the sales force that are unpleasant or abusive to other employees; in order for a sales culture to operate, other employees must want to support the sales team.
No matter how effective they are with clients, salespeople who can't get along with others will work against your goals.
Your salespeople should be great "fits" for your company and surroundings, and they should be able to gain new business, grow existing business, and keep clients (remember the goal statement?).
They should possess the right blend of attributes for success, as well as be highly talented and trained (which means that your investment in training should be ongoing).
Create sales standards.: It's the sales leader's job to determine and communicate what a "good" sales rep looks like - i.e., how many calls per day, leads generated, etc.; these should be clearly communicated in an official capacity so that everyone has clear expectations of what it takes to get results within your organization.
Create sales incentives.: Compensation should be an integral part of culture, as sales reps will want to know what they stand to gain from a job well done. If sales goals aren't met regularly and consistently enough, the culture won't stick around for much longer.
Some common mistakes when establishing a culture include:
1. Sales leader turnover -Turnover can be a good thing if it means that your sales culture is improving, but you should keep in mind the importance of continuity and consistency when choosing who to promote into sales leadership positions; make sure they have a solid grasp on what's expected from them as well as their direct reports
2. Sales compensation that is too high or low - First, sales reps will need to understand what a "good" sales rep looks like in your organisation; once you have the sales leader figured out, they can help determine appropriate sales incentives
3. sales expectations that are unclear from an organisational standpoint - Make sure there's nothing ambiguous about how performance will be measured and sales goals set
4. Sales practices that are too loose - By the same token, sales reps should be held accountable to sales standards; this is a good way to ensure they're working at their maximum potential for your organisation's benefit.
5. Avoiding these pitfalls can help you avoid unnecessarily toxic cultures and establish successful ones instead - cultures that are better able to reflect your sales mission and keep sales reps motivated. By following these steps, you can set yourself up for success by creating a strong culture from the start.
1. Pay attention to your salespeople.
Before we take on a project, we spend the first 60 days doing nothing but listening and watching. We spend that much time because salesmen can never tell you the truth about why they aren't producing; they can only show you.
2. Keep track of your daily activities.
A doctor wouldn't just look at you and tell you what's wrong; instead, he'd order an MRI, blood tests, or have you hooked up to a machine to gather readings. You must apply the same principles to your sales crew.
Every salesperson's six to eight daily revenue-producing activities are tracked using a tool called "Critical Success Factors." It doesn't matter which system you employ; the data is crucial for monitoring because numbers never lie.
3. Make a chat track.
The majority of salespeople are far less technically skilled than they believe. They are apprehensive about calling on new business because they are inexperienced and unsure of what to say.
While they will object to being compelled to read scripts word for word, you must have them on hand and they must function.
If you don't have any, stop everything you're doing and go get a consultant. A sales team without talk tracks is like a company without a strategy; it's disorganised and unreliable.
4. Activity is more important than outcomes.
It's always been and always will be a numbers game in sales. The person who sees the greatest number of qualified candidates in the shortest amount of time has the highest chance of winning. Because salespeople have little control over who buys and who doesn't, spend more time encouraging them to boost activity, and results will follow.
5. Remove the rotten apples.
According to our research, the average sales manager knows whether or not a person will make it in 30 to 60 days, but it takes six to nine months to let them go.
Your sales crew is infected with bad attitudes, a lack of work ethic, and people who undercut leadership.
The longer you let them stay, the more money your organisation will lose and the more people they will infect.
6. Learn to rejoice.
Start recognising great leaders in front of a large audience. Helping clients build an incentive plan for driving activity is one of the fastest ways we obtain results for them.
While major bonuses and contest prizes are normally connected to output, you can come up with interesting, low-cost incentives that spur action right away.
Top-producing salesmen are a unique breed, and it's remarkable how far they'll go for a $50 gas card or to have their name shouted during a team meeting.
7. Come up with a creed.
Selling is an emotional process. It takes effort to sell something. And many salesmen need to be persuaded that what they're doing is for the greater good. They must realise that their efforts are part of a larger vision.
You can even get them to create their own religion by recording their responses to the questions in a communal setting.
8. Increase self-esteem.
Salespeople are incredible. They are frequently (and should be) among your company's highest-paid employees.
Every day, they fight against fear and rejection. You must emphasise how honourable and noble it is to be a sales professional throughout your organisation if you want them to produce.
Elevate the importance of the sales function to the other departments in your firm through your speech and demeanour. Anyone who objects to this should be required to conduct sales calls for a few weeks.
9. Become an expert in sales training.
It is your company's responsibility to provide your salespeople with the tools and training they require to be successful in their roles.
Sales cultures have well-defined processes in place to assist their salespeople in growing, learning, and achieving their goals.
This is especially critical for new hires, but you also need a strategy to provide your entire sales force with ongoing advanced sales training ideas.
If you don't think this is essential, figure out how much it costs to employ someone on average and times that by the number of salesmen who didn't make it last year; you'll quickly realise that it's well worth the investment.
10. Increase the frequency with which you are held accountable.
The majority of excellent salesmen require and appreciate regular accountability and collaboration.
Spending regular one-on-one time with your employees not only allows you to coach and train them, but it also demonstrates that you value what they do and are invested in their success.
Because organisations are pushed thin by limited budgets and managers are unable to devote enough individual time, sales coaching has grown increasingly popular in recent years.
