The sales culture of your company can make or break your business. Ingraining a healthy sales culture into your company will attract top people to your sales force and keep your team engaged. A highly motivated sales team sharing the same vision and strategy results in more sales success and a boost to your company’s bottom line.
A sales culture will encompass the attitudes, values and habits shared among your team. These should be summarized in a handful of words that describe your sales team. A positive sales culture will work to turn each sales team member into a sales leader. It will increase buy-in and improve overall team dynamics. Your culture must define how your salespeople are expected to interact with one another and with your potential customers. Without a well defined, positive sales culture, your sales strategy is incomplete and success will be limited.
Hire Slowly and Deliberately – As your company grows, it can be tempting to hire anyone with the generic qualifications for a sales position. Separate yourself from the organizations that follow this practice, churning through salespeople until they find the top producers. Settling for someone who is merely adequate but not the best fit will kill your sales culture. Create a framework that salespeople need to fit into for your company’s sales culture and its target customers. Then, take your time finding the right salesperson to match. Create a checklist of the characteristics required in your salespeople to create a cohesive sales organization and to communicate your company vision to potential customers.
Set Clear Goals and Expectations – Clear communication about goals and expectations is a must for sales teams. Goals have to be challenging enough to keep your team engaged but also achievable.
Data is vital when it comes to setting sales targets. Be transparent, show your team where these target numbers come from and how your sales team can get there. For your sales journey to be successful, you must have an activity-based sales plan. Your sales
team has very little control over who buys and who does not, so adding activity-based selling sets achievable goals that your team can manage. For instance, mainstream thinking asks a team member to achieve ten sales. Instead, ask him or her to conduct 20 informational demonstrations of your company’s services and product lines. This approach will boost confidence, keep their performance on track and improve company close rates.
It will be essential to have regular one-to-one catch-up meetings to monitor progress and identify any challenges and potential roadblocks. Your people need someone to listen when they express their ideas, concerns and long-term aspirations, so you must position yourself as a mentor and sales coach.
Monitor Daily Activity of Your Sales Team – Use a metrics-based approach when managing your sales team. The key is not to let those metrics stand in the way of sincere human interaction, positive reinforcement and the magnetism you need to motivate your sales team to succeed.
Everyone will need a deep understanding of the sales pipeline from beginning to end. This gives you and your sales leaders the required data to make adjustments that lead to increased productivity and, ultimately, a captivated team. An example is looking at a key performance indicator (KPI) and using that metric to encourage behavioral changes among your sales team that will nurture a positive sales culture.
Technology will simplify customer relationship management (CRM) and workflow automation will streamline mundane tasks. With this technology, sales organizations will gain the freedom to listen to their customers’ needs, creating a responsive sales culture.
Acknowledge Successes, Failures and Gather Support for Robust Competition – Celebrating team members when sales goals are reached is crucial, especially when they have been working hard to reach a goal. This practice will help build a strong sales team willing to go the extra mile to achieve goals. It is equally important to constructively discuss failures as well. Don’t criticize the team if sales are not as high as you hoped; instead, talk through any challenges the team faces to improve sales results the next month. This will encourage understanding, growth and knowledge that promotes a positive sales culture.
Stirring up some competition among your sales team is not only a smart plan but also fun. Eliminate and avoid malicious behavior and encourage your team to cheer one another on. Create a sales contest that compels the team to work diligently. You do not want them opposed to the competition, so make the goals attainable. It is human nature for them to compete to see who sells the most, but it’s also smart to have them focus on the team, so everyone works toward a common goal.
Drill Home Activity Over Results – There is no doubt sales are all about the numbers; that’s never going to change. The salesperson who has the most qualified prospects and contacts those prospects most quickly has the best chance of selling the most. This fact makes it essential for you to encourage team members to increase their activity, knowing that sales will grow as a result. However, sales message integrity and follow-through must not be sacrificed for the sake of seeing more prospects more quickly. Your goal is to keep activity high while establishing a repeatable process that focuses on a quality sales message. This
goal is vital to the team’s long-term success. You can help accomplish this by utilizing automated marketing solutions that uniquely message prospects based on behavior. Then your sales team will know the prospects’ interest before making a sales pitch.
Recognize Your Team’s Successes – Nothing drives sales activity faster than an incentive plan. Another great way to foster success is to recognize your sales team’s leaders in a public way. Incentives are usually tied to production results, but adding periodic sales rewards not part of your incentive plan often results in an immediate spike in profitable activity. Maintain a high energy environment. Working in sales can break even the most oversized egos, which is why a positive climate is necessary to keep your team steadfast in the face of rejection. Help them to understand that rejection is not personal.
Master the Process of Training – Providing the training and tools essential for your salespeople to succeed in their position is your job. Successful sales cultures have systems in place that support their sales team to learn and to achieve their goals. Training is especially crucial for new employees, but it’s also essential to have an ongoing training improvement process for your entire sales team. Observe salespeople on phone or video calls and offer ideas about how to approach prospects. Training courses and seminars complement your program, but the most important thing is getting your sales team to consistently execute best practices.
You are your company’s sales leader. You have to strive daily to keep your sales team passionate and excited about what they are selling. Success often comes down to openness, honesty, communication and, above all, trust. A championship sales culture takes effort and time to build but the rewards will be a productive and loyal sales team with members driven to succeed for your business.
John Kenney has over 45 years experience in the roofing industry. He started his career by working as a roofing apprentice at a family business in the Northeast and worked his way up to operating multiple Top 100 Roofing Contractors. As Chief Operating Officer, John is intimately familiar with all aspects of roofing production, estimating and operations. During his tenure in the industry, John ran business units associated with delivering excellent workmanship and unparalleled customer service while ensuring his company’s strong net profits before joining Cotney Consulting Group. If you would like any further information on this or another subject, you can contact John at jkenney@cotneyconsulting.com.
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