There’s an old joke that asks “What’s the difference between yoghurt and Australia?” With the answer of course being “Yoghurt has some culture.” But what’s this got do with your Sales Culture?
The American Management Consultant Peter Drucker once famously said “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”, and we tend to agree with him! Consider this:
- Your business has a clear vision, to which all team members appear to be committed.
- You have a defined business and sales strategy, with everyone clear on what’s required of them.
But something’s not quite right. Your sales team isn’t performing as well as you’d like. They appear to:
- Be easily distracted and not particularly focussed on the sales tasks at hand.
- Not particularly motivated.
- Irritable with each other.
- Not responding well to targets.
The answer may well lie in the type of culture that you have in your business. Here are some tips for building a vibrant sales culture:
- Involve your people in creating your vision. If you’ve already created your vision, get them to create one for their own team.
- Empower them by getting them to come up with their own sales action plans.
- In 1:1s don’t tell them what to do – get them to come up with the answers. They’re all bright people and you don’t need to hand feed them the answers.
- Make sure everyone contributes in team and sunrise meetings.
- Be open, honest and transparent in all your dealings with them.
Rumours start to spread when managers and business owners aren’t honest with their people. As stories get passed from one salesperson to the next, often over the coffee machine or at the pub, the truth gets more exaggerated and manipulated. This is the breeding ground for the type of sales culture you don’t want.
So involve your sales team, communicate effectively with them, be transparent and most of all don’t bullshit them. (as we say in non-cultural Aus!)