Why Company Culture Is Key For Sales Success

An organisation’s sales success is usually measured by revenue – but what if I told you that you should start measuring it by culture too?

Sales environments have long been associated with cutthroat, high-pressure cultures with a sink-or-swim mentality. And that’s not all. Often individual success comes at the expense of collaboration, causing high competition and low trust amongst colleagues. 

For some managers, this is the perfect way to get results… but are these results long-term? This type of company culture rarely (if ever) leads to actual success in the long run. 

Here are some reasons why a good company culture is critical for sales success:

RETENTION

Put simply – people will not stay in a toxic, stressful environment. 

Yes, the sales industry is known for higher turnover because you can either love it or hate it, but how about your top salesperson? Why are they leaving? Probably because the pressure was too high and the recognition too low.

Without a positive company culture that prioritises employee's:

• Well-being

• Work-life balance

• Progression

You will struggle to retain even your highest-performing employees. Especially in the 21st century where most companies have great cultures and great benefits, standing out in competition without it will be tough. 

TEAMWORK AND INNOVATION

The top priority on any salesperson’s mind is to hit their own targets and make their own money. You’ll get that even in the nicest sales companies – and that’s not a bad thing. But what can make that mentality a bad thing is if their team’s success doesn’t come right after it. 

As a manager of a sales team, it’s vital to realise that sales success is not just about hitting individual targets; it's about driving overall growth and innovation. Think about it: You have a successful salesperson who’s been at the company for 5 years. They’ve built incredible client relationships and they’ve found processes that work for them. But what happens if the market changes and now they’re all of a sudden starting to struggle? You have two options:

1. Let them struggle and figure it out on their own

2. Create an environment where the team want to help this person, share ideas, and ignite new inspiration

An environment like number 2 fuels innovation and creativity, leading to better strategies, better processes and more sales as a result. 

MOTIVATION

While fear may provide short-term motivation, it is not sustainable in the long run. 

If there’s any one industry that is mainly fuelled by motivation – it’s sales. And if you didn’t know, unmotivated employees cause up to a $550 billion loss each year in the US alone (Gallup). Imagine how much your business could be losing due to a lack of motivation.

The way to motivate employees is not to put pressure on them to hit targets, it’s about inspiring them for what’s to come as well as applauding them for their success so far. And with this means letting go of the micromanaging. A sales career is a larger entrepreneurial one, meaning employees will thrive off of autonomy. You can still be there to steer them in the right direction but taking the reigns too much will only have the reverse effect. 

REPUTATION

A company's culture not only impacts its internal operations but also its external reputation. It’s wrong to assume that people won’t talk and word won’t get around that your company is not a company that supports and values its salespeople. 

Not only will this cause potential employees to think twice about joining (with 86% of job seekers avoiding companies with a bad reputation – TeamStage), but it could even lead to potential and existing clients taking their business elsewhere if they sense discontent among the sales team. 

Clients want to know the team is truly engaged because an engaged team makes a real effort to go above and beyond for their clients.

- Written by Arun Sutton

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