How to Create A Sales Culture That Thrives

“Sales is tough!”

Anyone that has heard me talk about sales has heard me say that over and over.

No one gets into sales because they love hearing no or because they love the feeling of rejection. Nor do they get into it for the joy of cold calling or the endless chasing of deals. But honestly, that’s a big part of the job.

Sales is not for the weak at heart, and at Acquirent we believe that even the toughest sales professional can benefit from being part of the right sales culture.

I have worked with and for many different companies and seen a wide spectrum of sales cultures. In that time I’ve spotted some common traits among the most successful companies which they all abide by. Here they are:

4 TRAITS OF COMPANIES WITH GREAT SALES CULTURES

Open Communication

Sales is a very fluid profession and to be successful one typically needs to be able to openly discuss ideas, prospect objections, and pipeline with their counterparts and managers.

At Acquirent we take this to heart – there are no offices and no we have an open cube policy.

Positive Reinforcement and Constructive Criticism

Like bad high school sports coaches, many sales managers lay into their reps about everything that they have done wrong on a sales call or demonstration, but never highlight what they did right.

That is a big mistake. Don’t get me wrong, you definitely need to provide feedback to your sales professionals, but I have found that the feedback is received better if you first highlight something that they did well first.

Watch a great coach – they may lay into their players often – and that’s usually what the camera sees – but for each tongue-lashing there are several pats on the back, high fives, and words of positive reinforcement the cameras never see.

Hands On Approach

No matter the experience level of your team, everyone can benefit when organizations take a hands on approach to sales management.

Listening in on sales calls, conducting ridealongs, and working with your team on their sales funnels can all be extremely effect and helps develop a strong culture.

Celebrate All Wins (Big and Small)

This one should go without saying. My organization works with companies that have short sales cycles (i.e. a couple days) and others with extremely long cycles (two years or more). No matter what your sales cycle looks like, you should always celebrate wins.

A “Win” could be closing a deal of course, but it could also mean securing a demonstration with a key prospect or getting past a talented gatekeeper.

These are just a few techniques that I have seen successful organizations implement to ensure that they have a world class sales culture. If you’ve seen great examples of how companies build a culture, we’d love to hear them!

Happy Selling!