How to create and foster a winning sales culture

“82% of respondents believe that culture is a potential competitive advantage.”

A Deloitte survey

Which is why if you’re not gauging the health of your sales culture, then you’re missing a valuable opportunity. Closing a sale isn’t getting easier.

“Only 53% of organizations meet their quotas. However, building a positive workplace gives you an edge over your rivals.”

A CSO Insights study

Data shows that engaged, purpose-driven teams deliver results. Plus, they stick around to coach junior reps. Whereas, those who are unhappy with a company’s culture actively look for new positions.

By developing your sales culture around company values while focusing on mentorship and communication, you’ll positively influence revenue, productivity, and retention rates.

Encourage cooperation and communication

A healthy environment makes competition fun instead of stressful. By establishing clear goals and promoting collaboration over competition, you’ll boost performance and profits.

Create a culture where sales reps communicate their wins and discuss their hurdles. With collaborative feedback, your team builds upon its successes while working together on solutions.

• Schedule interactive team meetings. Demonstrate that you value your team’s time with short sessions and well-defined agendas.
• Foster a positive sales culture by asking for insights from both junior and senior reps.
• Show your team that you support innovative thoughts and open communication by listening and responding to their concerns.
• Help teams develop ways to share insights across platforms.
• Don’t shy away from fostering healthy (key word!) competition between peers. Contests are one tried-and-true way to gamify reps’ performance but they aren’t the only way. You can also hold challenges for specific objectives like onboarding or goals like increasing the average contract value within a set period of time.

In today’s environment, collaboration is vital. Go beyond the silo mentality by opening the lines of communication between marketing and sales. Align your teams with a sales culture that emphasizes your organization’s mission.

Provide individual recognition and support

“12% of workers say they would quit their job because they don’t feel appreciated.”

A study by Robert Half

Avoid churn with a sales culture that recognizes individual wins, provides personalized support and encourages leadership.

Recognize individual skill sets

In a diverse workplace, you’ll notice that specific sales reps excel in technology or customer retention. Identify and acknowledge these strengths in meetings, emails, and through incentives.

“Strength-based development leads to 10 to 19% increased sales and 9 to 15% increase in engaged employees.”

A report by Gallup

Encourage ownership of projects

Build better leaders by giving individuals the freedom to take the reins.

By empowering reps to contribute to their own team resources like developing playbooks, training programs, and sales enablement materials, you can facilitate ownership and autonomy — which is proven to foster “positive work outcomes: more work satisfaction and less intent to transfer and intent to leave.”

Delegating project ownership also helps reps to develop the skills they need to mentor and train the next generation of employees.

Support struggling reps with one-on-one coaching

Communication via feedback is essential to growth and higher performance. An organization that builds on its sales culture with mentorship programs enhances team performance. The weekly 1:1 meeting between a rep and a manager is an important step for regular communication but should be separate from coaching sessions.

These sessions should be a combination of educational and strategic — helping the rep to move beyond stumbling blocks, build new skills and develop a mindset that can not only support their regular responsibilities but enable them to reach their short and longer-term goals.

Set up peer coaching and mentorship programs

Professional growth opportunities, like mentorship programs, make team members feel valued and appreciated. These engaged reps buy into your organization’s mission resulting in higher performance and retention rates.

The benefits of a thriving coaching program are undeniable.

• A CSO Insights Sales Enablement Study finds that “companies with dynamic coaching programs achieve 28% higher win rates.”

• LinkedIn’s Workforce Learning Report states that “93% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their careers.”

Get the most out of your coaching program by using an arrangement that builds on foundational skills while encouraging open communication. Build a network of institutional knowledge with senior reps coaching junior sales team members.

Equip your sales team for success

Empower your team by providing the tools, data, and training necessary for a positive sales culture.

“81,6% of top performers spend four hours or more on sales-related activities.”

According to the Salespeople Perceptions and Top Performance Study

Free up your sales reps’ time so they can focus on prospecting, communicating with their team, and following up.

• Data

Use data to solve problems and make better decisions. Make sure your team knows where the data comes from and how it’s used to determine conversion rates. Then use metrics to find conversion-related activities with the highest ROI.

• Tools

A technology stack that automates and increases collaboration reflects a winning sales culture. Experiment with various tools but prepare to act quickly to eliminate programs that don’t deliver results.

• Training

Optimize workflows with a strong onboarding strategy followed by ongoing mentorship and coaching.

“26% of employees quit their jobs because they haven’t been onboarded or trained properly.”

A study by iCIMS

Build your vision into the sales culture

It’s no secret that sales reps who are fueled by a mission outperform their peers. The key is to develop a sales culture that encourages collaboration and communication on all levels.

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) says that a “team culture that is not open, transparent, positive and future-focused results in a failure to perform at high levels.”

Successful organizations leverage the power of their purpose and invest in their sales culture. Improve your revenue and communication with optimized workflows and a coaching program that matches your organization’s values.