Building a Sales Culture - 10 Rules for Success

Updated: November 18, 2010

Often times not. Many of these same executives, when it comes time to assess their employees, become hypocritical. The reason to evaluate a group like this is to learn who it would be fair to ask to participate in more aggressive business development. It's nice to want more of a sales culture but it's a morale-killer to ask people unsuitable or disinterested in the task to participate. Another reason to evaluate is to determine what realistic expectations should be for their group. And of course training. What kind of help will the group need? What kind of weaknesses do they have and what kinds of issues will they have difficulty overcoming?

Some managers begin to get protective (threatened) at this point. Can you soften the language? Those questions don't apply. Do they want to create more of a sales culture or not? Post evaluation they'll learn that some employees are totally wrong for participating in business development and they'll ask to make exceptions. They'll ask for training and then ruin it by saying that a particular approach won't work in their business (as if they would know!).

Here are the rules for developing more of a sales culture:

  1. The culture won't change on its own.
  2. The culture won't change without someone in management driving that change.
  3. The culture won't change without identifying the people who should participate.
  4. The culture won't change without simple, basic expectations.
  5. The culture won't change without showing them how to do what they need to do to meet the expectations.
  6. The culture won't change without training them with the necessary skills to provide them some ability and confidence.
  7. The culture won't change without coaching.
  8. The culture won't change without getting outside expert advice.
  9. The culture won't change unless there is an early emphasis on low-risk concepts like cross-selling, up-selling, calling inactive customers/clients, and trolling for referrals.
  10. The culture won't change unless management holds everyone accountable.