Why defining your sales culture is key in your hiring and sales strategy

"How can I motivate my sales people?" one CRO asked me, "Good question, what's the sales culture in your organisation?" Just by looking at his face, I realised that the question had struck a nerve. There was no clear, detailed vision of the organisation's sales culture. By asking other questions about sales staff turnover, their efficiency, the collaboration in place, etc., the picture that gradually emerged was not ideal.

Ooouch... Recruiting one or more sales people to an organisation is like adding a piece to a jigsaw puzzle. If the theme of the jigsaw isn't well understood, how can you be sure that the new piece will fit in properly?

Culture eats strategy for breakfast

Peter Drucker's famous phrase could not be truer. Knowing the sales culture of an organisation is key to its success, and not knowing it has a huge impact:

1. Lack of motivation among existing sales staff, who expect a certain culture (see below) and find a different one once they have been recruited.

2. A lack of common language in the team, between the different relays, for example between sales and sales managers or between leadership and VP sales

3. Above-average turnover in sales teams, disproportionate recruitment costs, a bad name on the recruitment market or not as good as it could be

4. Lack of efficiency, sales results not as good as they could be

5. Etc.... and so on.

All too often, I see organisations recruiting B2B sales people and focusing on a lot of points that are accessories to success - sales techniques - and not on the fundamentals, including the organisation's culture.

If you don't have an accurate, shared understanding of a company's sales culture, you run the risk of excessive recruitment costs, staff turnover and results that aren't what they could be, especially if you have a team of "B-Players" instead of a team of "A-Players".

There are several ways of defining an organisation's sales culture and how it takes shape. For example, there are 4 types of sales culture:

• Competitive: A culture in which the emphasis is on what individuals succeed in doing. The "killer instinct" aspect is valued, and individual rewards are standard. Ex: Microsoft

• Control: A structured process culture, a focus on the alignment of objectives and goals. The "power" is in the "executive suite". "Great reward" for longevity. Ex: IBM

• Creative: The expression of the individual takes precedence, the focus and the recurring theme is "problem solving". Continuous change in the organisation. Ex: Google

• Collaborative: Decisions are shared, top management decisions can be perceived as slow. Long-term customer relationships are encouraged. Focus on customer retention. Ex: SFDC

This may seem superficial for organisations, especially small ones. But I often hear recruiting managers tell me that they want to recruit with a good cultural fit. Yet they are not able to clearly articulate what this exactly means and what they are looking for.

The result is a lack of alignment between different individuals, an inability to know what to look for during recruitment, what questions to ask and this cultural fit cannot even be properly tested with candidates during interviews. Ultimately, as it was the case for my confused CRO, challenges to motivate the team in place leading to costly and time-consuming recruitments that failed.

So defining your sales culture isn't a cosmetic exercise. However, having it defined clearly, could lead to better recruits, better manager and, ultimately, better results.

So, what's your sales culture like? What would your team say? What are the specific examples that demonstrate this? How does this play out in your team's day-to-day work? And is it the best culture for your organisation and does it help you achieve your objectives?

If you see these are critical questions to address, get in touch.