Creating a Sales Culture Is Not Just For the Sales Team
When you read the phrase sales culture, what does that mean to you? When I ask folks I get responses like ’having our salespeople focused on selling our products or services,’ or ’successfully fulfilling a want or need of a customer,’ or ’meeting our sales goals on a regular basis.’ So why do we limit this thinking to just the sales team? Why don’t companies adopt the idea of creating a sales culture…one that is about creating value, being problem solvers, being customer-centric…why isn’t that the corporate culture?
Henry Ford said Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black. While I’m sure no one in your organization says those words, isn’t that the message they hear? Phrases like ‘as long as you can wait till Friday I can get you the information,’ ‘we’re understaffed and can’t get to your request,’ ‘you’ll have to ask someone else to handle it,’ ‘I forgot,’ ‘you have to fill out the form before we can respond to you’…and the list goes on. Imagine your company if every person and every department thought and acted like your sales team, was intent on creating value, problem-solving and being customer-focused whether those customers were internal or external to your organization. Productivity would soar, team dynamics would improve, customer complaints would diminish, revenues would climb and you’d hear laughter instead of complaints.
Creating a sales culture is about doing things right and finding solutions when there appear to be none. Mark Twain said it best: Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. Implementing a sales culture throughout your organization is the first step toward creating an unbeatable company.
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I think when most people hear creating a “sales culture” outside of the sales team that the reaction is often negative. This is a clear and concise explanation that takes that negative tone away. I particularly like the quote from Mark Twain, “Always do right…”
Great piece and I couldn’t agree more – everyone is in sales. This doesnt mean everyone goes on sales calls but it does mean everyone should be focused and accountable to ensuring sales success. Being responsible for both Finance my team is held accountable to create tools that allow sales to know exactly where they stand and analysis to help them interpret their activity data. Also being responsible for Marketing, my team is held accountable for creating research material to help sales develop detailed account plans as well as a lead nurturing program. In both cases the sales force is our customer and we are tasked with making them as successful as possible. Its a great culture to be a part of and in the end, if they win, we all win.