Skip to content

Mastering Sales Management: 8 Sales Leadership Qualities Required for Success

Today’s sales leaders need more than selling skills to succeed in sales management. Sales leadership qualities that foster a thriving sales culture are crucial. 

The sales leadership qualities that set strong sales leaders apart are rooted in a commitment to ensuring their sales team is well-equipped and engaged. These leaders offer their team members resources and a suitable work environment. They help navigate the changing sales landscape with expertise.

Successful sales leaders in today’s fast-paced business environment have distinct qualities. This article explores and unravels the intricacies of sales leadership. These insights will guide you on your journey. Whether you’re an experienced sales team leader, aiming to become one, or preparing to hire your next sales leader.

sales leader with graph

8 Sales Leadership Qualities 

1. Embrace Data-Driven Decision Making

Successful leaders make strategic sales decisions based on data. They create predictable progress by tracking specific metrics. They examine analytics regularly. They predict trends and forecast future performance. Calculating and comparing data over time equips leaders to refine their action plans by making effective changes in their strategy. Many other sales leadership skills are built on a sales manager’s ability to take an objective approach to problem-solving. 

2. Master Active Listening Techniques

Relationship and communication skills are needed for sales success in any sales role. Sales reps use these skills to connect with potential customers. They also use them to understand customer needs and provide customer service. Through listening and skillfully responding, sales reps can provide customized pitches and convert more customers. In sales leadership, relationship and communication skills are further applied to the needs of a team. 

Successful sales leaders practice active listening. They aim to understand where their team members could improve sales performance. They can then devise personalized strategies to help each team member close deals consistently. A sales team needs to cooperate with other departments. A great sales leader will use listening skills to connect with executives. Sales leaders understand the power of incorporating company needs into sales strategies. They know the value of this holistic approach. 

3. Stay Focused

It is part of a sales leader’s job to guide their team’s focus through maintaining their focus. A leader who is distracted, uncertain, or slow to make moves will sabotage their team goals and slow down sales success. High-performing sales leaders are devoted to their own individual goals and their company’s long-term goals. They fearlessly determine their priorities and stick to them. Even when tension is high on their team. 

Great sales leadership requires commitment and care. Strong sales leaders maintain their narrow focus on the most important goals. They also understand the value of ‘zooming out’ to consider the broader needs of their sales team and company. Sales leaders must balance details with sales goals to achieve maximum results that benefit everyone. This requires innovation. 

4. Optimize Sales Processes 

Every sales team needs to work seamlessly both within its own sales organization and with teams in other departments. Successful sales management can be distinguished from a lack of sales leadership qualities. This distinction is based on how well the sales process integrates with the whole company. Great sales leadership will consider their team’s workflow and sales processes to determine an effective structure for their team. The outcome of their optimization will be increased productivity and reduced errors.

Sales leaders working within smaller budgets must be resourceful. Maximizing success while having limited funds takes a mastery of efficient sales leadership skills. 

5. Commit To Your Plan

Discernment and decisiveness are sales leadership qualities that are inherent in someone’s sales DNA. Quick decision-makers see a way forward and aren’t afraid to initiate momentum. They can choose what is best for their team without wasting time wavering between options, possibilities, and opportunities. 

Your sales leaders must take on an authoritative role that commands respect from their team. This does not mean that their sales management style has to be dominating or dictatorial. Leaders achieve powerful sales leadership when they maintain self-control, calmness, and confidence. They also ensure their team possesses these qualities. Leaders build trust by consistently making and following through on important decisions. These decisions involve quotas, incentives, hiring, and firing. 

6. Inspire and Motivate

A team’s performance and overall success hinge on their motivation. Sales can be brutal on team morale. In the face of rejection and objections, sales managers need to have the sales leadership skills to pull their team out of a funk and get them moving again. 

Great sales leadership goes beyond textbook motivational tactics and gets to know their team. A bit of trial and error should be expected in the motivational process. What inspires one employee may not inspire another. In collaborative environments, a compelling vision simply may not look the same to everyone on the team. Understanding team dynamics and what motivates an entire sales team is complex work. Done well, this work will pay dividends as your team’s success soars to new heights. 

7. Leverage Technology

A modern sales leader does not shy away from new technology. They understand that it is a sales manager’s responsibility to ensure their team has the resources they need. Great managers take this seriously and explore opportunities for their team to improve their sales methodology through technology. They’re endlessly curious about new sales tools, sales software, and AI applications. 

While you can teach a manager tech and tools, the hunger to learn and better their team is not something a manager can learn. If you’re a sales manager, spend some time learning about tech you’re unfamiliar with. Bring your findings back to your team with enthusiasm. If you’re looking to hire a sales manager, keep your eye out for leaders who understand the competitive landscape related to technology. Hire individuals eager to use technology to assess and predict buyer behavior, perform sales forecasting, and develop their sales strategy. 

8. Elevate Your Coaching Skills

A great sales leader is also a great coach. When their coaching skills are put to work, they can align their team with the company vision and motivate them to reach higher levels of success. 

Maintaining a positive attitude and objective perspective is a crucial part of successful sales coaching. Leaders stay grounded. They give emotionally intelligent, constructive feedback to sales team members. They invest consistently in learning, leadership development, and training. This equips their team to create better performance strategies. 

Is it time to hire your next sales leader? Peak Sales Recruiting is here to help you skip the hiring trial-and-error. Contact our team today and get access to our global network of high-performing sales leaders.

Related posts

Remote Company Culture with PEAK’s Chief Spirit Officer
Cut Your Costs: Onboarding Sales Reps
How Pioneer DJ Recruits the Right Senior Leadership Talent

close relpost-thumb-wrapper

Kyle Fletcher

Latest posts by Kyle Fletcher (see all)

5 Reasons Your Top Employees Quit (Stop Doing This to Stop Them Leaving)

Have you noticed top employees are likelier to quit than your average sales rep? Then, it might be time to consider how you are driving them to leave. Read on to understand why your top employees quit and how to stop your company from bleeding talent.

1. You cap commissions.

When you cap commissions, reps lose motivation and seek more challenging and expansive employment elsewhere. 79% of sales managers with no compensation cap meet and exceed quota. To stay ahead of your competition and boost your profits, offering an attractive compensation package to top talent is vital. 

2. You keep under-performers on board.

Poor performers drain company resources and damage brand reputation internally and externally. Top employees want to work with other driven, successful individuals. When mediocre team members surround them, they’re more likely to quit. Learn from successful sales organizations: swiftly replace average reps and have a bench of sales talent to choose from. 

3. You penalize the sales team for poor product/service delivery.

Not all sales reps want to be heavily involved with customers after a sale, and varying styles should be honored. Reps only need to maintain a post-sale connection to a certain extent. Ensure a healthy relationship and hand it to the next team member. 

4. You take credit for your rep’s success.

Top employees are motivated by recognition. If you ignore, erase, or take credit for their victories, you might as well be asking them to quit. Celebrate their work and highlight their accomplishments as often as possible. 

5. You undervalue corporate culture.

Top-performing sales organizations know that they are built on corporate culture. Your top employees will be looking at how you handle challenges and if you treat them as opportunities to grow. Make intentional investments in your company culture to keep top talent. 

Improve your employee retention with a proven hiring and onboarding strategy. Contact us today to get your recruiting journey started!

How to Interview a VP of Sales Candidate

When a company grows, expands, replaces, or retires team members, it may hire new sales managers. These people greatly impact company culture and can significantly affect team morale. Choosing the right sales managers means ensuring sustainable goal achievement. To thoroughly screen candidates in an interview, ask all-encompassing questions that cover four areas: 

1. Personal

  1. What were your best and worst management decisions in the past year?
  2. Describe your decision-making approach when you’re faced with difficult situations. 
  3. What is an example of a strong sales manager’s attribute you possess that makes you a great leader?

2. People Management

  1. What elements do you focus on when building a high-performance sales culture?
  2. How do you alter your management style when working with very seasoned sales team members compared to less experienced reps?
  3. How do you communicate your expectations to team members? 

3. Customer Management

  1. Briefly describe your sales management process and why it works. 
  2. Tell us about a deal you lost to a competitor in a previous role.
  3. What is your sales team’s track record for acquiring and retaining clients? 

4. Business Management

  1. In the past year, what have you done to continue your sales education?
  2. Which sales tools do you use, and why?
  3. If you joined our organization, what specific actions would you take as a sales manager in the first month?

Ready to hire your next sales manager? Our team can help you define hiring criteria, screen candidates, and more. Contact us today to get started. 

4 Interview Process Steps for Hiring Top Performers

Hiring the wrong person for your sales team can be a costly mistake. Not only will onboarding cost thousands of dollars, but your overall revenue will take a hit if the candidate is not performing. In this article, we’re bringing you our proven interview process to make your recruitment efforts more effective and accurate.

We have perfected the interview process after many years conducting thousands of job searches for our clients. Steal these steps of the interview process for your company to ensure you keep candidates engaged and hire only top performers. 

4 Steps of the Interview Process as Recommended by Peak Sales Recruiting

Step 1: The Culture Fit Interview

We always take a two-way approach to all first connections with a candidate. Allow time for your company to get to know the candidate and the candidate to get to know your company. During this initial screening, you’ll be able to determine if the candidate’s background and work history match the job requirements, hiring non-negotiables, and values of their team and company. 

It is vital to highlight why the candidate wants to join your organization without over-selling the opportunity. Since most of our candidates are passive — meaning they are not searching for a new opportunity — this is especially important. In this first interview, you must also give the candidate space to ask questions about your company’s current strategy, future market plans, growth goals, and the open role. They will be listening for indicators of whether you, your company, and the available role align with their career vision. 

You can hold these preliminary interviews as telephone interviews or video interviews. 

Step 2: The Sales Acumen Interview

Before the second interview, we recommend creating an interview baseline. This involves selecting strategic interview questions — while incorporating follow-up questions from the initial interview — that will dive deep and reveal both the ‘red flags’ of underperformers and the ‘green flags’ of top candidates. Your interview structure should be as repeatable and standardized as possible. This standardization helps to eliminate bias and simplify the review process. 

During the sales acumen interview, aim to better understand the following:

  • The nature of the candidate’s specific experience
  • How the candidate’s experience and expertise align with the role
  • What the candidate will add to your team 
  • Any risks you would be taking in hiring the candidate

Your interviewers can hold the sales acumen interviews as a video or in-person interview. If your company and industry require a lot of face-to-face interaction during the sales process, you may favor in-person interviews to assess the full range of your candidate’s skills.

Step 3: The Conclusive Capability Interview

Review what you have learned about your candidates from the first two steps of the interview process before proceeding with step 3. If you feel aligned after two interviews, steps 3 and 4 are unnecessary. Before your conclusive capability interview, prepare two to three probing interview questions that fill in any gaps left. Your final interview questions should be questions you have yet to ask in the interview process. Your candidate’s answers should lead you to understand their culture fit and sales performance fully. 

In this interview phase, we also recommend requiring some form of presentation from the candidate. This presentation is needed only if the candidate will be giving presentations to clients. In-person interviews are particularly impactful in industries where face-to-face sales meetings are a regular part of selling. 

If your interview process has gone well, this may be the final interview for you to extend an offer. If you find a select few top candidates and need one more touchpoint to come to a hiring decision, you’ll need to move on to step four.

Step 4: (Optional) The Final Decision Interview

The final decision interview is only necessary if you have a few very hireable candidates you need to choose from. In fact, we strongly recommend it be reserved only for candidates you are highly likely to hire. This interview typically happens in person. Consider including an out-of-office informal activity like dinner or attending a local event. 

In the final interview, your hiring decision-maker can address concerns and choose the best candidate. 

How the Interview Process Impacts Your Access to Top-Performers

It’s safe to assume that your top candidates are someone else’s top candidates, too. This means your candidates are comparing you to your competitors in the job market throughout your hiring process. Your first impression matters; every step in the interview process either builds or destroys the rapport, trust, and connection you initially establish with your candidates.

Don’t make the mistake of overcomplicating your hiring process. Doing this can result in a more lengthy interview process. The longer the process, the more likely your top-performing candidates will move forward with another opportunity before you reach a hiring decision. 

Candidates will be actively vetting you, your company, and the opportunity you have to offer just as much as you vet them in the interview process. If your interview process is disorganized, candidates could lose interest regardless of your competition — and you’re unlikely to get a second chance. 

We recommend following the above steps of the interview process, holding structured, strategic interviews, and finding your next A-player as quickly as possible — without sacrificing quality or connection. Improving your interview process can be done by training your leaders on interview skills and strategy. We also recommend working with a recruitment partner to reach a hiring decision. 

We’ve shortened the hiring process through proprietary and proven strategies that we’re ready to share with you. Contact us today to get access to our global network of top performers and tap into our unparalleled hiring support. 

4 Interview Process Steps for Hiring Top Performers

Hiring the wrong person for your sales team can be a costly mistake. Not only will onboarding cost thousands of dollars, but your overall revenue will take a hit if the candidate is not performing. In this article, we’re bringing you our proven interview process to make your recruitment efforts more effective and accurate.

We have perfected the interview process after many years conducting thousands of job searches for our clients. Steal these steps of the interview process for your company to ensure you keep candidates engaged and hire only top performers. 

4 Steps of the Interview Process as Recommended by Peak Sales Recruiting

Step 1: The Culture Fit Interview

We always take a two-way approach to all first connections with a candidate. Allow time for your company to get to know the candidate and the candidate to get to know your company. During this initial screening, you’ll be able to determine if the candidate’s background and work history match the job requirements, hiring non-negotiables, and values of their team and company. 

It is vital to highlight why the candidate wants to join your organization without over-selling the opportunity. Since most of our candidates are passive — meaning they are not searching for a new opportunity — this is especially important. In this first interview, you must also give the candidate space to ask questions about your company’s current strategy, future market plans, growth goals, and the open role. They will be listening for indicators of whether you, your company, and the available role align with their career vision. 

You can hold these preliminary interviews as telephone interviews or video interviews. 

Step 2: The Sales Acumen Interview

Before the second interview, we recommend creating an interview baseline. This involves selecting strategic interview questions — while incorporating follow-up questions from the initial interview — that will dive deep and reveal both the ‘red flags’ of underperformers and the ‘green flags’ of top candidates. Your interview structure should be as repeatable and standardized as possible. This standardization helps to eliminate bias and simplify the review process. 

During the sales acumen interview, aim to better understand the following:

  • The nature of the candidate’s specific experience
  • How the candidate’s experience and expertise align with the role
  • What the candidate will add to your team 
  • Any risks you would be taking in hiring the candidate

Your interviewers can hold the sales acumen interviews as a video or in-person interview. If your company and industry require a lot of face-to-face interaction during the sales process, you may favor in-person interviews to assess the full range of your candidate’s skills.

Step 3: The Conclusive Capability Interview

Review what you have learned about your candidates from the first two steps of the interview process before proceeding with step 3. If you feel aligned after two interviews, steps 3 and 4 are unnecessary. Before your conclusive capability interview, prepare two to three probing interview questions that fill in any gaps left. Your final interview questions should be questions you have yet to ask in the interview process. Your candidate’s answers should lead you to understand their culture fit and sales performance fully. 

In this interview phase, we also recommend requiring some form of presentation from the candidate. This presentation is needed only if the candidate will be giving presentations to clients. In-person interviews are particularly impactful in industries where face-to-face sales meetings are a regular part of selling. 

If your interview process has gone well, this may be the final interview for you to extend an offer. If you find a select few top candidates and need one more touchpoint to come to a hiring decision, you’ll need to move on to step four.

Step 4: (Optional) The Final Decision Interview

The final decision interview is only necessary if you have a few very hireable candidates you need to choose from. In fact, we strongly recommend it be reserved only for candidates you are highly likely to hire. This interview typically happens in person. Consider including an out-of-office informal activity like dinner or attending a local event. 

In the final interview, your hiring decision-maker can address concerns and choose the best candidate. 

How the Interview Process Impacts Your Access to Top-Performers

It’s safe to assume that your top candidates are someone else’s top candidates, too. This means your candidates are comparing you to your competitors in the job market throughout your hiring process. Your first impression matters; every step in the interview process either builds or destroys the rapport, trust, and connection you initially establish with your candidates.

Don’t make the mistake of overcomplicating your hiring process. Doing this can result in a more lengthy interview process. The longer the process, the more likely your top-performing candidates will move forward with another opportunity before you reach a hiring decision. 

Candidates will be actively vetting you, your company, and the opportunity you have to offer just as much as you vet them in the interview process. If your interview process is disorganized, candidates could lose interest regardless of your competition — and you’re unlikely to get a second chance. 

We recommend following the above steps of the interview process, holding structured, strategic interviews, and finding your next A-player as quickly as possible — without sacrificing quality or connection. Improving your interview process can be done by training your leaders on interview skills and strategy. We also recommend working with a recruitment partner to reach a hiring decision. 

We’ve shortened the hiring process through proprietary and proven strategies that we’re ready to share with you. Contact us today to get access to our global network of top performers and tap into our unparalleled hiring support. 

Person in sales interview.

relpost-thumb-wrapper

Related posts

Inside Sales vs. Outside Sales: 5 Key Differences You Should Know
How to Hire A Salesperson Who Truly Delivers
Joseph Joseph Drives Double Digit Growth Through US Sales Leader

close relpost-thumb-wrapper

Ryan Thornton

Latest posts by Ryan Thornton (see all)

4 Reasons to Consider Hiring Hybrid Sales Reps

Hybrid work is a great solution for companies that want to take advantage of the benefits of remote work without losing the benefits of in-office engagement. These are the four most popular reasons our sales recruiting clients choose to hire hybrid sales reps:

#1 Increased Productivity

A report by Aon Consulting showed that some organizations have seen productivity gains of up to 43% after adopting virtual teams. 

#2 Ease of Scaling Through Hybrid Sales Reps

Companies who take a remote or remote-hybrid approach to their sales teams expand their hiring pool, can more easily build a talent bench, and have a much easier time scaling their sales teams. 

#3 Ability to Hire Better Talent

A study of 80 global software teams indicated that remote teams can outperform those that share an office (if they’re well-managed). 

#4 Savings on Office Costs

While some cost is associated with hybrid sales reps’ offices, they tend to be much lower than the overhead from occupying large office buildings. A distributed workforce allows employers to use their office spaces more creatively and efficiently. 

Is it time to scale your hybrid sales team? Contact us to tap into our worldwide network of sales experts today.

relpost-thumb-wrapper

Related posts

6 Ways to Cut Your Employee Onboarding Timeline
8 Steps for Creating a Culture of Success in Sales
3 Steps to Boost Team Morale Today

close relpost-thumb-wrapper

Kyle Fletcher

Latest posts by Kyle Fletcher (see all)

Your Remote Rep Checklist: Prepare to Hire and Establish Remote Reps for Your Sales Team

Remote work is here to stay, and innovative companies are learning how to accommodate their out-of-office employees better. Hiring remote reps can give you access to a new pool of top salespeople, cut compensation costs, and offer flexible work benefits to A-players looking for independence. Maximize the benefits of remote work by checking off our remote rep prep list!

1. Invest In At-Home Work Infrastructure 

Provide materials and technology that your employee will need to work from home comfortably. Consider monetary subsidies for remote reps as well.

2. Stay In Touch With Remote Reps

Research shows simple procedures like daily check-ins and team meetings can positively contribute to organizational culture. 

3. Promote Information and Knowledge Sharing

Set up topical Slack channels that help employees share what they’re learning, what’s working, and what’s not working. 

4. Build a Culture of Trust to Reduce Frustrations

Facilitate 1:1 meetings that assess performance, allow two-way feedback, and affirm remote reps’ performance.

5. Promote Employee Engagement

Activities like video calls help to foster connections. Hosting virtual meet-ups and online games can boost competitive spirits and morale. 

6. Set Realistic Expectations

Set expectations with your team about goals, effective communication, and information sharing from the beginning. Transparency is vital to remote rep success. 

7. Tap Into Team Resources

Setting up remote reps is a task that your IT, HR, Finance, and other departments should all be a part of, too. Communicate your goals and limitations. Then, ask for help!

Is your remote sales team growing? Contact us to tap into our worldwide network of sales experts today.

relpost-thumb-wrapper

Related posts

4 Reasons to Consider Hiring Hybrid Sales Reps

Motivate Your Sales Team in 2022: The 10 Point Checklist

5 Tips for Reducing Remote Sales Rep Isolation

close relpost-thumb-wrapper

Eliot Burdett

Latest posts by Eliot Burdett (see all)

6 Ways to Cut Your Employee Onboarding Timeline

Every new hire that joins your organization brings an undeniable amount of energy, enthusiasm, and an appetite to learn. The quicker you tap into that after you hire, the better! Here are our favorite ways to engage, develop, grow, and retain top performers.

1. Start the Onboarding Process Before Their First Day

Implement a pre-hire program to keep your candidate motivated and engaged from the time the offer is accepted until their first workday.

2. Be Clear and Consistent

Provide your new team member with a welcome package during onboarding that includes branded gifts and a welcome letter outlining what to expect in the coming days, weeks, and months. 

3. Establish a Formal Mentoring Program

Pair each new hire with a proven mentor who will introduce them to the team, verify the new hire’s understanding of job objectives, and check in regularly on their integration process. 

4. Define Success

Ensure new hires understand your entire sales cycle and how customer success is defined for specific products or services. 

5. Create a Sales Playbook

Include essential product knowledge, your preferred selling approaches, and instructions for key selling strategies that the organization’s top salespeople use that your new hire can adopt to win accounts.

6. Keep Tech Streamlined

Prioritize the tools and technologies that will impact your team most so that new hires aren’t overwhelmed. Every sales force needs a CRM, email automation, and business development.

A clear hiring strategy will keep you from rushing into a hire that isn’t a great fit for your goals. We’d love to help you create and stick to yours. Contact us today to get started. 

relpost-thumb-wrapper

Related posts

Six Sales Onboarding Tools to Welcome and Train New Hires
The 3 Best SaaS Sales Training Programs Available Online
Inside Salespeople: Our Quick-Start Guide to Hiring

close relpost-thumb-wrapper

Brent Thomson

Co-Founder at Peak Sales Recruiting
Before Peak, Brent worked in sales and sales-leadership positions for 18 years. He has considerable experience building and running high-performance teams, which consistently won awards and exceeded sales targets. He was Vice President of Sales for a financial management consulting company, and served with Borland Software as a Regional Sales Manager.

Latest posts by Brent Thomson (see all)

8 Steps for Creating a Culture of Success in Sales

Skilled sales representatives should easily achieve their own independent goals. But what sets genuinely great sales representatives apart is that they contribute to creating a culture of success. This results in a team that can rely on each other, which will increase not only revenues but also job satisfaction. Company culture can even ripple into personal areas of your employees’ lives.

Sales skills often focus on what gets done, whereas company culture focuses on how it gets done and in what environment. Sales leaders who give meaning to sales metrics can motivate and engage their staff, creating a successful culture.

Employees who understand the deeper meaning of their work have a sense that they are part of something bigger than a numbers game. Sales leaders can create a positive sales culture by connecting employees to the company’s mission, values, and beliefs. Top-quality performance is the natural result of a sales team that is aligned.

8 Steps for Creating a Culture of Success in Sales 

Step 1: Train Your Leaders

A company culture of success starts at the top with its leaders and trickles down to its employees. Hire your leaders with these tips in mind and train them to exemplify the qualities you want to see in your sales representatives. This training on company culture should include your key players, such as your VP of sales, VP of HR, CEO, and CFO. Ongoing sales coaching should result in these individuals leading by example.

Step 2: Set Clear Goals and Expectations

The quickest way to kill your sales team’s motivation is to confuse them. Overly complex or vague goals will stop them in their tracks and leave them wondering which way to go. Simplify your goals and watch how they contribute to a positive sales culture in your company.

Clear goals are:

Specific. Easy-to-understand goals tied to distinct KPIs will directly motivate employee behaviors. No goal can be too specific.

Guiding. Employees need to know what is required of them. To help your sales representative succeed, provide clear instructions and achievable goals.

Concrete. Clear goals include a definition of what success looks like and what failure or falling short looks like. Concreteness gives employees a compass to follow.

Rewarding. What will happen when your sales representatives achieve the goals you’ve laid out? Both you and your employees should have a clear vision for the rewards, celebrations, and changes that will come from reaching a goal.

Step 3: Provide Regular Performance Feedback

To keep employees informed of their progress, give them personal and impactful feedback on their performance.

Providing your employees with feedback on where they can improve proactively will bring a spirit of empowerment to your organization’s sales culture. Employees who understand what they’re doing well and how they can shift their efforts for optimal results will grow to appreciate and even look forward to receiving feedback.

The toxic sales culture focuses too much on yearly reviews and ignores the importance of regular feedback. Don’t limit your feedback to yearly reviews. Make your company’s long-term goals relevant to shorter-term actions with monthly or, at least, quarterly reviews.

Step 4: Encourage Open Communication

Your sales representatives should also be able to give and receive advice on a peer level. This is a valuable skill that is often underdeveloped in sales professionals. Instead of feeling at ease offering their knowledge and expertise to others, they often hesitate, struggle with imposter syndrome, and fear backlash. On the other hand, employees can get defensive when a colleague offers them advice or questions them.

Tackle this part of your company culture from both sides. Encourage open communication and train your employees to approach opportunities for giving or receiving advice with an open mind. Advice is better received when an employee intends to support the receiver in doing their job more easily, efficiently, or effectively rather than criticizing and telling someone how to do their job.

You should assure your employees that on your sales team, advice is to be given and received graciously. When organizations foster trust and encourage collaboration, they can achieve goals faster.

Step 5: Recognize and Reward Success

A bit of friendly competition is a healthy part of a positive sales culture. To nurture this, sales leaders should look for opportunities to recognize, reward, and celebrate small and large successes. You might make a point to shout out employees who have made meaningful progress toward company goals, acknowledge ways that employees have taken initiative on your sales team in a monthly meeting, or offer bonuses and other financial means of gratitude for an employee’s hard work.

The more seen your employees feel, the more likely they are to contribute to your company culture actively. This practice can also help boost employee morale.

Step 6: Cultivate a Growth Mindset

When a sales leader approaches change with curiosity and courage, their team will follow suit. This is vital to inspiring agility in your sales representatives. Show them that taking risks and facing challenges head-on is valued in your company culture.

Without this acceptance of change and growth, employees will fear the new and uncertain. Since selling is repeatedly stepping into the unknown, sales representatives need an environment that encourages them to exercise resilience and actively strive to achieve. Notice, affirm, and celebrate how your employees show a growth mindset and contribute to creating a high-performance sales culture.

Step 7: Create Learning Opportunities

Sales representatives who are eager to learn are an asset to any sales team culture. These representatives are not complacent. An instinctual hunger drives them to improve themselves and those around them.

Developing your employees can be as simple as encouraging them to read quality sales and leadership books or as extravagant as sending your sales representatives to educational sales conferences. You can also think about using online education, courses, and platforms for training. Providing continual learning opportunities will increase your employee engagement and lead to a successful team.

Step 8: Hire According to Your Values

Start building your culture by building your team strategically. One way to do this is to assess candidates’ values to see if they match your company’s values. Aligned employees will automatically reinforce your company culture. A high-performing team is one that works towards a common goal.

Are you looking for culturally aligned candidates for your sales team? We can connect you with a global network of sales experts to find you the perfect fit. Contact us today to get your hiring process started.

Kyle Fletcher

Latest posts by Kyle Fletcher (see all)

3 Steps to Boost Team Morale Today

Improving team morale is playing the long game in sales. High team morale can improve employee retention, lead to more deals closed, and impact customer satisfaction. Whether your team morale is struggling or you’re looking to protect your team morale proactively — these three steps will give you the boost you need. 

Step 1: Ensure Your Team Believes in the Plan

When you set goals and decide how to achieve them, everyone needs to be on board and invested. Getting your staff engaged with the plan requires them to genuinely believe that the goal is possible and that the path to get there has a good chance of success. 

Start developing trust and belief by answering five the Ws: 

  • Who are we targeting? 
  • What are the goals?
  • Where are we focusing our efforts? 
  • When are we expected to do this? 
  • Why are we taking this approach? 

Step 2: Embraced a Value-Focused Strategy

The consultative sales approach moves away from repetitive tactics and embraces agility and adaptability. To keep your team focused while employing a more flexible strategy, prioritize value alignment. 

  1. Understand the challenges the prospect faces.
  2. Provide complimentary value to the prospect.
  3. Resist the urge to sell too soon.

Step 3: Don’t Forget The Basics

While financial incentives like cash bonuses are effective, they do little for team morale. Consider nonfinancial incentives like praise from direct managers, personal attention from leadership, and opportunities to lead projects that will contribute to better collaboration and relationship development on your team. 

Ready to onboard your next sales superstar? Contact us today. We’d love to help.

relpost-thumb-wrapper

Related posts

The Biggest B2B Sales Trends in 2016
Five Ways to Be a Team Player on Your Sales Team
Your Best Salespeople to Management Team ?

close relpost-thumb-wrapper

Ryan Thornton

Latest posts by Ryan Thornton (see all)