4 sales culture “best practices” that you should retire in 2022

Advice about how to build a dialed-in sales team abounds, but we found some old standbys that conflict with new realities, expectations, and ideas about the best ways to manage.

No-longer-best practice #1: Hire salespeople slowly and deliberately

The old adage?“hire?slow and fire fast” is more difficult to do in a tight job market where fewer people are looking for work: According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national unemployment rate is 3.6%. Employees who felt overworked and under-supported last year resigned en masse and sales leaders should learn this lesson—talent is not a commodity. Rather than churn through new hires to get to the?“right”?person, focus on the proper onboarding and training to give new hires the tools they need to succeed and make them valued.

“The number one reason people leave is because they stop learning they’re not being coached,” said Jane Ashen Turkewitz, president of Hi-Touch Executive Search.?“They’re?not moving forward. It’s a misnomer when people say younger generations are lazy. They want to learn.”

No-longer-best practice #2: Monitor the daily activity of salespeople

A Big Brother approach in a privacy-aware world lends itself to micromanagement and undercuts the need for autonomy, especially when your team is working from home. In fact, micromanagement undercuts the desire for autonomy, a key driver of workplace happiness. Instead, give your reps the tools they need to keep track of their own progress, and when hiring, hire people you can trust from day one.?

No-longer-best practice #3: Emphasize activity over results

Some activities drive pipeline, but just because your reps are hitting their daily dials or other early indicators doesn’t mean they’ll land more deals. Instead, keep your eye on results. If reps are?“active”?but not delivering, dig in during 1:1 coaching sessions to see where the dots are not connecting. If reps are delivering but not hitting particular numbers, find out what’s in their secret sauce and see if the rest of the team can learn from it.?

No-longer-best practice #4: Hire for the right culture fit

Too often,?“culture?fit” is misinterpreted as?“people?I like” or?“people?who are like me.” This leads to team homogeneity, not just in sales but throughout the company at large. Instead, look for team members with diverse backgrounds to bring new perspectives to your sales organizations.?

Once you do, you may have to rethink your?“values.”?Company?“values”?often revolve around intrinsic qualities that employers want their employees to embody. Often these are shades of strength, like?“grit”?or?“resilience.”?The focus on these individual qualities fly in the face of today’s inclusive and collaborative work world:?“Things?that say you have to be strong and tough and be able to take it, it's a very macho worldview,” said Dr. Christina Maslach, professor emerita of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.?“What?you're saying is you’ve got to be better than everybody else. You have to do more. You have to be strong. Just pick yourself up and keep going. All of this focuses on what you should be doing as opposed to…we have to work as a team.”