Let's elevate the sales conversation. Let's talk sales culture and systems.

"Culture eat strategy for breakfast".

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This is a well know - overused? - quote attributed to Peter Drucker. It could actually have been made famous because Mark Fields, former CEO of the Ford Motor Company, had it printed in his office and AP made an article about Ford hence popularising it. Regardless of the origin, it is potent. And when it comes to sales, I would even add a little twist to it:

"Culture eat sales techniques for appetisers".

Because there is a long sustained view that when it comes to helping sales teams succeed, the overriding focus needs to be on techniques. It's not. If there isn't the right sales culture in place, all training on techniques will be absolutely useless. It all flows from culture.

So I feel we need to elevate the conversation beyond these tricks, techniques and hacks. To truly help sales professionals get the results they do deserve. And consequently help organisations succeed.

Yet, when it comes to believing that sales technics is what mattered, I have to raise my hand and admit “guilty your honour”. At least initially.

When I started Curio5ity during the Covid lockdown - because is there a better time to start a business than during the most brutal recession that the world has ever seen? -, my aim was - and still is - to help ambitious business owners, their sales leadership and sales team to get the results they deserved.?

But I made the blunder of focusing on these sales techniques, helping them to ask the questions they didn't know they had to ask. Helping them understand how to properly pick-up the phone and prospect. Teaching them to be more interested, less interesting. Etc...

But only a portion of sales people were putting in place the methodology being rolled out, putting in place the new habits. Which left me bemused. Especially as those actually putting things in place where signing more clients, keeping their dignity of sales people rather than begging for business and putting more money in their bank accounts.?

Of course, I understood back then - and still do - that it takes time to learn new, better ways of selling, learning new questions to ask, how to ask these questions, not presenting what you do until the prospect is properly qualified, etc…. But there was, and still is, something more fundamental that was preventing them to put things in place than the time it takes to change.

Getting better at selling means amongst other things seeking constant improvement of oneself. Yet, the reality is that only a portion of people are actually interested in selling. And in bettering themselves so to sell better.

Don't believe me ? That's fair. I didn't believe it myself either initially. You might think everybody wants to improve right?

Nope. Non. Nein. No.

Here is a little real life story to prove my point. I sometimes do use a scorecard that lists various strategies, technics and habits that help teams. I ask a self-evaluation of where they are early on in the transformation process and where they want to be 6 months further down the line.

Below are extracts of answers from two sales rep of a same team. The answer of the sales rep A absolutely blew my mind - not in a positive way that is -.

Rep A had 0 willingness to better himself. 0 interest in reducing free consultancy, debrief his calls, etc... rep B was fully determined to do so. So simply put, when it comes to success in sales : techniques aren't what matters. There has to be people who want to better themselves in order to sell better.

So, what matters if it isn't technics then? Well, clearly something which is more long lasting, more powerful than technics. The secret sauce is of course called "sales culture".

Yet when I ask leadership “what’s your sales culture?”, I sometimes - often ? - face a confused look. And if I get a response, it's often a view of how things should be or a description of the founder's ethos. Yet, if I start digging for specific examples that demonstrate the adoption of this sales culture on the ground, there are very few details coming up or even conflicts between the ideal sales culture of the leadership and the reality.

Sales strategy, ICP, value brought to the market, USP, etc... all these things are known - often albeit not always -. But the sales culture which will be enabling this on a daily basis? Crickets...

As a CRO told me, it starts from the top. So if the leadership isn’t able to articulate the sales culture in clear terms, how can the sales team do so? And more importantly, how can the sales team live it and breathe it? And succeed??

So, now I can hear you, dear reader. What is a powerful sales culture? And more importantly, how to be able to make it tangible and long lasting ?

Well, firstly, the society for human resources management defines an organisation's culture as the proper way to behave. It consists of shared beliefs and values established by leaders and then communicated and reinforced through various methods, ultimately shaping employee perceptions, behaviours and understanding

So two things are needed. First define the sales culture that you want - I'll get into this topic in subsequent editions or you can look up Curio5ity 's blog on this topic -. And then maintain it. This is why I strongly believe in the critical roles of sales systems such as a continuous robust hiring process - where the growth mindset is being tested during the recruitment for instance -, the definition of clear objectives and regular review of these, accountability systems, reinforcement systems, sales management systems.

So, what's your sales strategy? If you go around and ask 2, 5, 10, 20 of your sales people, can they come up with the same answer? And give specific examples of how it is enabled? If not, may I suggest you focus on defining it? This might be the heart of your sales woes or what is blocking you and your team from succeeding even more.

I'll delve onto all these subjects in the next iterations. In the mean time, happy selling.

Hervé

PS: last thought. Drucker - or someone else - also said:

I am more interested in people than how business works.

You want your business to generate more prospection? Try to understand how your sales reps deals with rejection, their limiting beliefs first or their desire to better their daily lives. The rest flows from it...

(Version fran?aise ici)