The Cultural Sales Leader: Sustaining People, Attaining Results

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Chapter Summary

•Consider the transformational benefits of a people-first approach to sales leadership.

•Make your people your force multiplier when fused to your go-to market strategy.

•Create behaviors which service your KPIs and metrics rather than relying solely on these metrics to drive your people.

•Always be authentic in your leadership style.

•Focus on creating behaviors which will solidify into culture.

I am a lifelong salesperson. This is a book about sales leadership, creating a performance culture and followership. It is about creating a vision and then building an organization and approach, which will make that vision a reality. It’s about building a people-first culture that is bound to the vision you have set out, and it is about thinking beyond the present to where you want to be as an organization in three- to five-year’s time.

What Is a People-First Culture and What Impacts Can It Deliver?

A people-first culture is one that prioritizes the well-being, development, and satisfaction of its team members above all else. The reason I am emphasizing the importance of culture build within sales leadership is that this approach over others can have several transformational and positive effects within any organization:

1. Increased morale and engagement : When employees feel that their well-being and needs are a top priority, they are more likely to be authentically engaged and motivated. They feel valued, appreciated, and invested in. This in turn builds morale and commitment to the team and the organization.

2. Stronger team cohesion : A people-first culture fosters a sense of belonging and camaraderie across team members and across organizational functions. When individuals feel supported, cared for, and heard, they are more likely to collaborate effectively and build stronger relationships within and across teams.

3. Enhanced communication : Open and honest communication is a hallmark of people-first cultures. Team members are encouraged to express and share their ideas, concerns, and feedback without fear. Such transparency leads to better communications within the team aligned to the goals of the company.

4. Improved retention and talent acquisition : Organizations that prioritize their employees’ well-being tend to have lower turnover rates, as people who feel that their personal and professional needs are being met have less reason to look elsewhere. It also helps to attract new talent through personal recommendations and good reviews (such as Glassdoor) in the market. Remember, in sales, your folks have developed networks and it is highly likely that they will frequently meet the competition across the course of a year at various events. Become the workplace your competitors want to work at.

5. Higher productivity and creativity : Employees in people-first cultures are more likely to bring their full selves to work, which leads to greater creativity and innovation. They are also more bonded to the mission, meaning they are more likely to go that extra mile in achieving team and organizational goals.

6. Better problem solving : In an environment where team members are valued and encouraged to be heard, problem solving becomes more effective. Diverse opinions are welcomed, often leading to more comprehensive and creative solutions, usually and critically, with more widespread buy-in.

7. Reduced stress and burnout : Prioritizing the well-being of the team can help to reduce stress and prevent burnout. When backed by resources and support, they will also feel better equipped to manage the challenges of their roles.

8. Positive impact on performance metrics : Organizations with a people-first culture often see great improvements in key performance metrics such as customer satisfaction, sales, profitability, and great places to work surveys.

To my mind, you cannot do any of these things effectively unless you are interested in people. Sales, and especially sales leadership, is about caring for people. It is, by definition, a people business:

Sales leadership is about being authentically people-first in mindset and execution.

People, passion, and product are the secret sauce of any successful enterprise. Of course, not every sales culture or leader is wired to operate with, as opposed to through, their people. I have been in process-driven cultures driven by metrics, money-driven cultures, and target-driven cultures. These very outcome-orientated organizations tend to live month by month, quarter by quarter, and year by year. You will also see a lot of employee turnover and burnout along the way. Numbers become the driving force, as opposed to destination-driven goals and subsequently, leaders can become data rather than people orientated. To bind and build culture in a more human-centric fashion, use metrics as tools, not goals.

Why Focus on Being People-First?

People are often referred to as the lifeblood of an organization or sales team because they play a central role in its functioning and success. Consider the impacts they could be making within a shift to a more people-centric approach:

1. Drive and energy : People bring motivation and enthusiasm to the workplace. Unlocking their passion, dedication, and creativity is essential for driving any organization forward and to it realizing its goals.

2. Problem solving : You cannot do it all alone, nor should you try. Leaders who constantly provide answers and direction are not developing trust or independence. Allow your people to identify challenges and generate innovative solutions and adaptations.

3. Customer relationships : In sales, building and maintaining relationships is crucial. People are vital for understanding client needs and delivering value.

4. Collaboration : Teamwork is essential for real success. If your team is collaborating, sharing ideas, and working together to achieve commonly understood objectives, your whole organization will become more effective.

5. Innovation : People can bring fresh perspectives and creativity if allowed to, provided that they are shown the expectation to deliver in this way within a psychologically safe environment. Innovations can shape product, marketing, process improvements and go-to market enhancements.

6. Adaptation : People are not one-trick ponies. People have the ability to pivot, learn new skills, and adjust to evolving circumstances, if supported and aligned to a mission.

7. Leadership : You will find your leaders of tomorrow within your cohort to support, motivate, and focus everyone on the commonly aligned goals.

8. Culture shapers : The collective behavior, values, and attitudes of employees will shape the organizational culture. A positive winning culture can both engage and attract talent.

9. Customer obsession : Happy and engaged employees are more likely to advocate for enhanced products and services, which can lead to positive word of mouth marketing, partnership, and reputation in the market.

10. Ownership and responsibility : Individuals taking ownership of their roles and responsibility for actions, outcomes, and results, will drive you toward your goals faster.

11. Human connection : Bringing your teams together helps to build trust, rapport, empathy, and alignment across departments toward shared goals and sets of outcomes.

There are always extremes. Early in my career, straight out of university, I worked for bosses who literally threw sports car keys on the board room table and drove a performance culture solely toward the attainment of wealth. It was actually a real-life example of the Ben Affleck scene in Boiler Room. Boiler Room and Glengarry Glen Ross are two of the most outstanding sales movies ever made, focusing on the ABC (always be closing) approach to sales, which maximizes the number and minimizes the individual, often at any costs. Mad Men is brilliant as well for the art of the value-based sales approaches, but, again, celebrates the talented, driven, often flawed individual. Of course, there is dramatic tension built in, but all of the aforementioned depict aspects of sales and salespeople which are often very true and mostly singular in approach. I am sure all, within a sales career, over time, will recognize traits and aspects from these works of fiction. I have literally lived scenes from all three. There is, however, a better way than the singular approaches portrayed in these works of art. Working together as one team, aligned to the goal, is where success, joy, and excitement really kicks in.

Metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Metrics and KPIs are without doubt an attendant part of any sales function. Which ones are selected and how they are used to drive things, even when certain metrics are used, can have a real impact on the cultural environment, as they show what is uppermost in the sales leader’s mind.

While on the face of it funnel metrics such as number of e-mails, calls, meetings, and proposals can certainly drive activity, the danger of such an approach that defines x number of calls => x number of meetings => x number of proposals and x number of sales can often drive activity for activity’s sakes. What you do not want is people working to the metrics as opposed to people thinking and acting creatively about their businesses.

Instead of bringing a thoughtful approach to market, representatives can end up adapting themselves purely to the metrics and not transformational outcomes. This can also happen with purely quota- or target-driven companies. I have worked for leaders who were status driven, managing up while directing their reports with no interest in them beyond their quotas—business all the time, every conversation opening with, what have you got for me? type approaches, married to what I would characterize as a pipeline jockey method of leadership. If you are working in this type of environment, ask yourself if you have seen or if you understand what the go-to market strategy is. Likely as not, there is not one. This standoffish type of approach leaves so much opportunity on the table as salespeople are essentially left to their own devices in terms of the opportunities discussed in the pipeline calls.

Pipelines, again, are super important, of course, and tell you so much about the state and direction of the business, but if you are simply looking at the one data set alone, without consideration to strategic, structured approaches to market and considering as well other commercial levers, then you are never going to make a full mark on the business. We will look into the data and insights that can drive your strategy at length later, but if you are not setting a strategy that breaks your market opportunity down, and thinks about where it is focusing and what its priorities are, then you are planning to fail.

Make metrics tools, not goals. I prefer, for example, to confer on the sales team the role of customer and market expertise. I expect them to know their businesses, including where and how to play, while ensuring there are enough coffee and cocktails, or meaningful customer interactions happening all the time. If you show that what you take seriously is customer interaction, for example, you are more likely to bed down a behavior that sticks organizationally. Instead of driving through a metric, you have then embedded a behavior from which culture can grow.

Sales strategy is about widely understood laser focuses. You cannot focus and finish if everyone is shooting for everything and are more concerned to hit call, meeting, and proposal metrics. It is shocking to me how some highly regarded organizations grow and become highly lauded when actually there is no defined strategic go-to market plan at all. Dig a little deeper and you can soon find that the pipeline is full of more dirt than diamonds. You may even find this is true of the existing customer base as well. Ensuring your team takes on the responsibility of expertise while binding them to a mission allows for more creative expression and overall better outcomes—long term.

Founder cultures can also be challenging, where the magic and single-mindedness of the entrepreneur can actually help to create chaos or, worst, does not allow for alternative points of view or oversight into strategy or approach. I have witnessed both, where the charisma of the founder pulls all energy and efforts toward their ever-changing focuses and where a world-beating proposition has ultimately failed because practical approaches to development or tech have not been taken in the pursuit of unachievable perfection. It can also be where hiring in the founder’s image has engrained the chaos, often combined with convoluted reporting structures, ensuring that the company gets in its own way more often than not in the pursuit of its revenue goals.

If your goal is to build something sustainable, something that will continuously grow, then a perspective switch from purely focusing on the signed contract versus focusing on your people and how they go about their business is key. This is not to diminish ambition or aggression in the market at all; these are necessary components. We are here to win for our companies at the end of the day, but it is to accept the position that the true differentiator in your business is your people and that anything can be achieved by a united, focused team having fun in the pursuit of aligned goals. Organizations that focus only on the sales numbers and metrics truly miss out on a force multiplier on the road to sustainable exponential growth. This is about obsessively focusing on clear objectives matched to a support of the folks affecting change for your business.

Counterbalancing any negative experiences of sales or business leadership has been experiences of working with and for the most inspirational people and culture builders—super ambitious but also focused first on the people around them and laying those bricks with care and attention while building repeatably growing, sustainably forward-looking organizations. If there is one magic ingredient, it has to be authentic people-first leadership. That is what this book is about.

Embedding Behaviors Which Create Culture

Behaviors are key to building culture. A proactive approach to shaping behaviors within a team that aligns with KPIs and metrics, rather than relying solely on these metrics to drive people, is going to fast track to a sustainable culture build. Take a deliberate approach to cultivating behaviors that naturally contribute to achieving organizational goals. Here are some considerations to help support creating behaviors that serve your KPIs and metrics:

1. Define desired behaviors : Clearly articulate the specific behaviors that align with the achievement of your KPIs and metrics. These could include qualities like collaboration, innovation, customer focus, and efficiency.

2. Communicate expectations : Use clear examples and case studies of how behaviors have positively impacted your business.

3. Provide resources and support : Equip your team with the necessary resources and support to exhibit the desired behaviors. This could involve training, mentorship, access to tools, or any other elements that facilitate the development of these behaviors.

4. Link behaviors to values : Connect the desired behaviors to the core values of the organization. This helps in establishing a strong cultural foundation and reinforces the importance of these behaviors in the larger context.

5. Encourage ownership : Foster a sense of ownership among team members. When individuals feel a personal stake in the success of the organization, they are more likely to adopt behaviors that contribute to achieving KPIs.

6. Recognize and reward : Acknowledge and reward individuals who consistently demonstrate the desired behaviors. Recognition can be a powerful motivator and reinforces the link between behaviors and positive outcomes.

7. Promote cross-functional collaboration : Many KPIs involve multiple facets of the business. Encourage behaviors that support collaboration across different teams and departments to ensure a holistic approach to achieving goals.

8. Provide feedback and coaching : Regularly provide constructive feedback on behaviors. Offer coaching and mentorship to help individuals improve and develop the skills and attitudes that align with your KPIs.

9. Adjust and adapt : Be open to adjusting the identified behaviors based on feedback and changing business needs. Flexibility is crucial in responding to evolving circumstances.

10. Lead by example : Leadership sets the tone for the entire organization. Leaders should consistently exhibit the desired behaviors, reinforcing their importance through actions as well as words.

By actively shaping behaviors that naturally contribute to the achievement of KPIs and metrics, you create a culture where success becomes an inherent part of the way your team operates. It’s a proactive way to align your team to the broader goals of the business.

Authentic Leadership

For me, this is about being not only customer obsessed—focused—but also aware of one’s limitations and weaknesses. The sense that it takes a village, and the more diverse that company, provided that they are aligned, the better and more powerful the unit will become. Authentic leaders are interested in their people and in helping them to be better through creating safe environments for them to express themselves and succeed.

Authentic leaders listen more and direct less. They encourage dialogue and ideas. This, alongside a conferred trust through enablement, is how a psychologically safe environment is created, where your people can express themselves and solve their own challenges, while being closely bonded to the mission. Authentic leaders are also honest about what they do not know. They are confident in the knowledge that expertise exists around them and that the job is to free the organization to be able to work as best it can. The most authentic leaders often speak in terms of getting out of their team’s way and focusing on allowing them to be as successful as they can be.

None of this is to say that nothing can be escalated or discussed, but it is to say that the emphasis is on the team to have thought through possible solutions before issues are presented for decision making. It is also, as we will cover in later sections, about being focused on the longer term, not constantly eyes down in the battle for the outcomes of the current financial year—instead, creating an environment where looking around corners and to the three- to five-year plan is as important. Authentic leadership allows you to be focused not just on the current year and challenges.

I have witnessed too many sales organizations that are living very much in the moment, day to day, month by month, quarter by quarter. In that type of environment, there is altogether too much learning in the moment, which usually means learning by mistakes. Don’t get me wrong; there will always be mistakes and losses. While this is often the best way to learn, I want to share some ideas and principles that can help to fast track transformational outcomes and performance. When this is not in place, it is all too common to see companies who frequently have to pivot, or restructure, because the leadership feels that the salesforce is failing or believes that new blood is the only answer.

It is my conclusion, therefore, that if your leadership style is not people-first in focus, you will most likely have a culture that celebrates individualism and will ultimately struggle to attract and or retain people in the long run. It is likely that in those organizations, the eyes are down, the pressure is on, and there is little in the way of looking around corners and into the future of the company. You can expect boom and bust in such environments and for the daily pressures to take their toll eventually. As a result, when interviewing, I always ask about the culture of the company I am considering. This is a question you should corroborate from multiple sources and viewpoints, as cultures can often be stated as opposed to actually lived and breathed.

That’s also a consideration to ask those who you are asking to join your enterprise. Let’s be clear that culture does not have to be perfect or yet fully evolved. I love and respect leaders who will tell you upfront where they think they are failing or where the organization needs focus or help. If the culture or performance is not what is desired, I also look for any insights into what the existing leadership style is and the goals and ambitions this group has set for establishing or maintaining a performance-led culture.

If you are entering a business that has issues, it is important to know that your values are aligned to those above you and that, in working together toward the agreed goals, you will have support and backing to effect the changes you need to. Much of this could also be