Luke Allen | Good Company Culture Will Improve Your Sales Force - 007

Feb 9, 2021

Luke Allen from OHD talks today about sales culture, which has become an important conversation in the workplace, in coaching, and in consulting because it’s another lever we can pull. 

Defining culture

• It’s difficult to find a definition of sales culture or company culture. 
• It has to do with everything from people’s attitudes to the environment to objectives and structure. Do you have a call sheet? Is it systematic?
• It’s also employee attachment or retainment or development; the softer sides of the culture that are harder to measure like how the employees are feeling about their jobs.
• Some leaders struggle with those ideas because they aren’t convinced that these issues drive revenue.
• Luke’s company has seen major ROI through talent retainment and culture strategies. He believes that in order to compete in today’s world, you must have those strategies in place. 
• It’s easy for your employees to discover what other companies are doing now. As people move into new jobs,  onboarding and future development are very much topics of discussion.

Leverage social media

• Social media doesn’t have a tremendous impact on sales, but it does have a tremendous impact on culture. It’s a way for people to see whether these are people they want to work with. Are they passionate about the things I’m passionate about?
• Although Luke’s company doesn’t generate a lot of revenue through social media, it does leverage the platforms for current employee retainment and attraction of top talent. They use it to demonstrate not just that it’s a cool place to work, but that you develop employees. It’s a different type of marketing that’s free, and that drives key people to you.
• The proactive approach of social media gives you better control than a reactive approach like using a platform to view a resume. Having more control over who comes into your organization sets you up to win.

Improving the sales force

• Attracting top talent, developing and onboarding that talent, and retaining top talent have proven to be universal challenges for many leaders. 
• In an era of Millennials that change jobs quickly, it’s a real challenge to invest in people who might be gone within a year. So how do leaders change that?
• Every company has a single person who is crushing a role, who is a super performer. There’s a lot of debate around whether you can turn a B-player into an A-player. Although A’s are sometimes unicorns, if you bring the right people into your organization, you can develop B’s into A’s. 
• The more A’s you have, it either drives the B’s to leave or to move toward becoming A’s. C’s are probably people you should drive out. Especially for small teams, there isn’t much room for C’s, but the good culture will often take care of them naturally.
• Having a good filter can help you keep C’s out. Include your A’s in the hiring process can help because those A’s will resist bringing C’s into the group.
• Mediocre people don’t like overachievers, and overachievers don’t like mediocre people. Your culture should drive an expectation of achievement. Posting a job on a platform may prove to be a gamble for your organization.

“Good Company Culture” episode resources:

• Aligned is a podcast for executives of emerging middle-market companies; executives who are pursuing growth and looking for new levers to pull. 
• To connect with Sean Doyle, find him on LinkedIn, or learn more about FitzMartin on the company web page. 

You can also connect with Luke Allen on LinkedIn.