Sales teams are often the lifeblood of business; they contribute directly to revenue growth, build long-term customer relationships, and in many cases, drive profitability. Countless resources have been dedicated to improving sales professionals' performance and making sure that they deliver the highest potential.

One way companies can rapidly and reliably build a sales dream team is by improving the company and sales culture. A dynamic sales culture can lead to higher engagement, increased retention rate, and of course, better performance, in everyone from sales managers to individual sales representatives. (Hubspot)

But maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's backtrack for a minute and first talk about what a positive sales culture looks like.

We'll also consider why it's so important to sales reps, and some effective – and a little bit radical – strategies your company can implement to build a successful sales culture. Finally, we'll show how you can take your sales team to the next level with digital signage.

A sales team’s culture is the shared beliefs, values, and attitudes of each sales team member. You can think of it as organizational culture but streamlined to the sales team. So while the general culture might revolve around shared values and innovation, a successful sales culture is more likely to be focused on collaboration, healthy competition, and a focus on customer success. 

A good sales culture usually means employees have these healthy values in good doses, and you’re likely to find each team member feeling motivated, engaged, and empowered to achieve their sales targets.

Sales culture varies between organizations, but here are some features you’ll find across most. These are also known as the pillars of good sales culture.

When building a sales team, it's a good idea to pick these pillars as starting points. 

Read More: How to identify company culture

Why is sales culture so important to a sales team?

So why can’t a sales team just hit the ground running and start driving the entire company forward? Why do we have to focus on the complex and resource-consuming task of building a culture?

Well because the culture of your sales team will go on to determine how they perform overall. Forget that 47% of organizations with a successful culture see significant revenue increases, compared to 9% with unsuccessful cultures (Arbinger Institute). Your sales team’s culture will influence everything from how quickly they can adapt and innovate to how well they handle competition.

Here are some of the biggest reasons why your organization needs a strong sales culture.

A positive sales culture will keep everyone motivated and eager to perform because they share a sense of ownership and commitment to the team’s success. This is why organizations with a strong culture are more likely to see their employees go the extra mile. (Harvard Business Review)

Have you ever been served by a grumpy sales rep? You get the impression that they can’t wait to leave the interaction, and are perfectly okay with not making the sales. The reverse is also true for salespeople who have a strong corporate culture. They provide exceptional customer service and demonstrate a strong understanding of customer needs, leading to increased loyalty, repeat business, and positive word of mouth.

More sales equals more results and greater revenue growth. Whether they use a sales funnel or speak directly to prospects, team members who are supported by a strong culture tend to hit and even surpass their sales targets and drive overall business success.

A sales culture doesn't just inspire the entire team to perform better, it also reduces turnover rates. A study by Columbia University found a 13.9% turnover rate at companies with a good sales culture, compared to 548.4% at companies with a poor culture. It’s not hard to see why; once you’ve worked on a few teams with mediocre cultures, you leap at the chance to stick with an organization that focuses on supporting its team with a sound culture. 

Organizations need to be agile and capable of responding to change if they hope to stay competitive and relevant. According to MIT Sloan, teams with a strong culture are more likely to adapt to shifting markets, quickly recognize and hop on new trends, and create effective strategies. 

Read More: How to change corporate culture

How to build a successful sales team culture

Building a sales team requires more than just assembling a group with strong resumes and a passion to succeed. Even the best talent needs the right tools and environment to thrive, especially in high pressure and goal oriented positions such as sales roles.

Whether managing new hires, or improving the performance of your current top salespeople, these tips should help you with building a successful sales team.

1. Be deliberate about the sales rep hiring process

Everybody who joins your sales team will contribute to the culture one way or another. That’s why the recruiting and hiring process is so crucial. You want to onboard top talent with sales skills, but also look for new sales reps who understand what it means to be part of a good sales culture. 

Overall, you want candidates with the following qualities on your successful sales team:

A proven track record of meeting and exceeding sales targets

Strong understanding of your industry or target market

Ability to collaborate and work well in a team

2. Make storytelling integral to the sales process

Storytelling is a powerful tool for salespeople when trying to close a prospect and working it into your overall culture can lead to remarkable results. Besides just encouraging team members to use storytelling actively, you can also provide training on effective techniques that empower inexperienced team members, and help seasoned pros level up. 

Additionally, sharing success stories can inspire and motivate sales reps, get them working as a team, and lead to positive outcomes.

3. Even expert sales leaders need training

Investing in comprehensive training programs ensures that your sales team is equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to succeed. As the Objective Management Group found, training can improve aspects of salespeople’s performance including:

Reaching decision-makers in a B2B setting

Your business can provide initial onboarding training, continuous sales coaching, and development opportunities to help team members improve everything from their sales techniques and negotiation skills to product knowledge.

You can also empower the sales leader to provide ongoing guidance to newer sales reps as they observe their performance.

4. Give your sales reps something to aim for

Setting clear and measurable sales goals is essential for motivating and directing your sales team. You want your goals to be specific, attainable, and aligned with the overall sales strategy and company’s objectives. 

It’s also helpful to keep your performance metrics few so your sales team doesn't get overwhelmed. The sweet spot is between 6 and 10, as a study has found. Any more and it becomes difficult for the sales team to keep up. 

Some of the most effective sales cultures revolve around understanding the customer and providing tailored solutions. That’s why incorporating deep discovery questions into the sales process can help your sales team members perform better. 

It encourages a customer-centric approach that emphasizes building long-lasting relationships with customers, raising their lifetime value. You can encourage sales team members to ask open-ended questions that encourage customers to share their pain points and identify solutions that meet their unique needs. 

A reverse mentoring program is an out-of-the-box mentoring strategy where junior team members help senior team members get up to date on the latest sales techniques, technology, and trends.

Programs like these require a great deal of trust and communication between members of the sales team, and a willingness to learn from anyone and everyone. A modern sales team can benefit from reverse mentoring programs in many ways because the program creates a culture of continuous learning and improvement, where each team member is valued for their unique skills and experiences. 

7. Provide the right tools and watch the magic

If you want your sales organization to be agile and quick to respond to change, it’s critical to streamline sales processes. Focus on providing the resources they need, helping them leverage technology tools, and eliminating bottlenecks along their path. 

Introduce customer relationship management (CRM) software to optimize efficiency

Use data to provide insights that improve sales effectiveness

It’s also important to encourage ongoing personal and professional development if you want a successful sales team. There are tons of ways to do this, including providing access to industry conferences, and online training platforms, and promoting knowledge-sharing sessions among team members.

Here are some other radical ideas you can try:

A podcast club where team members listen to and discuss relevant podcasts

Book roulette initiative where members select random books and share insights

Role reversal workshops where team members temporarily switch roles and develop an understanding of each others’ jobs

Learning retreats featuring industry experts and successful sales leaders

Collaborative sales contests where team members solve industry-related problems with innovative solutions

Building a successful sales culture with digital signage

If your business already uses office digital signage, you know that it can make almost every aspect of the business better, from training and communication to customer service.

Now, let’s talk about how you can build a successful sales team by injecting digital signage into the mix.

1. Motivate employees with public recognition

You probably already know that motivation in an office environment is more than just a few Henry Ford quotes up on the wall. Instead, motivation is often tied to recognition and goal-smashing. For example, a study carried out in the USA working with over 200 office workers observed that achievement, recognition, and the work itself were the top three employee motivators. 

Digital signage can be used to show all of these things! Celebrating achievement and giving visual recognition to employees where everyone can see it - right up on the wall. This has much more impact than an email blast alone. 

One idea is to use digital signage to run your company culture program and show dashboards of their team members' victories. 

Or, if a trackable sales plan motivates your employees, why not get this plan up on the wall? A Google Slides deck or dashboard app will allow you to create a rich digital signage display that marks individual goals and the progress toward them. 

2. Keep your team on the pulse of the industry

It’s no longer enough for sales teams to be able to sell; they have to be fully engaged with industry trends and the stories their customers tell. Plus, we already covered how a strong sales culture leads to adaptability and innovation. 

Introducing digital signage when building a sales team can be instrumental here. Digital signage can help keep your sales team on the pulse of the industry, with exciting facts, figures, and stories to share with customers.

This can be through the syndication of an RSS feed, links to the latest news, or visual dashboards of the company's social media channels. The more your team understands about what customers are talking about, the better they’ll be able to sell them solutions.

There are tons of great tools that allow you to create visuals of your sales team’s progress, and you can combine these with digital signage for an epic gamified sales process. Zendesk Reports and Microsoft Power BI come to mind.

You can even use a traditional game-style leaderboard when tracking progress and sort by:

The sales team is often the driving force behind business success. So how can you improve sales team performance using company culture and digital signage?

How to Improve Sales Team Culture with Digital Signage

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How to Improve Sales Team Culture with Digital Signage

How to Improve Sales Team Culture with Digital Signage

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