The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Company culture is a vital component of a successful business -- or at least that's what 'they' say. Studies show that it affects recruitment and hiring top talent as well as retention and employee engagement. It's a baseline for productivity and can set the tone for work ethic, expectations, team camaraderie, and even brand recognition. 

You hear the words bounced around. "Company culture" is a term that a lot of people are talking about. But what are they doing about it? Is it really impacting their organizations? I decided to dig in and see what I could find as far as the impact company culture is playing in organizations. Here's what I found. 

- MOTIVATION -

"IN THE MIDDLE OF EVERY DIFFICULTY LIES OPPORTUNITY."

-ALBERT EINSTEIN

- AROUND THE WEB -

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Why More Leads Isn't Always the Answer — LeadG2

"It's easy to assume that more leads is the answer to many of your sales problems, and as a lead generation company, you’d think we’d agree. However, what we’ve found working with many different businesses, in many different industries, is that not enough leads isn’t always the root of the problem." >>> READ MORE

During a recent feedback session, I had a new hire ask what was potentially the most insightful question I have ever heard on one of these calls. She asked me if her intense talents, of which she had several, could get in her way. I was highly impressed with her insight because, yes, very strong talents can sometimes trip up a salesperson. When I mentioned a few possible obstacles, she agreed with each and said that she had in fact faced all of those. We then brainstormed how she could work with those talents but limit how they slowed her down. This conversation got me thinking...  Is there such a thing as too much talent?

Culture first… all the other stuff after that! 

“Until I came to IBM, I probably would have told you that culture was just one among several important elements in any organization’s makeup and success – along with vision, strategy, marketing, financials, and the like… I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game, it is the game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.”                             - Louis V. Gerstner, JR – former CEO of IBM 

Most organizations dealing with performance issues miss this point. Traditional logic dictates performance improvement is tied to any or all of these factors:

• Product
• People
• Process

Don’t get me wrong, these things are important, but they are not as important as culture. 

- MOTIVATION -

"ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST. WHAT YOU PLANT NOW, YOU WILL HARVEST LATER."

-OG MANDINO

- AROUND THE WEB -

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A Neglected Marketing Infrastructure Will Lead to Crumbing Revenue Growth — LeadG2

Governments repair and build roads. Utility companies run new transmission lines and fiber optics. And at home, we attach rain gutters to our houses and add-on new rooms. These are all examples of enhancing infrastructure. Even at work, we get new computers, new phones, and new desk chairs. Those too are infrastructure upgrades. Sales and marketing organizations have infrastructures as well. Websites, sales collateral, CRM, marketing automation, and email are all examples of marketing infrastructure basics. How often does your firm evaluate the status of your marketing infrastructure? Do you have everything you need? What are you missing? Is everything working as it should? Like any infrastructure (roads, bridges, roofs, plumbing, etc.), a marketing infrastructure can become less effective if it’s neglected. And a neglected marketing infrastructure will eventually lead to ineffective marketing plans and missed revenue targets. >>> READ MORE

My daughter is learning how to drive, and it's been an interesting lesson on what the world looks like to a perfectionist. She has pretty much been a perfectionist since birth, missing recess in kindergarten to make sure her coloring was perfectly inside the lines, and drawing eyelashes and fingernails on her pictures when the other kids drew stick figures. Now, she is driving, and it takes 10 minutes to get the seat, mirrors, steering column, etc., in just the right spots. She has never driven over the speed limit, and most of the time is well-under because going over isn’t the right way to do it. She has to make sure the radio is turned off, everyone’s devices are turned off or silenced, and all distractions in the car are eliminated. And of course, as my driving is far from perfect, I hear lots of advice on how I should be doing things. It's been an interesting adventure, but has also given me a lot of insight into the mind of a perfectionist.

Most sales managers also have one or two people on their team that fall into this "perfectionist" category. 

There is a sales organization I work with that has a consistent track record of finding highly talented candidates to join their sales team. Time and time again, they hire and develop top talent and in turn, quickly see results from these sellers.

- MOTIVATION -

"THE WAY TO GET STARTED IS TO QUIT TALKING AND BEGIN DOING."

-WALT DISNEY

- AROUND THE WEB -

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The 4 Components of Effectively Employing Sales Enablement — LeadG2

Sales enablement is quite the buzzword these days, but for good reason. When done effectively, it can have last impacts on a sales organization. It can shorten the sales cycle and strengthen the entire sales process. Sales enablement has the ability to increase conversion rates and drive new revenue while simultaneously saving your salespeople precious time. >>> READ MORE

Most small growing businesses know they need to continue to make strategic investments to sustain their growth. The challenge is knowing where to invest. If the obstacles to growth that you’ve identified are branding and visibility, hiring additional recruiters will not solve these problems.

As I look into my "crystal ball," I foresee a future where the transactional salesperson is an elusive and rare creature. Have they all been completely wiped out by Artificial Intelligent (AI) computer networks where all advertising buying and selling occurs? Probably not, but I do know they will be an endangered species. In the future, AI networks and computers will be placing a larger and larger percentage of ad schedules. And even for the business that is placed the "old fashioned" way, we'll have a need for fewer transactional sellers. And those sellers will probably be covering not just clusters, but states and regions for your media group.

I know that no one wants to admit it, but advertising sales are changing at an unprecedented rate. The way that companies have done business over the last five years will not exist in the next five years.

But, it's not all bad news. Media companies that want to grow revenue in a marketplace where 50-90% of their revenue is handled by computers or an endangered species transactional sales rep, will have to find people who can call on small and midsize businesses and develop new business. So, while we wait on our computer overlords to takeover transactional business, we should probably prepare for the days of direct, new business development.

Here are three tips to get you ready for our new media world order: