The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

• How can sales managers better communicate and express their optimistic industry outlook to engage and inspire their teams?   
• What can sales managers do to turn a less-than-ideal company culture into one that their salespeople would evangelize about? 
• What is causing such different perceptions of what the ideal hybrid model should be? 

Great business leaders have a knack for leveraging all plausible merits of different business tactics. What enables them to do so is their incredible vision to innovate and drive exceptional outcomes from usual scenarios.

It's commendable and inspiring how you always look at the brighter side of things and align them to the success of your business. But have you ever thought about laying great emphasis on the experiences you offer to your employees? Is facilitation of positive employee experiences a part of your core business strategy?

Having a great company culture in today’s economy is not just a luxury, it’s a necessity.

The Center for Sales Strategy (CSS) is known both internally and externally for our incredible culture — especially as a fully remote company. How do we do it? How did we build our company culture?

This LIVE broadcast is from our annual staff meeting in Dallas, TX. Host Matt Sunshine discusses topics with a few team members from The Center for Sales Strategy, LeadG2, and Up Your Culture, around how we built our company culture and how we now help others improve employee engagement and company culture.

Tune in now or keep reading for a brief overview.

Season 3 of the Improving Sales Performance Series is focused on helping sales leaders make an impact on their sales performance through insight on 4 key areas: people, process, planning, and performance.

In this episode, Beth Sunshine, Partner and VP of Talent Services at The Center for Sales Strategy, discusses how sales leaders can make an impact on their people and teams through employee engagement.

Tune in now to hear the Live broadcast or keep reading for a brief overview.

In Season 2 of Improving Sales Performance Series, we’ve focused on the data and analysis of the 2020 Media Sales Report.

In our last episode of Season 2, company culture and employee engagement experts Beth Sunshine, Deb Fulghum, and Jim Hopes, dig into the key takeaways from the full Media Sales Report and discuss company culture and employee engagement based on the data in the report.

You can stream it now to hear their insight, advice, and initial thoughts after analyzing the data that was just published. Or keep reading for a brief overview.

Is it possible to drive sales performance and keep an amazing company culture during these challenging times? Yes! And Taja Graham, Vice President of Sales for Emmis Communications Indianapolis, provides the proof in her interview with Matt Sunshine.

Episode 5 of the Improving Sales Performance series deep dives into things Graham is doing in her market to drive performance, as well as what she’s doing to keep her team engaged. Plus, she touches on how they’ve modified planning for next year to drive performance.

For some, the benefits of working from home are plenty. However, working from home is not for everyone, and experts say there are potential negative side effects to consider, such as feelings of isolation, loneliness, and disconnect.

It’s estimated that 46% of employees don’t know what to do after a meeting — leading to confusion, frustration, and unproductivity. Additionally, 26% of employees feel pressured to respond to work emails outside of business hours — leading to more stress.

All of this contributes to morale, and morale is the driver for productivity and engagement. While your team is working remotely, you’ll have to find new ways to work together and communicate, ensuring your company culture thrives in the comfort of your team’s own home.

Culture is powerful, and like brand, you’re going to have one whether you like it or not. The best organizations to work for are the ones that recognize this and actively strive to push the right buttons every day to build a positive climate and a culture of engagement.

Employee engagement, collaboration, talent retention, and client satisfaction are all essential elements of company culture. And studies show that each has a significant impact on revenue growth.

When performance numbers aren’t where expected, where do you default your thinking? Most sales managers agree that when sales performance suffers, they think more activity is needed, the right people aren’t on the team, or the processes are broken. Rarely does company culture come to mind.

What happens to revenue when your team lacks clarity and engagement?

Have you ever participated in a trust building exercise?  They have been the craze for years.  There have been a few fun ones, like Escape Rooms, but there have also been a few you wish to forget, like “trust fall.” Seriously, who enjoys blindly falling backwards hoping someone will catch us?!   

Team building exercises are a great way to form relationships and build reciprocity. But developing trust takes time—much longer than one afternoon—and activities alone are not how a foundation of trust is established. Building an effective team starts by asking thoughtful questions. Those questions spark conversation, providing team members an opportunity to share bits of information about themselves, and over time, leading to more trust and engagement—improving team productivity along the way.