Why Enterprise Wide Sales Training Supports a Positive Company Culture

Developing a positive culture in a selling organization does not happen by thinking about culture. It happens by thinking about the people within it.

This might explain why businesses that engage in sales training often discover unexpected downstream benefits. Sales training has a unifying power that brings the team together. It also reinvigorates each seller’s sense of purpose. These outcomes, and others, extend beyond pure selling skills.

What makes these additional benefits so important is the fact that they are hiding in plain sight. Companies routinely spend millions a year to nudge their culture in the right direction. Meanwhile, the elusive catalyst of real cultural change is not found in conventional “corporate culture” packaging. It is found in sales training because when a seller feels more effective, they feel more engaged, and engagement is the source of positive company culture.

The connection between sales training and a positive company culture underscores a simple truth: a supportive culture cannot be mandated, it must emerge as a natural result of the business’s investment in people.

Here we show the three most powerful outcomes of that investment and reveal why each leads to and sustains a stronger culture.

Training Represents the Business’s Long-Term Commitment to People

A positive culture requires shared respect between the sales leaders and the sellers.

To develop this kind of mutual respect sales leaders must first demonstrate their commitment to their team. One of the most visible ways to do so is with sales training.

A sales training initiative illustrates the leadership’s investment in the team. This investment of time and money makes it clear that the leadership has a vested interest in seeing each member of the team succeed over the long term.

In response, most sellers reciprocate by striving to deliver a return on that investment. Moreover, they see that the benefits of training accrue not only to the company but to themselves. In the truest sense, the seller’s success is the leader’s success.

Sales training goes far beyond common approaches to culture change characterized by slogans, motivational meetings, and one-time events. Sales training is different because it equips the team with the skills to succeed financially and professionally.

Importantly, this is true across demographics. Sellers with many years of experience feel reinvigorated as they learn the modern skills needed to be effective in a changed setting. New sellers with less experience have the benefit of priming their careers with the kind of head start that keeps them ahead for years.

A Shared Methodology Sparks Collaboration and Support

Sales training gets all the players onto the same field.

This is a crucial outcome that is lacking in many sales organizations. Often a history of different sales leaders and a disparate group of sales professionals with different experiences leads to an uneven sales methodology.

Sales training corrects all of that by aligning everyone to the same methodology. A universal approach to selling has many benefits. Leaders can coach at scale. They do not need to adjust their approach to each individual seller.

Additionally, When the entire team follows the same approach a sense of unity emerges, and team members benefit from a fluid exchange of ideas and support because everyone speaks the same sales language. Finally, the leadership can more effectively identify areas that need attention because the cause of faltering performance traces back to a part of the universal methodology rather than to numerous different selling styles.

A universal sales methodology is also necessary for role-playing exercises that involve several sellers. These simulated selling scenarios conducted in front of colleagues create the tension that prepares sellers for the high-stakes setting of a real sales conversation. This kind of practice is not possible unless all sellers are familiar with the same selling skills.

New Skills Drive Success Which is the Ultimate Motivator

The most rewarding culture is one that empowers sellers.

There is nothing more empowering than having control. Sales training provides this control by giving sellers the capabilities to win. This sense of control not only comes from having the skills that drive revenue. It also comes from having a methodology that brings structure to a challenge that is increasingly vague. Selling today is characterized by rapidly changing customer needs, multiple stakeholders, varied communication channels, and complex solutions. Navigating this setting means having a clear set of objectives that can be executed with an equally clear set of skills. Sales training provides both.

Often businesses seek to instill a positive culture by communicating their commitment to the team. Sales training is different because it goes beyond communication by providing sellers with the right mindset, skill set, and toolset needed to succeed. Sellers immediately see the difference between these two approaches. They recognize that a sales training initiative is directly connected to their definition of success.

When leaders commit to a sales training program, they are demonstrating to their team that they are acting with their interests in mind.

This is a much-needed change from conventional approaches in which the company tells the team what they want. The more effective approach is to provide sellers with what they need to succeed.

The result is a long-term investment in sellers who ultimately benefit from a shared selling methodology and the personal success that comes with it.