Several years ago I worked for a company that had an incredible work culture. Everyone enjoyed working together and there were always cheers for successful accomplishments. I've also worked for an organization that was the opposite culture. The demands on the team were unrealistic, and the company was actually looking for ways to reject potential business that came in the door.

So, guess which company survived?

In this issue of Promotional Consultant Today, sales expert Stu Schlackman shares his insights on shaping the culture of your sales team.

In his book Results That Last, Quint Studer talks about two types of cultures in the business world today. Those that are built on teamwork and shared responsibility, and blame and finger pointing.

Having the right kind of culture is vitally important to your success. Studer writes about four key points needed to build a culture of excellence as exemplified by Southwest Airlines.

1. Accept criticism graciously. Communication has to be open and honest. There are no hidden agendas and everyone has the right to say what's on their mind. Companies that can communicate this way will take their teams to a higher level of performance. How does your sales team take and give criticism?

2. Have the ability to challenge leaders. In the past this was unheard of in many companies. Yet today most successful organizations realize that they must hear from the frontline employees about what is working and what is not working. And the new millennial generation, which is steadily growing in the workplace, rarely hesitates to embrace this point. Most of those born after 1977 have no problem communicating to management what they think. Companies need to embrace this characteristic if they are to survive in an environment where change is happening faster than ever. How do you allow your sales professionals to challenge their leaders?

3. Issue public challenges. Twenty years ago Sam Walton issued a challenge to all 65,000 Walmart employees. He committed to do a hula dance on Wall Street if they showed an eight percent pre-tax net profit for the year. The industry average was three percent; yet for that year Walmart came in at 8.04 percent and Walton did the hula as promised. Is Walmart still around today? Yes. In fact, it's the third largest company in the world behind Shell and Exxon. Public challenges make things happen. How can you challenge your sales team publicly?

4. Never punish an honest mistake. This sounds like craziness in a culture of blame and finger pointing. Yet, companies that take a risk and grow to the next level always make mistakes. What you want to look at is how people respond to those mistakes and what do you learn from them? My second company example did not tolerate mistakes. Instead of taking risks to win, everyone was frozen and spent valuable energy trying to cover them up. My guess is that this is one big reason why they no longer exist.

In order to build a culture of excellence, Studer recommends the following:

  • What a company permits is what they promote so ask yourself: what am I promoting?

  • Push for results not excuses

  • Poor results lead to micromanaging while great results lead to autonomy

Source: Stu Schlackman is known throughout the sales and marketing community as one of the foremost speakers and trainers addressing today's realities for superior sales results. He provides customized training and consulting to sales teams by focusing on the skills