Building a Strong Sales Culture

I love sales culture I write about it I

talk about it and as we were to Sharon

earlier one of the misnomers when it

comes to sales culture is that it's kind

of a soft topic and if if you want to

have a healthy culture then you're gonna

be easy on your people and I think in

sales that couldn't be further from the

truth

a healthy sales culture really balances

the love and respect and appreciation

for the salesperson with me in a

results-focused

absolutely and we've always had a very

strong culture at teradata what we

really are looking to do is drive more

of a high performance team right and

that means focusing in on different

elements of how we support the sales

team but you're talked about a point

really focusing in and around results

driven right and we talked about how do

we metric our teams and how do we make

sure that we're truly engaging in a

process that shows how we reward a sales

team that does extremely well and really

high performance sales cultures drive

high performance and metrics and

measurements and they love it

recognition is something that sales

culture thrives on because those that

are driving results want to be

recognized and there's a great

initiative that comes out of driving the

metrics and measurements that help

identify the top performers and that

says these are the people that are

driving value for not only Teradata

but the customers that we deliver

because top producers are results

focused and by nature and we all know

this top sellers are competitive yeah so

I mean and there's a lot of

organizations right now where it has

almost become politically incorrect to

publish a stack ranking it's also

important to recognize the value of a

team right I mean nothing happens

without an extended organization there

to support them sales is front and

center and so we absolutely need to

recognize that and they're the ones who

are risking and being out in front of

the customer day after day getting the

door slam sometimes right that's what it

takes but but they're the ones who have

the high energy and really need to be

out there promoting our company and

ensuring that the rest of the

organization is pull through for them

and supporting them in terms of driving

sales absolutely and one of the really

exciting things that we see here at

Teradata is as you're driving results

and the top teams that drive results

it's almost as a pull through through

the organization of support so the

ability for top performing individuals

and teams to get the support for

other organizations there's an

excitement that is generated because

they want to be a part people want to be

a part of successful winning teams and

so whether it's professional services or

the product organization etc they all

want to be a part of where they're a

success you know that's healthy when

sales is leading and they're pulling

through the the type of energy and

alignment that you're talking about and

those top performers they want to share

what they've done so well right they

want to talk about you know why they've

been successful and how they've been

successful and others will really strive

to pull up their game to be in that same

boat right they'll want to learn as much

as they can in terms of how are they

successful and what can I do in my

account or in my region to really get to

that same level one of the things that

is really really interesting is how do

we enable the assets in order to deliver

velocity and scale into the business so

as we talk about sales managers driving

scale also how do we drive the assets

for the field to take that collateral

around winning and and opportunities

with customers where we succeeded and

drive it throughout the organization so

sales teams and sales leaders can take

what we've done really well across the

organization and I think it's really

important for us to be able to help our

sales teams as much as possible with

collective assets from the organization

right where can they be credible where

can they instantly gain you know the

recognition that this is something that

Teradata excels at and can help

differentiate the customer for their

business are trying to drive the more we

can provide those type of assets and

capabilities and the tool sets for our

teams to be more successful I think that

that's part of our role as sales

managers and leaders is to really give

them what they need to be successful

well I see you guys doing that right now

in your organization some of some of

this new format of the way sales team

meetings are being led some of the

initiatives that the area vice

presidents are putting in where they're

gathering the team in such a way where

they're working on their story and where

the salespeople are feeling better arm

to do their jobs where we're doing a

much better job sharing case studies and

success story so everyone's going out

with confidence I mean it's really hard

to sell when you don't have a story and

and you don't have the proof behind you

and when you're armed with that and

especially the way you're doing it right

now where the salespeople and the

accounting

our part of the process in sharpening

the story they own it and it's a whole

lot easier to use a weapon and deploy it

if you were part of creating it gotta

believe in it in order to be able to

share it with a customer and have them

really and understand what you're trying

to accomplish you don't own it

that doesn't come across