Does a sales culture matter?

Organisations are grappling with building a culture in a hybrid world, which enables them to achieve their vision, mission statement, purpose etc. For the most part it is focussed on doing right by clients, people & the environment. 

But how?

How is that then embodied across the different business units, where we all have different stakeholders, short term goals and KPIS - and by short term, typically these are 12 month cycles. 

Yet, in sales teams, these can be even shorter cycles, to quarters and even months, driven by revenue. 

Given that the average tenure of a seller is 18months, how does this marry up with the "insert year" vision. 

This got me thinking, does a sales culture matter? 

Thanks to Graham Smith, he introduced me to the brilliant Daniel Strode.

Dan, has recently published "The Culture Advantage - Empowering your people to drive innovation". He also talks about Web3.0, blockchain, Defi and NFT Strategies; he is the Group Director of Culture & Strategy, Global Human Resources at Banco Santander, where he is responsible for embedding The Santander Way, the common corporate culture of Banco Santander across 32 countries and with more than 202,000 colleagues globally.

Therefore, who better, to help answer this question. 

We chat about :

Culture is what you do when no one is looking.

The impact that the right culture can have on sales. And your clients.

The importance of having fun.

Why Lego's story is a lesson for all to learn from.

How you can create innovation by reframing what your clients/customers do.

How to manage the tension created between short term goals and kpi's and the long term needed to build the right culture. 

Why the right leadership behaviour is critical.

Why your people are your most powerful aspect in all of this. 

We end on the future of NFTs, and their role in building client/customer relationships - it's fascinating.

You can follow Dan on LinkedIn Dan Strode | LinkedIn

Learn more at www.danielstrode.com 

Buy his book Daniel Strode – The Culture Advantage 

My thanks to Graham Smith Graham Smith CIPD F.ISP | LinkedIn for the introduction.

Thank you Dan for an enlightening and thought provoking discussion. I hope the tree planting went well!

And, as always, my thanks to you, the listeners, let us know what you think in the comments!