Why Trust Matters When Building High-Output Sales Teams

Trust is a corporate asset and always has been. Sales consulting companies find that trust is almost impossible to measure with precision but not impossible to observe. 

Positive signs that your sales culture has trust:

1. Sales people share best practices such as an email/subject line that works well or a favorable way to position against a competitor. Although this seems like a small thing it really isn’t. Sharing a best practice like this demonstrates that the sales person cares about the success of others and the company, which is a condition fostered over time. This demonstrates that the sales person is not afraid to be noticed and does not fear negative responses. Negative responses, if even from a tiny percentage of the team, could bring such sharing to a halt. Also, collaboration occurs with subsequent responses and comments and conversation e.g. on chat platforms. Sharing is also a great opportunity for the Chief Sales Officer to weigh in and share insight in a way that fosters positivity and further engagement. 
2. Sales people are not afraid to document and share failure. Failure occurs along the way to all great successes. The difference is that each failure is a learning process and viewed as a step closer to attaining success. CRM records are accurate. Opportunities which are lost for one reason or another are removed from the pipeline rather than causing unnecessary distraction and inaccurate reporting. Chief Sales Officers and Sales Managers further translate these behaviors into progress through consistent review of Closed Lost reports and by providing feedback.  Failure might not be in the form of a lost deal, it could be a botched demo or tactic that brought unintended consequence. imagine the cost of repeating these missteps over and over at scale. Now imagine the power of avoiding repeats of the same failures.
3. Sales people are willing to take chances. For example, a sales person might try calling into a new vertical. This requires alterations to the standard talk track such as examples or anecdotes cited.  This could bring new competitors into the mix which require new learning and positioning.  As opportunities start to progress through the pipeline the person could choose to hold their cards close, or share their progress with the team. Imagine the power of developing a new running lane for the sales people. The Chief sales officer could choose to provide support, align marketing, build sales tools, etc. This new revenue, even incremental, could be the revenue that puts the team over the top by year end. Wow! 

Hiring the right sales people inclined to be team oriented is part of the success formula. Setting the tone from the top on an ongoing basis is also a key element. 

Trust is an element in all great sales cultures of accountability and performance. Trust is hard to foster and even tougher to sustain.  Sustaining trust is a function of sales leadership from the CEO and Chief Revenue Officer to Chief Sales Officer to Sales Managers. Behaviors which foster and/or sustain trust are important earmarks in up and coming leaders in the organization. 

Trust is a valuable corporate asset. Trust is the X factor which is not a line item of a financial report but does drive what such reports reflect.

Fractional Sales Leaders from Treeline can quickly help you build a culture of trust! By leveraging Treeline’s services, companies gain access to industry-leading sales expertise that can drive Q1 success and position them for a strong start to the new year.

For more about Treeline CRO services, please visit https://www.treelineinc.com/sales-recruiting/fractional-cro-service/