Employees taking accountability for their work is a contributing factor to the company’s success. Hence, in this Expert Insight Interview, Kristie Jones discusses creating an accountability culture in sales. Kristie Jones is the Principal at Sales Acceleration Group, and she helps small and medium-size companies to grow their revenues.
The interview discusses:
- Leaders as role models
- Involvement with the company’s goals
- Well-functioning accountability culture
The Role Models
For accountability to be established and accepted among sales teams, sales leaders need to demonstrate it themselves. Three key things sales leaders need to role model to employees are building trust, keeping their word, and being transparent. By doing what they promised, leaders build trust with their employees and show that they keep their promises. Also, it is more beneficial to share important financial information with the employees instead of hiding it. When leaders are transparent, employees understand and accept business decisions better since they are familiar with the financial implications.
Involvement with the Company Goals
Furthermore, sales teams need to get more connected and involved in achieving the company’s ultimate goal. Almost always, sales teams only get their targets without explaining the bigger story behind hitting those numbers. Every decision and initiative within the company needs to be consistent with achieving the company’s ultimate goal. Another thing that can make it easier for everyone in the organization to start taking accountability is to set up clear expectations. Sales leaders need to know their employees’ strengths and weaknesses. Some salespeople excel at closing small deals, while others are better at closing deals that are more complex and require a certain amount of strategizing. Not everyone is the same, so setting up the same plan for everyone means setting up many people for failure.
Well-functioning Accountability Culture
It is easy to notice people who do not have a behavioral trait of taking accountability. For example, ask people why they failed to meet their last quota. Their answer to that question reveals whether they can take themselves accountable for the failure or blame the circumstances for it.
In a well-functioning company, employees can hold each other accountable professionally without anyone feeling offended. The culture of taking accountability builds over time by hiring the right people, setting clear expectations, making everyone work for the same goal, and making everyone understand possible consequences. It creates teamwork and an employee bond throughout the whole organization. And last but not least, it is the discipline. People can make great plans, but those plans are worth nothing if there is a lack of discipline to work on them.
Our Host
John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
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