Create a Winning Sales Culture – Execute with Discipline

“Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.”

Stephen Covey

Execute – Winning sales cultures are competent at planning and execution. And while a thoughtful plan is a necessity, without effective execution, it is practically worthless. I want to share a simple framework for helping individuals and teams achieve solid execution and operational excellence. This process is a simple and straightforward and will serve organizations well, regardless size or industry.

First and foremost, as discussed in earlier articles, creating the right culture is an essential foundation for great sales results. Specifically, two elements of a winning culture are communications and collaboration. Truly effective organizational communication is not unilateral but is characterized by an open, two-way exchange of vital information. This environment features a prolific communications network and effortless collaboration among Individuals and teams.

So, given the right communications and collaboration framework, here are three cornerstones of disciplined operational execution:

Accountability – Each person in the business is accountable for carrying out a specific set of responsibilities in a certain way. These expectations must be communicated clearly and confirmed, to ensure there is no room for misunderstanding. Business leadership is ultimately accountable for all aspects of the firm but will delegate responsibilities and duties throughout the organization. Through coaching, training and other employee development opportunities, leadership is accountable for preparing individuals to carry out responsibilities to meet business expectations. And, in turn, employees are accountable to leadership for executing on these duties.

Visibility – Every critical business function must have a clear view on actual results. This includes personal observation, customer and employee feedback processes, systematic reporting, operations reviews, random inspection, etc.; these provide transparent perspectives on how activities and outcomes align with business expectations.

Consequences – This category includes compensation, incentives, rewards and recognition. Also, it includes coaching, performance management, disciplinary action, etc. Every result or activity warrants a specific consequence that must be administered a timely and consistent manner.

A simple way of thinking about this concept is the acronym spelled VAC. In the next articles, we’ll review each of these concepts in the context of disciplined execution in winning sales cultures.