Why is Culture King? Part 1

One in a Series of Three Articles Promoting the Value of an Efficient Sales Culture.

Charles Drucker said, ”Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” 

This is especially true in the luxury marketing space. Why? Consumers making a discretionary income purchase are 20 times more likely to engage with a sales person who specializes in what they are considering buying, than a person purchasing a commodity. E-commerce technology is well capable of delivering sales of items of universal appeal. In many instances, it doesn’t even mean a trip to a physical location to buy what you need, as opposed to a lifestyle decision when you are looking for something you want but can live without. You simply put it in your online cart.

Who is Your Brand Ambassador? 

It is a normal occurrence for consumers to get things delivered and only go to the store when they feel it is necessary. What does this have to do with culture being so important? The face of your product or service is your sales representative. That person is your brand ambassador, a HUGE, and most often the largest, reason a person will buy what your company is selling. How they sell, and how well they sell, will be strongly influenced by the culture or lack thereof in your organization.

Aren’t sales associates all an island unto themselves? Each one of them individually responsible for their own fate in an “eat what you kill environment"? Ultimately, yes. The issue is efficiency. Ownership and management can have a “hands off” attitude toward sales activities and approach sales as many manufacturers do, thinking that product knowledge and sales training are one and the same. THEY ARE NOT! Yes many products have a strong enough marquis value that buyers are looking for. Many times they start their buying journey looking for a specific brand, but if that’s all there is to it why do so many things under $5k sell well online but more expensive items have a longer gestation period? Because a product’s reputation is very important but it is not the only element influencing the buyer psychologically. Luxury buyers still care about price but they buy value and what is value to them? How something that they buy affects their life. “Luxury buyers don’t buy a thing, they buy what a thing does for them.” - Jack Klinefelter (I’m not boasting; all of my significant quotes are credited to the writer.) Context is not a word they are using internally but the reason sales specialists will always be needed is because, even though they don’t know it, the consumer is searching for context. They, way more than people buying "day to day” goods, are looking for that thing that will enrich their lives and make them feel a certain way. Why is an efficient sales culture important in allowing your company to sell as well as possible? Because sales is a creative act that has to appeal to buyers on a human level to make them FEEL like they are making their best buying decision. A person, a duo or a team of sales professionals who share ideas with other creative minded sales people can learn more and faster, just like a musician who joins a band and learns new licks and how to play at a higher level when they learn from, practice with, and bounce things off of one another. Truth: every great method, approach, product or invention started with an idea. 

The world is constantly changing and sales professionals of all ages should mentor one another in their areas of strength. This is the quickest pathway a sales person, ergo a staff, mutates into the best version of itself and everyone themselves. “Culture is king” if you want to outplay your competition in any arena. How many examples would you like me to bore you with? Ford Motor, when it changed the entire culture of the world, had a historically great business and sales culture. Their leader, Henry Ford, penned and uttered many memorable quotes such as, ”If everyone is moving forward together, then success will take care of itself.” He was a believer in the power of culture and it served him well, don’t you agree? 

I’ll visit the elements and execution that make up a successful culture but they will be a waste of your time and mine if you don’t agree on the value of having a sales culture. I guess technically everyone has one, even if it is a dysfunctional or mediocre performing one. One could argue that not having one and “shooting from the hip" is a sales approach consistent of the person not having a method. I guess even if you don’t have one, you do. That thought just hurt my brain.  

If you are a single sales person, your habits, influences and activities make up your personal sales culture. The books you read or listen to, the podcasts you watch and your network of other sales professionals are all elements of or elements missing from your sales culture or sales life. I promise that if you look around the business world, you’ll see that “culture is king” which means that leadership needs to install and nurture a positive, excited and efficient future of a company to be, as the Army says, "the best that you can be!”

Don’t argue with me though. It's much more "heavyweight" successful people than I am who you are arguing with, so I’ll  end with this - whether or not I am one of your favorite writers or marketing thought leaders, this is a critically important topic for you to excel in. As I used to tell my children, who sometimes had to learn the hard way about some things, "Everything good or bad starts with an attitude.” Just think about that common sense statement then frame it in, in a business sense. Your culture creates your mojo or lack of it.

Your business attitude as a team is born out of a culture which can be a bunch of independently operating individuals whose only common denominator is that they work at the same place, which is actually a lack of culture. The “diametric opposite” (purposely redundant) would be a group of sales professionals supporting one another and sharing ideas and role playing. In this scenario, the individuals would be more like a spoke in a wheel driving your company toward success faster than it could ever get there otherwise. Yes, I think this topic is monumentally important or I wouldn’t dedicate a three article series to it and include it in the sales course I am writing entitled “The Keys to Success.” If you  don’t agree that “culture is king” don’t worry about disagreeing with me, you need to be foolish enough to disagree with Mr. Ford, who I quoted above, as well as these great thinkers:

“Great things in business are never done by one person, they’re done by a team of people.” - Steve Jobs, Founder and CEO of Apple

“Company culture is the backbone of any successful organization”

-Gary Vaynerchuck, Author, Motivational Speaker, Entrepreneur 

“Time is the only currency you spend without ever knowing your balance. Use it wisely.” - Unknown.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence therefore is not an act, but a habit.” - Aristotle