Company and sales organization culture is very important to sales professionals. In fact, it’s the most important factor in a sales professional’s career.. At RepVue, it was a hypothesis we had upon founding, and it’s played out in the data. So if you as a sales leader can drive a great culture, you are going to retain great employees.

While the notion of “driving great culture” is easier said than done, there are certainly some common themes in driving great culture within a sales organization. Here are five topics that can have a huge impact on the culture of the sales organization.

Treat everyone fairly: You know what creates an undercurrent of mistrust? Playing favorites. Your organization should deliver a consistent employee experience across all reps, all the time. Performance should be rewarded in a meaningful enough way via the incentive compensation structure. There shouldn’t be a need to play favorites outside of that. It’s simple. Treat everyone fairly. If you do, everyone will recognize it. If you don’t, everyone will recognize it.
Drive consistency between commitment and reality. When you are interviewing sales candidates, you are selling. Hopefully you’re not overselling. Overselling the true income potential. Overselling marketing’s contribution to the pipeline Overselling the pace at which success will move someone up the ladder. Overselling might not hurt you today or tomorrow, but it will hurt you. You will lose people because of it.
Over-communicate: As a leader you will sit in senior management meetings. Share AS MUCH of the information you realistically can with your team. Bring them into the fold. You’re all in the boat together, and when those doing the most rowing know the destination, they’ll generally row harder!
Leaders: take the blame and give the credit: Look, as a leader, if your sales team succeeds, you are naturally going to look good. You don’t have to seek that out. Credit for your wins and successes should always publicly be deflected to the folks who are grinding for you every day. Grinding for you because they see YOU grinding for THEM every day. When things go wrong, don’t talk about those few people that need to be replaced (i.e. maybe hiring misses that you made), look inward and point to where you as a leader need to improve in leading your team.
Correct privately, praise publicly: Dressing someone down in a team meeting for missing a number or doing something wrong that could be coachable will give others on the team a sense of your insecurity. There’s just no need. They know you are the boss. Praise in public and correct in private. It’s not a complicated formula.

Driving a top notch culture is not something that can be done on a spreadsheet. It’s a complex matrix of good communication, good hiring, and retaining the best (and the right) employees. Start trying to tackle these five topics and your foundation for a world-class culture will be that much stronger.