Here are three internal best practices, bringing everyone up to the level of best performer.

Leaders focus on building sales teams to execute at an elite level to drive profits. Unfortunately, more times than not, many individuals cannot meet expectations. To profit, you need to bring in more revenues than expenses. We’ll keep this very simple. To solve this, you must bring all members of the team to a common level of performance.

Leveraging Budgets

Throw out the budgets you’ve assigned each representative. I’ve found that many leaders will lower the budgets of underperformers and give it to the high achievers. This gives the perception that everyone can hit their budget; however, it’s only masking an actual problem. Your team isn’t working at a common level. I suggest you take some time and reallocate budgets evenly across the team. Now, it’s understandable if you divvy up the budgets based on certain criteria such as tenure and time in industry. This will help reduce resentment, as I’m sure many reps feel when this happens to them. They have to work harder to achieve the same as low performers.

Simple and Powerful Communication

Focus on communicating simple and powerful messages with the team. You need to take time to reset expectations. Are you providing feedback and one on ones for your reps? If so, how frequently are you doing so? Depending on your industry and line of business, (B2C or B2B) you should execute this daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or at a minimum, monthly. Use this time to follow up on expectations and performance standards. Again, keep it a consistent theme. Often, many leaders will be all over the place in how and what they communicate. I call this the Ben & Jerry’s effect. Ben & Jerry’s has 54 flavors of ice-cream. Don’t make it a flavor of the week for your team. You lose the support and consistency you need to build performance.



Consistent Accountability

Set up accountability programs for the team and for individuals. We’ll start with accountability as this is usually the toughest for most leaders to handle. Please, don’t use accountability as a hammer of fear. Accountability needs to be consistent for all members of the team. I suggest removing the result as an accountability measure. At least, earlier in the process and you can layer in later. When you focus on a number, people will do whatever it takes to achieve it. This can lead to issues with integrity and the customer experience. Make sure you take time to create specific behavior and process driven actions for the reps to deliver.

Here are three internal best practices, bringing leaders to leverage behavior and process over results.

Leaders tend to focus on results which is understandable. When you run a for-profit business, the results are extremely important. The opportunity lies in how the results are delivered. This is where most leaders miss an opportunity to catapult their performance. Unfortunately, many leaders get caught up in the day-to-day tactical events and meetings. They should spend most of their time on strategy where they can leverage behaviors and processes. This is why most sales employees miss their goals and leaders see performance on a constant rollercoaster. To solve this, you must focus 90% of your attention to behavior and process.

Tactical Mayhem

I’m sure you’ve felt or currently feel overwhelm with all of the tactical tasks assigned to you. I find tactical tasks busy work which must be done. This doesn’t mean it’s not important. Here are some examples of tactical tasks: reviewing reports, scheduling, one on ones, training, employee concerns, etc. These are things that typically need to be executed daily. Many of these tasks can be delegated to other leaders or high-potential employees.

For example, you need to spend time coaching several sales employees. You’re pressed for time. Instead of ignoring the coaching or rushing through it, have a high-potential employee coach them. You must take time and set the expectations about which behaviors and process the employees should display for the session. This helps keep everyone on the same page. When you focus solely on results, you’ll miss how this result was achieved. 

Getting Personal

One on ones are a semi-formal meeting between the leader and employee. During the one on one, you discuss items such as performance, values, culture, etc. I’ve found many leaders don’t execute these or they’re seen as an item to check off of the to-do list. When you conduct a one on one, the employee should be doing most of the talking. I suggest the employee provide their current results and tie back the behaviors and processes they used to achieve the results.

For example, a sales employee in a B2C company is projecting to miss their quota for the month. The employee should say, I’m projecting down 15% for the month. I’m having a hard time getting people to conversate with me. The leader should drill down with the employee to uncover which behaviors or processes are missing. Is it a tone or inflection problem? Is there a trust or likability problem? You’ll want to test these and watch how the results move with the shift in behavior. The leader may need to layer in another process for the employee to follow to ensure smooth transitions during the conversation.

Hinge Your Process

You must set up a sales process if you don’t have one. Many leaders tell me they have a sales process their employees follow; however, none of the employees seem to know what it is. A sales process is a set of guidelines which the employees follow when partnering with prospects or clients. The process should allow autonomy; however, provide consistency amongst the group. The process should focus on behaviors and processes which close deals and provide an exceptional experience.



For example, your sales employees need to gain the prospects attention quickly. You will set up your sales process which states in the greeting the employee must create a compelling reason to speak with them. Then, layer in 5-10 ways the employees can layer in a compelling reason. When you speak to your employees during their one on ones, they should be able to recite the ways to do this and create some of their own. When you do this, you will start to see consistent focus on behavior and process and the numbers will see gains like never before.

Here are three internal best practices, bringing leaders to target inspiration and leaving motivation to the sales employee.

Leaders will often look for additional ways to pay for performance in an effort to motivate their sales team. Unfortunately, no one can motivate others, because motivation is intrinsic. Yet, I see this all the time and countless hours wasted on non-result delivering tactics. As a leader, think about getting out of your own way. I find leaders who use rewards to deliver results, is only building a smoke screen for performance. When you use this approach, the leader must continue to raise the rewards level to achieve the same performance. Your performance will vary like the highs and lows of a roller coaster. To solve this, build discipline within yourself and employee to scratch the potential of your abilities. 



Paint a Picasso

I don’t truly want you to paint a Picasso, because you and I probably don’t have the skill or talent to do so. Guess what, it’s ok. You must paint your own Picasso to inspire yourself to get through the daily grind which can wear you down. Your Picasso is what you see when you look at an event or situation. As a leader, you may need to help your employee’s paint their Picasso regarding career, skills, mindset, attitude, performance, livelihood, vision, etc. When you can help someone see their purpose professionally or personally, it will inspire them to go above and beyond the call of duty. How are you doing this with your team?

You work with a sales employee to see how their current role enhances their career aspirations. You must start with the end goal and work backwards. For example, the employee wants to be a future sales manager. The employee doesn’t see the need in understanding the why behind the feedback he receives. He wants to receive the feedback and move on. You need to show him the impact of learning, doing, and teaching. This will be a key skill that he must leverage as a leader. When you paint a vision for your future, and tie it back to now, the picture will come together for the person. As you build the Picasso with the employee, you must remind them to think about each stroke of the brush. Why did you put a stroke of paint here or there? These strokes of your brush will be like the behaviors and processes you must learn to be elite.

Balanced Mentality

I’m sure you hear all the time about how you need to take time to get to know your employees. I’ve heard it and use it more times than I can count. You should do things like knowing about their family, pets, hobbies, siblings, travels, etc. These are things you should do to be an effective leader. Unfortunately, this is the minimum you should do to be an average leader. When you want to inspire more out of your sales employees, give them more of you and build a professional relationship. You cannot make them feel like a number or you are only getting to know them because you get something out of it. I’m suggesting you take it to another level, an elite level. Let’s presume you know all about your employee. This next level process allows you to tap into your employee’s psyche. Here’s what you need to do.

During your weekly or bi-weekly one on ones, set aside time to discuss the things which positively provoke and unfavorably impact the employee. Discuss signs, events, peers which cause this impact. Create strategies to leverage or overcome these areas. For example, you notice Steve isn’t speaking with his peers and seems distant. Pull Steve aside and see how he’s doing. If he says he’s ok, you must dig deeper. You could say Steve, we committed to each other, we’ll always be there to help each other. You seem like you have something on your mind. I’m here to see what I can do to help. Where do you want to start? This will help remove negativity and create focus on things that will inspire them to unleash their potential.

Forge Trust

Many leaders tell me how they get inundated with questions from their sales team whenever they launch a new initiative. There’s usually a lot of resistance to change regardless of how little or big it is. Typically, this is caused by a lack of trust or confidence in leadership. You cannot inspire your employees to be at their very best if they don’t fully trust you.

Here are two things you can do to build trust and inspire your employees to lead change and buy in to you. During the one-on-one process, you must set up a time to discuss the employees’ impact to the team. Have conversations about providing solutions to problems they and their peers are experiencing. This will slowly build a solution-oriented mentality. For example, your employee tells you that the CRM has too many steps to update the notes. Instead of taking the information and going to the CRM team, ask the employee how they would fix it. Gather everyone’s insights about the CRM to see if there are other adjustments needed. Pick a point person to handle the adjustments with your oversight.

Second, you need to take time to include your employees in the decisions. For example, you need to adjust the sales process. Instead of deciding and forcing the sales employees to adjust, ask for their insights. You might say Jamie, we need to pivot our process to keep our position in the marketplace. Where do you think we can have the most impact? Have you spoken to your peers about this? I would make this a practice you follow. When you think about inspiring your team, this will have a profound impact because you asked for their perspective. Often, leaders will decide without consulting the team. This can build resentment since they are the one’s going through the challenges.

Three reasons your sales team should be shaken up within every six months if you want to be successful! 



The sales profession is constantly influx because of fluid environments and constant turnover. Sales reps have the daunting tasks of seeking leads, meeting with prospects, building value, and closing deals. There are many variables in this process where the sales rep can lose the sale. Many companies have consistent turnover amongst their sales teams because of poor leadership and hiring. I’m talking about the team’s core sales reps, which are consistent in performance.

Gold Standard

There’s a false misconception amongst leaders about what outstanding performance looks like. I recently worked with a company where they lowered the budget for low-performers and stacked the additional budget on high-performers. Their goal was to allocate the budget “appropriately” amongst the team. I watched leaders celebrate the low-performer for hitting their budget, negating the fact they lowered it. The high-performers felt alienated because they continue to pick up the slack. Is this happening in your department or company? This gives a false positive to senior leadership that the team is performing well. The minimum you should do is bring everyone up to a common level. The gold standard of performance constantly moves up, down, left, and right. You will be best served if your team sets the tone for performance in your company and industry.

When teams stay together for lengthy periods of time, they create complacency. You must infuse new ideologies, perspectives, techniques, and so forth to keep the abundance mentality alive. You must do this even when things feel calm to ensure you are leaping to new success. There are several steps you will need to take. Find your current gold standard and identify those reps who live it. Next, create the new higher-level standard by infusing new behaviors & processes. Communicate the new standards and prepare new job descriptions that fit the new criteria. Next, provided rewards and accountability to those executing the new standard. Hire accordingly and keep increasing your gold return!

Fresh Juice

There are typically 4 types of sales teams I find when I’m in the field. The docile team where everyone is quiet, looking at their cell phones, or laying back in their chair, and so on. The aggressive team where everyone is out for themselves. You can typically hear fear-based selling reps don’t help each other, and so on. The ordinary team where you have a mix of cell phone use, people helping each other, periods of chatter and silence, and so on. When you have a team that fits into any of these 3 types of teams, you need to infuse new talent. The best team is the one with the juice. I’ll tell you about this team momentarily.

I speak to many leaders who get frustrated with the inaction of their sales reps. This inaction is typically caused by a lack of “juice” within the team. The juice can be described as energy, passion, tenacity, positivity, and so forth. The more juice your team has, the more they can feed off each other. When’s the last time you checked to see how much juice your team has? Here’s how you do it. I base the Juice on the 3S’s (See, Sound, & Sense) method, which I’ll touch on each section. You’ll want to tailor this to your business.

• See: Put yourself in a position to observe on the sales floor. What do you see? You should see a high-level of engagement between reps with peers and customers. You should see the desired behaviors you expect from each rep.
• Sound: What do you hear on the floor? You should hear laughter, development conversations, customer education, some personal conversation, and so on.
• Sense: This one can be difficult because this is the feel you get internally. Close your eyes and listen for several minutes. What’s the overall feel of the conversation you’re hearing? 

When you use this exercise, your team must execute at a very high-level in each section. When they do, you have the juice and your bound for success!

Career Highway

I heard many times during my childhood, young adulthood, and professional career that life’s a journey. Yet, many leaders forget about their rep’s career highway. Their journey for their life and career. As a leader, you must take time to develop your sale reps so they get to their next destination. When there seizes to be any movement down the career highway, many reps will leave. Unfortunately, this is unplanned attrition and you will be on defense versus offense.

I told a client they needed planned attrition, which is best for everyone involved. Initially, they were stunned. A member of leadership asked why they would want to break up a performing sales team. I mentioned several of the following points. When you have planned attrition, you can use it as a sales tool for new candidates. You can share with them how the department leaders are invested in their success down the career highway. This will, attract more top talent to your organization. This has a positive impact on current reps too. This provides optimism about the future. This can remove the reps feeling of having one foot out of the door and looking for other opportunities.

Make sure you put your reps on the highway to success!

Here are three internal best practices, bringing leaders to focus on quality hires versus bodies to fill seats.   



I find many leaders will sacrifice time, energy, and effort to keep bodies in the seat. They get consumed about hitting the result, they don’t take the time to slow down. They bring in groups of new reps so their seats are full or they’re 100% staffed on the report their leader is reviewing. Some people are simply not good at selling, and it doesn’t make them a terrible person. They don’t have the focus, desire, or tenacity to consistently hit their goals.

Lip Service

We live in a world where we have information at our fingertips. You can search interview questions for sales roles (amongst many others) which get memorized and used during interviews. Many interviewers take the surface response and either agree to move to the next question or mark it against the applicant. The reason this happens frequently is many leaders don’t take the time to build interview questions that ensure the candidate will navigate the current sales landscape. 

I would first build interview questions that truly ensure the applicant can be successful in the role. I use an off-the-shelf assessment for businesses where we can build a job match pattern and questions geared towards real-life situations the sales reps encounter. I had a client tell me their questions were good, and they weren’t the problem. The questions were like: What would your last customer tell me about how you helped them? What’s your selling style? How often do you hear no before you stop selling?

Impulse Audit

I find many sales applicants use the role as a stepping stone to go somewhere else in the company. Many leaders tell me they want people who want to move up in the organization because they’re motivated. Not so fast! This is typically a sign they want to come and move to an “easier” role. You want to go after sales reps that want to dominate their role. Those who are hungry to put the customer first. Those that want to destroy their sales goals.

As they prove their ability, layer in discussion about advancement. This will eliminate a significant amount of turnover. I partnered with a commodity client where this occurred. Once they hired the candidates that fit their need, they reduced their turnover significantly. They could start building consistency with the team because there wasn’t a revolving door of new hires. 

Oxygen Check

I always hear about companies trying to source candidates from their current employees. This isn’t necessarily a poor move; however, it can have a significant downside. I’ve found that employees will solicit candidates which typically will have a higher chance of being hired because of the referral. Then, the new referral will remain employed long enough for the referee to receive the referral bonus. Just because the current employee breathes the oxygen of the company doesn’t mean those they recommend will.

To combat this, I would build a presence in the community. You must get to know those in the community and think of long-term. You can find those individuals that live the values you’re looking for. When you’re out in the community, most people will behave as they would normally. Once you identify the right potential candidate, then look for people who know them and gain additional insight. This will help you make better hiring decisions.

Diversity is always the topic of discussion for most businesses that want to grow and be successful. You must be able to gain fresh perspectives to get your team or business outside the box. If you don’t, you’ll see your market share dwindle and employees leave for different opportunities. Building a diverse culture takes focus and awareness from every person in the company.

Here are three internal best practices, bringing diversity to the forefront of your business by treating everyone differently.   

Art of Language

Many leaders believe they have to speak to everyone the same way or they’ll get in trouble. They derive the fear from, “If I don’t treat everyone the same, I’m biased towards certain people.” Instead, leaders should remove this notion and speak to everyone differently. Why? Well, everyone is different regardless of their race, age, gender, sexual orientation. The only thing we have in common is we are all human. That’s the key! Treat everyone as a human. Humans want and need distinct things; therefore, as a leader, you must expand your language to appeal to the masses.

I partnered with a sales manager in the commodity industry where this occurred. I found that many of his employees felt that he was fake or wasn’t genuine in how he spoke to them. This turned many of the employees off and they didn’t trust him. We worked through several strategies to build his language and awareness. When he ran meetings, huddles, coaching sessions, etc., he appealed to the group rather than certain people. He’s continued to build his language to treat everyone differently but equally. He’s now using language to show investment in to his team’s future, to propel them forward.

Royal Treatment

Not every employee needs to have the red carpet rolled out for them. Many businesses believe they have to give all employees the royal treatment to make them happy. The royal treatment should be for those that live the company values and perform at the highest levels. What does the royal treatment include? That’s for your business to decide, but they can include things like notable compensation increases, special events, monetary rewards, etc. When you give the royal treatment to everyone because you worry about pushback, you’re building resentment in your highest performers.

I partnered with a senior manager, and we were discussing this topic. I asked about how they conduct their annual review process in terms of increases for each employee. She said they use an average for scoring. For example, the average score had to be a three by the time they rated all employees (Scale 1-5). This means that some people had to receive a lower score to adjust to this average. If the manager wanted to rate someone a five, someone else would have to take a lower score or the average wouldn’t be met. If you want to keep the best talent, treat them differently. This isn’t the way to do it.

Elite Conversations

Think about the conversations you have daily. The only thing that holds true is that they’re all different. Unfortunately, many leaders try to have the same conversations with their employee’s. For example, the leader is conducting a one-on-one with each employee. There are certain points of conversation that need addressed like results, focus areas, etc. The problem is, most leaders use these conversations as a checklist item versus leveraging the diversity the employee brings to the team. When you think about elite conversations, it’s the conversation that brings out the employee’s unique experiences both personally and professionally.



I worked with a leader who leads a B2B sales team that had this same opportunity. The one-on-one process seemed like a formality, and they were just trying to get through it. Through our conversation, we found that he wasn’t have these elite conversations with his team. We brought out the employee’s unique experiences and used those to shape how they conducted business. This brought the team closer together. Everyone benefits when they share their unique perspectives.

One of the biggest challenge’s leaders face is providing the right amount of autonomy for their sales professionals. If you provide too little autonomy, you’re a micromanager. Provide too much autonomy, you lack control for performance. Therefore, you must leverage camaraderie to bridge the gap between autonomy and performance.

Here are three internal best practices, bringing your team to thrive with camaraderie and build consistent performance.   

1st Round Draft Pick

Just like with any major sports team, choose wisely with your draft picks. This is especially true in the first round as you have more choices to get a high-caliber person. Leaders must do the same thing when hiring the right person for the vacant role. The key is to hire a person who will allow for camaraderie to thrive in your organization. This isn’t about singing kumbaya, but really trust each other and know that everyone’s best interest is front and center.

I partnered with a sales executive that had issues building consistent performance with the new reps. When the reps were ready to sell, they were sat near each other on the sales floor. The tenured reps were too busy to help. This is unacceptable. We started layering in tenured reps in to the onboarding process, shadowing, and role playing. We didn’t use the fake role playing; we create role plays that captured what the new reps would endure. This helped build their trust because the tenured reps could share how they once lived the same obstacles.

Friendly Fire

Feedback is a powerful tool for success if used properly. The problem is that most leaders don’t leverage their team to provide feedback. I’m not saying you should immediately have your team give each other feedback. That would be a disaster. Train your people how to do it effectively. Once you do, the team will receive more timely feedback. They will build more trust and use each other’s best practices.

I worked with a large group of sales reps where we tried this approach and everyone involved saw dramatic results. We uncovered some poor perceptions and shed light on how feedback can have a positive impact. This was great for the leader because she had more time to invest in other areas. The reps appreciated the timely feedback, and it helped their development to move up in the company. 

Pole Position

The pole position in motorsports is the position at the inside of the front row at the start of the racing event. This can give the driver with a significant advantage to win the race. Well, unless the driver and crew have miscues. Are you sitting in pole position or do you hang back hoping to come from behind month in and month out? Camaraderie helps your team take the pole position.



Too many leaders rely on individual performance to carry the overall performance for the team. Many leaders worry about their superstar leaving. What will they do then?? Here’s how you get the pole position. Focus on camaraderie! Camaraderie should be inclusive for everyone. I do not limit this to communication, feedback, showing courtesy, build others up, idea sharing, social events, etc. What’s your plan to ensure your team is executing in these areas?