Jeweller - June, Edition I 2020

BEST OF BUSINESS
Selling
Want to shape a sales culture? Read this
The media writes endlessly about the great cultures of the super-retailers like Apple and Amazon, but where do
independent retailers begin when they want to build triumphant cultures? IAN ALTMAN reports.
One of the most common questions
I receive at my keynote addresses and
workshops is how to infuse a business
with a culture of sales for growth.
The top companies seem to just
ooze an atmosphere of enthusiasm
and opportunity.
They attract talented employees and
those employees act as magnets to
attract the best customers. Eventually,
this builds a sales culture for growth
across the organisation.
That’s all fine and dandy for Apple, but
how can independent retailers build a
sales culture?
It’s not like you can order a shipment of
culture from Amazon – or can you?
Amazon owns US online retailer
Zappos, whose sales culture is admired
worldwide – to the point where a
separate company, Zappos Insights,
was founded in 2009 to share its
strategies with other businesses.
Robert Richman, co-creator of Zappos
Insights and author of Culture Blueprint,
believes culture starts with values.
Values do not reside within a division, a
department or a job title; they cut across
the organisation.
Retailers wanting to build a culture for
growth need to recognise that they have
to establish values that apply to everyone
within the organisation.
This means nobody can say, “That’s not
my job.”
That said, where do you, as a small
business, even begin?
Culture comes from within
Don’t try to fix or impose culture – build
it from the foundation up. If you tell your
team, “This is the culture you have to
Top-performing
retailers don’t
strive to be
everything to
everybody...
Define the
problems that
the business
uniquely solves
for customers
implement,” rest assured that it’s going
to fail.
“Don’t just bring in a program. Ask your
team what they think it means to have a
sales culture,” Richman says.
“Your team needs to get their frustrations
off of their chests and contribute their
ideas. If your [sales staff] don’t feel heard,
you are imposing something instead of
letting it come from within. They might
come up with a better idea than what you
originally envisioned.”
Business owners might be able to dictate
a policy or procedure; however, building
culture is a collaborative process.
Define the greatest value
Top-performing retailers don’t strive to be
everything to everybody. Generalists don’t
build a brilliant culture. The businesses
with the best culture might offer
competitive pricing but they definitely
44 | June 2020