manity, and for customers to once more see sales associates as friends not foes?

Values Over Volume In order for this to occur, salespeople

should be trained based on values and be- haviors (a sales culture) that make them pay attention to being human beings first and of helping people to buy (not sell) second. Stop the sales process trainings that further erase the humanity out of an already highly dehumanized profession. On top of that, you should train the sales managers to also coach and lead their culture-driven salesforce.

The leaders of a salesforce at a large company decided it would be a good idea to yell and scream at their salespeo- ple to meet objectives that were set way too high. The lack of humanity in the managers led to the best people leaving the company. The politics also started to get out of control as less qualified peo- ple were promoted to fill the spaces of the excellent salespeople which had left. Today, this company is suffering from a

profit and morale problem that will not be solved until they retrain or fire the inhuman managers, bring back the hu- manity, and focus on people first and profits second.

Train People, Not Robots Here are some tips for salesforces to

become more human and also produce more growth and profits. 1. SALES MANAGERS (WHO ARE ALREADY

GOOD AT HOLDING PEOPLE ACCOUNT- ABLE) SHOULD ALSO FOCUS ON LEADING AND COACHING. Focus on creating a sales culture vs. just sales processes and strate- gies which do not necessarily create best practice habits. Become a culture-driven salesforce to instill best practice habits in your salesforce. 2. FOCUS ON COACHING YOUR SALES- PEOPLE AND ENCOURAGING THEM WITH SPECIFIC PRAISE AND DRAMATICALLY MIN- IMIZE THE URGE TO JUST TALK QUOTAS. Focus on efforts to get better results. The more you praise effort and result, the less you will have to reprimand.

3. SALESPEOPLE ARE HUMANS. Treat them that way and emphasize that they treat their customers that way. Customers want to buy from salespeople they like and that show that they care about them. Respect, trust, support, fun and other val- ues should be emphasized and practiced. So how human are you? Be honest and see if you too have lost humanity and need to bring life back in to balance your business and salesforce. Become more conscious that you are human for a rea- son and remember that this very human- ity is at the core of what makes your com- pany and salesforce great. Start focusing on culture as much as you do on strategy, structure and processes for better results with people and profits.

John Waid is the founder of C-3 Corporate Culture Consulting, a keynote speaker and author of the book, Reinventing Ralph. With a specialty and passion for corporate culture, sales and global business,

John believes culture is the engine that drives companies to better results, higher morale, and increased profitability. For more information, visit www.CorporateCultureConsulting.com.

AUTOMOTIVE RECYCLING • January-February 2019

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