The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Culture of Sales Accountability

You only get results if you set high goals, review them, and figure out why you hit or missed them.

Accountability doesn’t necessarily mean blaming someone if goals weren’t achieved.

You have to examine all possible contributing factors.

But you do have to hold people accountable for their actions. And if they’re not getting the results they need and it’s not due to a factor under their control, you have to learn what to do to help them succeed.

How do you hold your sales team accountable for their results?

Here’s some tips:

1. Be accountable yourself

You’re the leader, so establish your own rigorous goals and lead by example! It’s actually refreshing in today’s business climate – many leaders don’t do it.

2. Hire self-motivated people

If you’re a manager, you’ve had every type of employee. You’ve had those ones you barely have to keep eye on. And then you have those other employees who, no matter what you try, find every way possible to not do what they are supposed to.

In Good to Great, Jim Collins’ research found companies that grew explosively had self-motivated employees. If the employee couldn’t perform with very minimal supervision, great companies either fired them or made the workplace culture so miserable for them that there was no way they could possibly stay.

3. Set high goals

Nothing’s more motivating for star employees than challenging goals. They’ll enjoy being held accountable if you set high goals for them.

If you’re a reader of Good to Great, entire companies set BHAGs – Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals.

4. Talk candidly with each employee regularly 

No sales employee is perfect – every single one has something they can work on. Tiger Woods has always had a coach. Michael Jordan had multiple coaches helping him stay at the top of his game.

There are parts of yourself you cannot see and improve on without honest feedback from someone else. Have regular discussions about what’s going well and what could be done better with your employees.

5. Define what “accountable” means and discuss it with your employees

Do they have to hit certain sales quotas? Are you just going to have a conversation? Make however you define accountability clear and simple. Then employees know exactly what they have to do to meet your company’s expectations.

Enjoy your superior results!

Accountability helps you fine-tune your sales team’s performance for maximum ROI.

Once  you get your system in place, you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.