Successful Sales Culture When There's A Breakup In Your Family Business

The end of a relationship doesn't have to mean the end of a business partnership. Some family businesses can still get along and have a thriving business relationship after family members decide to go their separate ways personally. However, if one of you still has feelings for the other, or if your feelings toward each other are still complicated, the sales culture may be thrown off. Here is how to create a thriving sales culture in a family business.

Top-Down Effect

Everything starts with the top down in an organization. As the CEO, a good company and sales culture begin with you. If you don't have a clear direction, your sales leader won't have a clear direction, cascading to the salespeople. The same is true if you don't have clear expectations or if you aren't holding them accountable.

According to WorkForce, "60% of companies don't have a long-term strategy for their internal communications." Which can lead to poor company and sales culture.

The lack of communication with your leadership team often trickles to each department, sales, marketing, operations, etc., and they begin to form their agendas. As groups like Sales get invested in their plans, it becomes increasingly harder to attain alignment and shared purpose.

Alignment on Goals

Being aligned on goals and objectives is vital to a better culture, especially in a family business and even more so if the relationship ends.

Unfortunately, alignment problems start at the top with senior executives. This can happen when leaders like your sales leader do not entirely know your plan or thinking. Ensure all levels of the organization understand what is expected of them, align with your sales leader, and let them know your goal from the start.

Leadership IQ's new report, The State Of Leadership Development In 2020, surveyed 21,008 employees to assess leaders' effectiveness. This study found that only "29% of employees say that their leader's vision for the future always seems to be aligned with the organization's."

Goal alignment is how you keep your leaders and their teams working towards your company's goals. When these goals are set, steps should be put into place to ensure that your leaders and their teams are informed about what they should be working on. Don't forget to explain why this is important to them and the company. 

Again, this will trickle down to team members and allow everyone to be aligned. Proper alignment with goals ensures the work of your best talent is effectively and efficiently utilized.

When everyone in your company understands their goals and how they align with their team's and leader's goals, you can trust that everyone in your company is collaborating on the right projects at the right time, to reach that goal.

Plan and Process

You need a plan and process to align goals and create a thriving sales culture. It's important not to lose sight of long-term objectives, even when personal relationships are strained. Without having the end in mind, you can get off track quickly. You can run into issues if your short-term plans work against your long-term vision.

Plan

Having a plan with the target of "hitting the goal" isn't good enough. It will not get you to that thriving sales culture, you want. Instead, you'll want your sales leader to break it down into specific items like how much revenue is needed, how many opportunities, the ideal close rate, initiatives, etc. The more specific they can get, the more likely to hit your goal.

Process

After you and your sales leader have a plan, the goals, and the numbers determined, you'll need a process that gets you there. Have your sales leader create a method that will determine how their salespeople get in the door, how they will accomplish good discovery, what products they will focus on, how they will get commitments, etc. Your sales leader's process is just as important as the plan itself.

Feedback is Important

Feedback is essential when it comes to a successful sales culture. The purpose of giving effective feedback is to improve the situation, or a person's performance. When feedback is too harsh, critical, or offensive, people have difficulty learning from it because they may become defensive or insulted. Positive feedback provides positive observations and suggestions that allow others to see what can change to improve their focus and results.

According to Officevibe, "43% of highly engaged employees receive feedback at least once a week compared to only 18% of employees with low engagement." 

Employees who get a lot of feedback feel like they're a large part of the company. Thus, making them feel engaged with the vision and values of the company. As a leader, take some time weekly to listen to what your employees say. It can make all the difference.

In the End

A family business going through a breakup doesn't have to mean the company's end. Consider these tips if you want to maintain a successful sales culture in your family business. Set clear boundaries between work and personal life, create an agreement that outlines everyone's roles and expectations, and communicate openly and frequently with each other. Following these steps can keep your family business thriving even after a personal breakup.