AMA: Culture Amp Senior Sales Director, Alicia Lewis on Developing Your Sales Career

To be an effective sales leader, you must have strong communication skills and be driven by data and process. Strong communication, especially a coach-like mindset, is extremely important in terms of supporting reps to achieve quotas. Positive and effective communication between a leader and their reps allows for a smooth flow of information, which creates an environment that motivates the team to work towards achieving goals. More than ever, being analytical and process driven is key to creating and scaling a high performing team. It’s important that leaders understand the story in the data, make impactful decisions based upon it and motivate their team with data. In terms of nice to haves, having an eye for great sales talent is something that can take time to develop as a sales leader. I’ve been in sales my entire career and being able to identify great talent is something I'm always working on. If early on in their tenure a sales leader can hone in on a candidate's desire to learn and succeed, they are set up for success.

One of our company’s core values is having the courage to be vulnerable. This behavior is key to being successful at Culture Amp and within a sales role. In order to better understand someone’s ability to lean into this value, I like to ask the question “What are you currently working on professionally or personally to develop yourself?” I also ask this question because the best talent never rest on their laurels. Top performers are always looking for ways to improve. The most common answers I receive are around reading sales books or applying new sales tactics. The strongest answer that I ever received was someone who shared that they were working with a therapist and shared how their committed approach to mental health had made a positive impact on their life. It's an example of taking on hard things and not being afraid to show their genuine self.

When determining whether someone should receive a pay increase, it's important to ask three key questions. 1.) Is the rep displaying the golden side of our values and behaviors? 2.) Did the rep achieve or exceed 100% of their target? 3.) Is the rep actively learning and applying lessons from their manager and sales enablement in their sales activities? The piece around values and behaviors is critical. Reps should not be eligible for a raise, no matter how much they’ve exceeded their goal, if they are not consistently showing up in a way that aligns with the values.

Being in sales, we experience challenges on a daily basis. One of the bigger frustrations is having a great quarter or year and then seeing the dial goes back to zero, knowing you need to start all over again. It’s what we all sign up for, but that doesn’t make it any easier of a pill to swallow. As a sales leader, one of the biggest challenges can be motivating reps to maintain consistency. Keeping reps motivated to successfully climb the mountain each quarter is not a one size fits all approach. For some reps, it’s providing growth and development opportunities that keep them driving, for others it’s SPIFs and recognition that helps them get where they need to be. Finding a way to effectively manage your time can be another big frustration. At times, the sheer number of responsibilities on our plate can feel overwhelming. It’s hard when everyone seems to need something from you and there aren't enough hours in the day. I’ve found that it’s important to be as highly organized as possible, prioritize tasks, learn your productivity patterns, block out calendars to complete important activities and schedule breaks to refresh.

The most successful AEs that I've worked with have a long list of key attributes that set them apart from the rest. These attributes include * responsiveness * curiosity * resilience * authenticity * collaboration * rapport building * not being afraid to fail * thriving on challenges Important tactical skills which I see in top reps are around strong sales execution behaviors. Skills such as thorough preparation, stakeholder management, ability to multi-thread, drive urgency, and create contingency plans are how Account Executives consistently win deals. They also make sure to never take their foot off of the gas when it comes to prospecting. They know its the only way to ensure they have the pipeline needed to execute. It’s this combination of sales execution skills and the attributes associated with a relentless drive to exceed goal and build strong relationships which enable reps to consistently be at the top of the leaderboard.