The 3 Types of Sales Cultures
Mostst people think there are two types of sales cultures.
The first is the Wolf of Wall Street version. Money obsessed. Aggressive. Win at all costs. The kind of place where people ring bells when they close deals and everyone’s chasing the next big commission check.
Some organizations thrive on this. Others crash and burn spectacularly.
The second is what exists in most companies. Painfully average. A few stars carrying the entire team while everyone else just exists. The classic 80-20 rule where 20% of reps drive 80% of revenue.
Most sales leaders accept this as inevitable. They think some people have it and some people don’t. Their job is to find the ones who have it and tolerate the ones who don’t until they can replace them.
But there’s a third type of culture that most leaders don’t think is possible.
One where B-players become A-players. Where C-players become B-players. Where excellence isn’t rare, it’s expected. Where people actually grow instead of just showing up.
I’ve built these cultures. I’ve seen them work.
The difference isn’t talent. It’s not market.
It’s leadership.
What the Third Culture Actually Looks Like
I worked with a services firm a few years ago. Team of seven sellers.
When I started, they had two reps hitting quota consistently. Everyone else was somewhere between 60-75% of target.
The CRO kept hiring, hoping the next person would be different. The pattern repeated. New rep would start strong for a few months, then settle into mediocrity.
Classic 80-20 culture.
Eighteen months later, five of the seven reps were exceeding quota. The other two were at 90%+ and climbing.
Revenue was trending toward $5 million.
Same market. Same product. Same compensation plan.
Different culture.
Here’s what changed.
Standards Became Non-Negotiable
The first shift was around what was acceptable.
In most sales organizations, hitting 70% of quota is tolerated. You’re not great, but you’re not getting fired either. You’re safe in the middle.
That tolerance for mediocrity becomes the culture.
We drew a clear line. If you’re consistently below 85% of quota, we’re going to figure out why and fix it. If you can’t or won’t get there, you’re not the right fit.
This wasn’t about being cruel. It was about being clear.
Some people hear that and think it’s creating a high-pressure, cutthroat environment. It’s not.
The difference is this: in cutthroat cultures, you’re on your own. Sink or swim. Figure it out or get out.
In excellence cultures, you’re supported. But the standard doesn’t move.
We’re going to coach you. Train you. Give you the tools and frameworks. But we expect you to use them and get better.
That clarity changes everything.
Development Became Systematic
The second shift was moving from hoping people get better to actually making them better.
Most sales organizations have some version of training. Onboarding for new hires. Maybe quarterly workshops. Perhaps an annual sales kickoff.
That’s not development. That’s event-based learning.
Real development is systematic. It happens every week. It’s built into the rhythm of how you work.
At this firm, we implemented pre-call planning and post-call debriefing for every significant opportunity. Not just for new people or underperformers. For everyone.
We ran weekly role-play sessions where the team practiced difficult conversations. Objection handling. Pricing discussions. Asking for referrals. The uncomfortable moments that most reps avoid.
We created a skills matrix. Each rep knew exactly what skills they needed to develop to move from good to great. They had a path.
The owner shifted from being the closer on every big deal to being the coach who made everyone better at closing.
This required discipline. It took time. It wasn’t glamorous.
But it worked.
Reps who were stuck at 65% of quota started hitting 90%. Then 100%. Then 110%.
Not because they suddenly got talented. Because someone finally showed them how to get better and held them accountable to doing the work.
Feedback Became Normal
The third shift was around feedback.
In most sales cultures, feedback happens in two scenarios. When someone’s crushing it and everyone celebrates. Or when someone’s failing and they’re about to get fired.
Everything in between is a feedback desert.
People show up, do their thing, and have no idea if they’re actually getting better or just treading water.
We made feedback constant and normal.
After every significant call, there was a debrief. What went well? What didn’t? What would you do differently next time?
In weekly 1:1s, managers asked: What’s one thing you’re working on getting better at this week? How can I help?
During team meetings, we’d review calls together. Not to shame anyone, but to learn collectively. Here’s what worked in this conversation. Here’s where we could have gone deeper. Here’s how someone else might have handled that objection.
The culture shifted from “don’t screw up” to “let’s get better together.”
When that happens, people stop hiding their struggles. They start asking for help earlier. They want coaching because they see it making them better.
Accountability Became Two Way
The fourth shift might be the most important.
In most sales cultures, accountability flows one direction. The rep is accountable to the manager for hitting their number. The manager is accountable to the VP. Everyone’s accountable “up.”
But nobody’s accountable “down.”
We flipped this.
Yes, reps were accountable for executing the process and hitting their targets. But managers were equally accountable for developing their people.
If a rep was struggling, the manager couldn’t just say “they’re not cutting it.” They had to show what they’d done to help that person improve.
Have you done pre-call planning with them this week? Have you listened to their calls? Have you role-played the conversations they’re struggling with? Have you given them clear feedback on what to change?
If the answer was no, the problem wasn’t just the rep.
This changed how managers showed up. They couldn’t just manage the dashboard. They had to manage the reality of helping people get better.
And when managers actually did that work, reps improved.
The Truth About Culture
Here’s what most leaders don’t want to hear.
You can’t build an excellence culture while tolerating mediocrity.
You can’t expect A-level performance while accepting C-level effort.
You can’t create a development culture without actually developing people.
Most sales leaders want the outcomes of a high-performance culture without doing the uncomfortable work required to build it.
They want everyone hitting quota but don’t want to have hard conversations with people who aren’t.
They want reps taking initiative but don’t want to give them real autonomy and accountability.
They want a team of closers but don’t want to invest time in actually coaching people to close better.
You can’t have it both ways.
Building the third type of culture requires you to make hard decisions. Fire people who won’t grow even when they’re nice people. Invest time in coaching even when you’re busy. Hold yourself accountable for developing your team even when it’s easier to just blame them for not performing.
That’s why most companies never build it.
Not because they can’t. Because they won’t do the work.
What Happens When You Build It
That services firm I mentioned earlier? They had a 67% increase in revenue from changing the culture.
The CRO told me something six months into the transformation.
“I used to think my job was to find talented people and get out of their way. Now I realize my job is to make everyone on my team better than they were when they joined.”
That shift in thinking changed everything.
Reps who would have been fired in most organizations got coached and developed. They became solid contributors.
Solid contributors became top performers.
Top performers became leaders who helped develop everyone else.
The culture became self-reinforcing. Excellence wasn’t something a few people had. It was something everyone was pursuing.
New hires would join and immediately feel the difference. This wasn’t a place where you showed up, made your calls, and hoped for the best. This was a place where you got better.
The interesting thing about excellence cultures is they’re actually easier to sustain than mediocre ones.
In mediocre cultures, you’re constantly fighting entropy. People regress to the mean. Your stars get recruited away. You’re always replacing underperformers with new people who eventually underperform.
In excellence cultures, momentum builds. People see others getting better and want that for themselves. Your stars stay because they’re still growing. Your B-players become the stars.
You’re not fighting gravity. You’re riding momentum.
The Seven Elements Every Excellence Culture Has
After working with dozens of sales organizations over the last twenty years, I’ve seen patterns in the ones that successfully build this third type of culture.
Clear standards. Everyone knows what good looks like. Not just quota, but behaviors. How we prepare for calls. How we handle objections. How we treat customers. The standard is visible and non-negotiable.
Systematic development. Getting better isn’t an event, it’s a process. Weekly coaching. Regular role-play. Skill-building that’s embedded in how you work, not bolted on.
Constant feedback. Not just annual reviews or quarterly check-ins. Daily, weekly feedback that’s specific and actionable. People know where they stand and what to work on.
Two-way accountability. Reps are accountable for performance. Managers are accountable for development. Both matter equally.
Visible growth paths. People can see how to get from good to great. There’s a skills matrix, a development plan, a path forward. They’re not guessing about what it takes to level up.
Psychological safety. You can admit what you don’t know. Ask for help. Practice new approaches. Fail in role-play without fear. The culture supports taking risks to get better.
Leadership commitment. The CEO, VP, or whoever runs sales is deeply involved in development. They’re in calls. They’re coaching. They’re modeling what excellence looks like.
Miss any one of these and you’ll struggle to build the culture. Have all seven and transformation becomes inevitable.
What This Requires From You
If you’re a sales leader reading this and thinking “I want that culture,” here’s what you need to know.
It’s going to require you to change first.
You can’t build an excellence culture from the top down by demanding it. You have to model it.
That means you need to get really good at coaching. Not just telling people what to do, but helping them develop the skills to do it well.
You need to get comfortable with difficult conversations. Telling someone they’re not meeting standards. Asking someone what they’re afraid of. Pushing when it would be easier to accept excuses.
You need to invest time differently. Less time in strategic planning meetings. More time listening to calls and debriefing them with your team.
You need to believe that people can actually get better with the right support. If you think talent is fixed and people either have it or they don’t, you’ll never build this.
Most importantly, you need to decide that this is worth it.
Building an excellence culture is harder in the short term than accepting mediocrity. It requires more from you. More time. More energy. More difficult conversations.
But it’s easier in the long term.
Because once you build it, you stop fighting the same battles over and over. You stop wondering why people aren’t performing. You stop hoping the next hire will be different.
You have a system that turns B-players into A-players. And that system compounds.
The Choice
You have two options as a sales leader.
Accept the 80-20 rule. Hope you can find enough stars to carry your mediocre middle. Tolerate underperformance because firing and replacing people is hard.
Or build the third type of culture.
The one where excellence is expected. Where development is systematic. Where B-players become A-players because someone actually shows them how.
Most leaders will read this and do nothing. They’ll agree with the concepts but won’t change how they operate. The work feels too hard. The timeline is too long. The requirements are too demanding.
That’s fine. Those organizations will keep being average.
But if you’re reading this and thinking “this is what I want to build,” you can.
It’s not magic. It’s not luck. It’s not about finding unicorn talent.
It’s about leadership. Standards. Development. Accountability. Feedback. Commitment.
Do that work consistently and you’ll build something most sales organizations never achieve.
A culture where everyone gets better. Where excellence is normal. Where B-players become A-players.
Not because you got lucky with talent.
Because you built a system that develops it.
Want us to help you? Email me back, let’s talk.
Questions our sales training programs? Email me at adam@thenorthwoodgrp.com.
