How and Why You Must Prioritize the Development of Employees

Luke Allen, President of OHD, and an expert in sales culture, returns to follow-up on the Attract episode, in which he and Sean Doyle discussed how to bring in A-players. The next part of the conversation centers around how to develop those people.

• Part of the development process begins when you attract people. You’ve painted a picture of their future with your company, and the development side is executing that plan.
• Luke’s company’s onboarding process begins long before the new employee starts. They build a profile for each new employee so that everyone knows something about the person before he even begins. 
• The company assigns an inside person who becomes a friend and mentor. They reach out a week before the new employee starts. They offer to answer any questions the new employee might have. 
• Before they even show up, they have a powerful perspective of the company.
• The new employee has a schedule for the whole week so they know what they’ll be doing and who they’ll be with.
• Marketing plays a key role in onboarding because it can impact how the employee perceives the company. It’s not just about creating customers who are raving fans, but also employees who are raving fans. They’ll share the details about the company with their friends who are also A-players.
• Companies that don’t follow through here lose their A-players, but they won’t lose their C-players. If you don’t build out a development plan for their futures, you’ll lose them. 
• People want to know their value within the company. They want to know where they are headed. Share the path you envision and how the employee can best get there.
• Customize by each person. Understand your people and what they really care about. It’s not always around money.
• If you’ve drawn the right people to your organization, those A-players will learn the process and perform well. It’s like a great athlete who doesn’t have to be trained to be fast. 
• If you discover that you have a C-player, don’t lower expectations. Be clear about what the culture demands. It’s a watershed moment that will either move them to a B-level or that person will leave without having to be fired because they don’t fit into the culture.
• When you’re proactively attracting key talent, share your expectations early on. 
• Sales training and consultants can’t fix culture. You can put together playbooks, but if your culture isn’t good, it won’t matter. 
• Lone wolves operate according to their own set of rules, and they may be very successful. But even high achievers will have watershed moments where they will fall in with company culture or they are going to be pushed out. Your team will notice if one member isn’t held to the same standard.
• With salespeople, as they grow in revenue, they grow in control. Executives can be held hostage by that kind of seller because they fear making change. 
• If you’ve got a pool of candidates, you won’t feel held hostage and your team will be less likely to push back against your culture because they know how the process works. 
• FitzMartin is all about a sales-first culture and a solid sales culture as well. We want you to find new ways to leverage marketing and sales. 
• Aligned is a podcast for executives of emerging middle-market companies; executives who are pursuing growth and looking for new levers to pull. 
• To connect with Sean Doyle, find him on LinkedIn, or learn more about FitzMartin on the company web page. 
• You can also connect with Luke Allen on LinkedIn.