Building Great Sales Teams Requires Patient Farming, Not Desperate Hunting
Most companies build sales teams backwards. They post jobs on Indeed, rush through training, and expect immediate results. It’s like trying to harvest crops you haven’t properly planted yet. Then they wonder why turnover is high and performance is low.
Here’s what I’ve learned about building sustainable sales teams: it’s more like farming than hunting. You need to prepare the soil (culture), plant the right seeds (hiring), and tend to your crops (development) with patience and care.
The first mistake is looking for talent in the wrong places. The best salespeople rarely come from job boards - they come through networks. While everyone else is fighting over the same pool of active job seekers, smart leaders are tapping into their relationships with other sales leaders, industry connections, and trusted placement partners. They’re looking for talented people who might be open to a change because their current environment isn’t serving them well.
But finding good people is just the start. The real work begins with onboarding. Most companies treat training like a sprint when it should be more like building a house - you need a solid foundation before adding walls and a roof. That means taking time to immerse new hires in your company’s story and culture before diving into systems, products, and sales techniques.
The secret sauce? Front-loading your investment in people. It’s counterintuitive in today’s “time-to-revenue” obsessed world, but spending more time upfront with your team pays massive dividends later. Daily check-ins, weekly one-on-ones, team huddles - these aren’t just meetings, they’re investments in your people’s growth and your team’s culture.
Speaking of culture, the best sales environments balance high standards with high support. Think of it like athletic coaching - you push people to see bigger possibilities while giving them the tools and encouragement to get there. You create healthy competition while building genuine connections beyond just work.
Here’s what most miss: great sales teams aren’t built through sophisticated compensation plans or fancy tech stacks. They’re built through consistent, patient investment in people. It’s about understanding individual motivations, addressing challenges privately, and using data not just to track performance but to predict and prevent issues.
The companies that get this right don’t just build better sales teams - they build better businesses. Because when you invest in people first, the numbers follow.
Remember: you can’t rush a harvest, and you can’t rush building a great sales team. But if you’re willing to do the work upfront, you’ll reap the rewards for years to come.