As a former professional sportsman, I often find myself working with corporate sales teams. Perhaps it’s due to the similarities between team sports and sales organisations. Both are incredibly results-driven, there are high levels of inter-team competition, you can’t fake performance, there’s ego involved, and much more.

Over my career in sport, I saw a shift from what I would describe as ‘old school’ coaching, more autocratic and dictatorial, to a more relationship-driven and developmental style. That isn’t to say that old school coaches couldn’t do development, or that current coaches can’t take a dictatorial approach, but I would say the method chosen by most successful coaches nowadays has moved towards prioritising relationships and development.

So why did this shift happen? 

Things don’t change unless they significantly impact results, and over time, teams that focused on building developmental, long-term cultures started to win more. As simple as that.

I often work with sales teams, but in no way am I qualified to train them on sales technique, that’s not my area of expertise. What I focus on is the environment in which sales techniques are used. The culture, the knowledge sharing, the onboarding, the mood. These are consistent performance factors in all areas where humans are involved.

Now, I can only speak from my experience and the research I’ve studied, but most sales teams can be split into one of two categories: Development cultures and Attrition cultures.

Before I move on, allow me to define the two:

Attrition Cultures involve very quick hiring processes, rapid onboarding, and very high turnover, but this is okay, as it’s a ‘hire fast, fire fast’ mentality. Get them in, see if they can cut it. If they can: great. If they can’t: the door’s over there. It’s more of a survival-of-the-fittest environment, where training is very tangible (sales technique), and the atmosphere tends to be ruthless.

Development Cultures involve much slower and more deliberate recruitment, with a higher degree of certainty in the person you’re bringing in. Once they enter the environment, they’re trained consistently, the onboarding is longer and more structured, people are incentivised to help others succeed, and there’s a strong focus on process-over-outcome thinking.

So, which one would you rather be a part of? I’m assuming most people would prefer the development culture, slightly less pressure. I would argue that at least 85% of all sales teams I’ve seen would fall under the attritional column.

Why Is That?

Most sales leaders I speak with want to run development cultures and implement the long-term, sustainable habits that people often write about. The problem is:

• The average lifespan of a Director of Sales is 18 months

• Most teams work on monthly or quarterly sales cycles, with targets laid out by demanding executives

So which culture delivers results faster? Without a doubt, an attrition culture will lead to faster results.

• Accurate hiring takes longer

• Effective onboarding takes longer

• Time for team meetings to build culture and share knowledge is time away from the phones or BD

• Waiting for someone to develop takes longer

When the pressure is on to get results quickly, you go to the playbook you know and trust, and in the world of sales, the attritional route is more reliable.

So Why Not Just Run an Attritional Culture Then?

Attritional cultures have certain side effects that can kneecap you. They tend to be highly competitive, which leads to less knowledge sharing. They have higher churn, meaning people don’t stick around, which in turn disincentivises relationship building, and we know that knowledge sharing flows when relationships grow.

Quicker hiring means worse hires, who negatively affect the environment. Success is contagious, and so is failure. The old saying rings true: winning is a habit, and losing is a disease.

There’s lower trust in attritional environments. I often say that people who create low-trust environments raise the floor but lower the ceiling—they guarantee a minimum standard but prevent truly excellent performance. That’s why, in a high-pressure environment, attrition is often turned to.

It’s also an easier environment to leave. People will often be looking for a slightly easier ride, and if the opportunity arises to succeed and enjoy it a little more, they’ll take it.

The Hidden Cost of Churn

I once ran an assessment for a company on how much churn at SDR level was costing them. When you factored in the time to recruit and train, the lost revenue when people left without achieving their potential, the extra work account executives had to do due to incompetent SDRs, and many other factors, each instance of churn cost, conservatively, £30k—and they were churning 3 a month.

But because this is a hidden cost and no one is accountable for it, it’s usually ignored. The real number we care about is the amount of sales made.

The Case for Development Cultures

Development cultures are often sidelined as they seem too fluffy or idealistic. But if you can weather the storm for even a few months, the compounding effect is vast.

In a development culture, teams build over time. Results fluctuate, but trend upwards. If you can recruit effectively and keep people together while consistently developing their skills, they continue to progress and improve. Knowledge sharing is higher, which means everyone gets better.

Development cultures still involve competition, and there is still a focus on results, but the method of getting there is very different.

Why Mood Matters

One of my key focuses is always the mood created in a team.

Mood affects decisions,
Decisions affect behaviour,
Behaviour affects outcomes.

If you aren’t deliberately and consistently driving the right mood—confidence, clarity, enjoyment—then you’re missing out on performance.

Development cultures can deliver better moods for selling. Attrition cultures can drive a fantastically competitive mood, which is why they’re so effective in the short term, but they’re also exhausting and lead to burnout and turnover.

Conclusion

Creating a development culture isn’t always easy. Deliberately implementing any culture is hard, for that matter. It’s what I spend my time helping people do. But if you can do it, I believe it’s where you develop a true edge.

Sales hasn’t quite made the shift that professional sport made a few years back, but I think it’s getting closer.

As a side note, attrition cultures aren’t inherently bad. And, as with all cultures, the success lies in mitigating their flaws. You can round off the harsh edges of an attritional culture and make it work for you, but if you let it run wild, it just isn’t sustainable for everyone involved.