A culture of autonomy means giving your sales team the freedom to decide and act. This requires a clear vision and alignment around core values, priorities, and tasks, which will allow for determining the boundaries within which employees can move freely. In this way, a culture can be created that allows leaders and managers to adopt a less interventionist and invasive approach regarding their sales teams’ activities.

The point is that salespeople, when they feel in control of their own pitches, are motivated and, as a result, in most cases, more productive. Therefore, a key tenet for achieving a culture of autonomy is the need to combine it with responsibility and accountability within the workplace. Also worth saying, these should not be seen as opposing forces in need of balance: if a sales leader sees that a salesperson on his team is responsible and that there is a level of mutual trust, it will be easier, and more likely, that the employee will be allowed more autonomy.

That is why trust is key: without trust, autonomy cannot exist and, therefore, the need to control the details, to manage closely, arises.

It is also prudent to say that autonomy works well within a particular and defined environment. Teams that can work well within their wider environments can generate growing levels of trust if they can remain transparent in their work and seek to understand the rules, which are often implicit, and expectations of their organizations.

Setting structured expectations for your sales team

The best way to set structured expectations is to implement processes and systems: frameworks strong enough to reinforce expectations, but flexible enough to allow autonomy in a way that works well in your organization’s environment.

The truth is, many sales leaders and managers want to talk about accountability, but they don’t know how to develop a formal sales accountability plan that includes specific metrics and measurable results. Therefore, below we list some useful points to develop an accountability plan that allows the employee to earn autonomy:

Ensure your organization is measuring the right activities that salespeople should be participating in daily

Without a clearly defined set of guidelines around certain aspects (such as the number of self-generated leads, sales presentations that need to be made in specific time frames, etc.) there will be a constant confusion about what your sales representatives should be doing on an ongoing basis. Having clearly defined responsibilities throughout the process (instead of simply “just hit your goal”) is the foundation of any solid sales accountability plan.

Ensure you coach your salespeople on daily or weekly basis

Sales coaching should be delivered by managers and leaders who are willing to address behaviors and processes in real time, as it is ideal to constantly measure, analyze, and correct your sales team’s metrics with the goal of continuous improvement.

Clearly define the level of authority

To keep the momentum going in the sales process and ultimately close deals, your representatives need to know exactly what they can (and cannot) do to serve customers, make price concessions, negotiate, leverage customer support, etc

Ensure that the levels of responsibility and authority match

If they are not assigned at clear and equal levels, several problems will arise for the entire sales organization. Too much responsibility and too little authority equals frustration. Too much authority and too little responsibility equals abuse of power. Find a balance

Reward your salespeople for doing the right thing

Clarify the expectations of your sales accountability plan and provide your representatives with the tools to achieve milestones. Give them the coaching they need to reach their goals and then recognize them for positive achievements

Great leadership is characterized by all sorts of activities and attributes, but giving employees autonomy can be one of the most impactful. Autonomy does not mean totally free choice or abandonment of responsibility. Quite the contrary: autonomy must be given productive limits and significant restrictions in order to have the best effects, and for the employee to be able to exercise his autonomy more effectively.