This week I met with a client to prepare for an upcoming keynote. We were discussing some of the company’s DEI challenges, and I heard the familiar comment, “We struggle to get the sales team to care. They don’t get why it’s important.”
It’s a common struggle: in many cases, DEI events are voluntary, and many folks on the sales team are in the field. How do you reach them? How do you get them to care?
It starts with embedding DEI into the sales meetings and getting the senior leaders at those meetings to care. But there are a few other tricks, best summarized in this lovely feedback I received from a client: They were VERY appreciative of the practical tips for relating to their clients and candidates. I personally felt that her focus on those folks, over their own colleagues, also may have made this feel more like a professional development session than "another DEI lecture" for those that are less receptive to our DEI council's efforts.
The sales team is financially motivated. To reach them, share any myriad bits of data about the financial benefits of diversity. Then talk about DEI and cultural competency more broadly in terms of how it relates to their clients and candidates – how do they establish trust with, and NOT accidentally offend their increasingly diverse client and candidate base? No one, especially no one in sales, likes to embarrass themselves in front of a client.
Here are the good vibes I found this week:
- ‘Peppa Pig’ Gets Its First Same-Sex Couple – Two Polar Bear Mommies
- A Swimming Cap Made for Black Hair Gets Official Approval After Previous Olympic Ban
- The Hubspot Culture Code: “Better to Try and Sometimes Fail Than to Sit Tight...and Fail for Sure.”
- U.S. Soccer Players Formally Sign Equal Pay Agreements
- If Your Family Makes Less Than $100,000 per Year, Princeton Will Cover All Your Tuition
Learn more about John Avila here: https://www.avilacreativeinc.com/
Read the full blog here: https://www.theequalityinstitute.com/equality-insights-blog/5-things-the-sales-team
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