Sales coaching is the management No. 1 activity that drives sales performance. The only problem is that managers have not been taught how to effectively coach. Coaching is a skill that takes time to perfect and unless effectively coached or trained managers make all types of blunders.

Do You Want To Increase Sales Performance?

Transforming your sales managers from good to great coaches can have a dramatic impact on sales. In fact, sales coaching is the management No. 1 activity that drives sales performance. The only problem is that managers have not been taught how to effectively coach. Coaching is a skill that takes time to perfect and unless effectively coached or trained managers make all types of blunders.

As the head of sales or as a frontline sales manager you can greatly enhance the performance of your sales team if you can develop great coaches.

Coaching Blunder #1 – “Telling vs. Asking Coaching”

As a sales manager you probably were a top sales rep. You may still see yourself as a problem-solver, like “If I solve this rep’s issue then she/he can make the sale.” As a result of your action orientation you are likely to tell the salesperson how to solve the issue. “Telling” does not create self-managing salespeople. In fact, there are numerous downsides to the tell-first approach.

First, you are not empowering your sales reps, who may perceive you as being a micro manager. Second, you are also creating a dependency on you to be their problem-solver. This creates endless emails, phone calls and resulting in needy reps. And third, you are not developing them. One of the critical areas for development is the ability to be a self manager.

Be aware of when you are in “tell” mode and remind yourself, when you have fallen into a bad habit.

Coaching Blunder #2 – “I’ll get to it Coaching”

Time management is a challenge we all face. With emails, meetings and administrative work what is a sales manager to do? If sales results are what you desire then the easy answer is to do the activities that will drive the greatest revenue. Generally we do the busy work first as they are the easiest to. It feels good when we are up to date on our emails. The stress is reduced when we have all our reports in on time and we have followed up on all our messages.

But all those activities don’t contribute to the bottom line. If great sales coaching can have a direct impact of up to 19% more sales, why is coaching not the #1 priority?

Stop making excuses and get out of the office. Get out in the field and make coaching your #1 priority. Your boss will thank you and your reps will make lots of money.

Sales’ coaching is the No. 1 management activity that drives sales performance. The only problem is that managers have not been taught how to effectively coach. Coaching is a skill that takes time to perfect and unless effectively coached or trained managers make all types of mistakes. This is the 3rd in a series of coaching pitfalls that mangers should avoid.

Coaching Blunder #3 “Laundry List Coaching”

Personal growth and change is a challenge for all of us. We all have strengths and areas for development. Mangers who decide who create a laundry list of areas for development will have little success. It is too difficult for sales rep to make wholesale changes in how they sell. Development is about working on improving 1 or 2 things and once the sales person has demonstrated that they have acquired the skill or behaviour then you can move on to the next area. 

From a sales reps perspective imagine getting a field report listing all of the things you do wrong? Some reps would not even read the report. Many will read and wonder where I start. Others may read it and be completely overwhelmed.

Great coaching is about focus focus and focus. Helping a sales rep improve in one area of their job can have a major impact on their performance.

Coaching Blunder #4 “One Size Fits All Coaching”

One of the key pitfalls sales managers fall into is when the take the “one size fits all approach”.

 How many times have we witnessed a sales rep working in auto pilot? This is the rep doing the same sales pitch to each customer and delivering the message in the same way. As coaches we fail to see when we go into auto pilot, taking the same approach with each rep.

Do you ever find yourself coaching all your reps the same way? Your feedback to each rep is the same? You have fallen into the rut of one size fits all coaching. Coaching differs from training. Training is about having everyone learn the same information or skills. Coaching on the other hand is about diagnosing each reps particular area for improvement. It is about adapting your coaching style to the individual and about developing individualised development plans.

Coaching is a one to one sport. It is about growing individuals to develop to their full potential.

Coaching Blunder #5 – “Way to go Coaching”

One of the key blunders managers make is not getting a commitment to change. They have done a perfect job coaching by asking all right questions, come to agreement on areas for development but forget to get buy in on how the problem will be fixed. When the manger and rep agree on an area for development it is critical to have the rep buy in to what steps they will take to develop.

This requires a simple 3 or 4 point plan which includes what the sales rep will do between coaching sessions. The key is to have the rep develop their own next steps and your role becomes one of holding them accountable. Without this in place the odds are that there will be no change in rep behaviour or skills on the next coaching session.

Great coaching means great performance. Sales organizations that embrace a coaching culture and invest in their front line managers’ ability to coach will have a competitive advantage and outsell the competition.

It is very lonely in the world of blogging, so getting comments from clients is a validation that people are reading your thoughts.

After my last blog 5 Ways to Gauge Your Sales Managers’ Coaching, I heard from several clients. One VP of Sales loved the article and asked for copies for his Directors of Sales. Two heads of sales from different companies liked the post but did not want to send it out to their frontline sales managers because of my comment (see below) that coaching was more important than administration. Neither wants their sales managers to feel that it is OK to spend time in the field and avoid administration.

“Like many of us, managers tend to spend their time on the activities they are the best at and most enjoy.  A manager who focuses extensively on administrative tasks like submitting reports on time probably is less comfortable coaching. The manager who finds creative ways to get into the field and spend more time with sales reps probably sees the value of this time. Remember that administration doesn’t generate revenue or help develop your salespeople and that time spent in the field improves your reps’ ability to be the best they can be”.
 
Both were struggling with individual sales managers who were not completing their administrative duties on time and they were tired of excuses. So by sending this article out they felt that they would provide an additional rationale for the sales managers to avoid completing their administrative work.

For the head of sales, managers not getting reports from their direct reports affects their ability to do their job — hence their frustration with their reports that are not on top of their admin. I can certainly see their points of view and  I took two key points away from our discussions:

1. It is always important to manage your boss and keep them happy. Even though the administration doesn’t generate revenue, the old adage that “the job ain’t finished until the paperwork is done” holds true.
2. It reinforces my article that a Head of Sales has little visibility as to how well his or her managers coach. Given that lack of visibility, frontline sales managers can be poor coaches but perceived as good managers by their bosses.

The intended message of my blog was that coaching is the No. 1 management activity that drives performance. In fact, going from good coaching to great coaching can increase sales by 19 percent.  The long term impact of developing and retaining your salespeople is critical for the extended success of a sales organization. Given my experience with coaching many sales managers I find that coaching skills are an area that even the most successful sales manager can improve upon.

The message? Great coaching = great performance. Getting the paperwork completed = happy boss.

Do both and be great and happy!