An Inside Look at the Art and Science of Coaching Salespeople

There are many executives who spend time with their salespeople, either face to face or on the phone, and believe they are providing valuable coaching. It’s likely that any time manager and salesperson spend together is valuable however, let’s not assume that it’s really coaching that is taking place.

One of the professionals I coach enjoys providing me with the details of accounts, calls, pipeline and schedule. He wants me to know how much he has going on. I call this activity ‘off loading’. Some salespeople need to off load and want your input. But let’s not fool each other. This is not coaching. It’s more like horrible debriefing. It would be effective debriefing if you were asking the questions and your salesperson was answering them. But to spend time listening to a salesperson provide details that are important only to him is not effective coaching or debriefing.

So what should happen instead? While your salesperson needs to off load, it must be separate from the coaching that takes place. The coaching session qualifies as coaching only when you help a salesperson improve, grow, become stronger and more effective. It should culminate with a lesson learned, an epiphany, and some action to be taken by the salesperson.

Don’t allow valuable coaching time to be monopolized by off loading. If you’re going to coach someone, make sure that actual coaching takes place.

In its simplest form, sales coaching consists of the following two activities:

1. Pre-Call Strategizing – coaching prior to selected calls to make sure that the salesperson has a good reason for having the upcoming call, a desired outcome, a game plan or strategy, and the appropriate questions/dialog to achieve the desired outcome.
2. Post-Call Debriefing – coaching after selected calls to discover the true outcome of the call, why the salesperson got that outcome, and what they could have done differently or more effectively

Coaching should be performed on the following time line:

• daily
• 10-15 minutes
• with each salesperson
• pro actively not passively

Coaching has the following hierarchy:

• facts
• strategy
• role-play
• lesson-learned
• action plan

Let’s look at what’s required for effective coaching. Some of it is tangible and measurable while some isn’t. Effective Sales Coaching requires:

• standardized formal sales process so we can talk specifically about where we are in the process with this specific opportunity;
• world-class listening and questioning skills so that we can ask the questions to go deeper and wider in role-plays;
• the ability to role-play the salesperson’s part of the sales call – no matter where it is or what it is;
• the ability to poke holes and question everything you hear;
• the ability to remain in the moment and not become emotionally involved;
• No Need for Approval so that you can say, ask or do whatever is necessary to get your salesperson to the next level;
• Patience – you can only take baby steps;
• Experience – you need to have been there;
• Wisdom – you have to just know!;
• Sense of Humor – keep it light;
• Respect of your Salespeople;
• Trust of your Salespeople;
• Relationship with your Salespeople.
• that the sales coach not be Too Trusting
• no assuming
• a strong grasp of the sales process
• common sense sales strategy
• large mastery of appropriate sales tactics
• debriefing skills
• role-playing skills
• confidence

These skills are all interdependent so even if a manager possesses many of these skills, lacking even one or two would still render their coaching ineffective at best.  For example, what if a sales manager owned the entire list except for role-playing skills?  She would never be able to demonstrate the best practice required.  If she owned the entire list except the company did not have a formal sales process (OMG’s data reveals that 91% of companies lack a formal sales process) it would be difficult for her to put the scenario into the proper context of time (when it should happen) and space (where it should happen).  If she owned the entire list except mastery of sales tactics it would be very difficult for her to discuss how it should happen.  If she owned the entire list except for debriefing skills, it would be very challenging for her to identify the underlying problem behind the issue at hand.

In my experience, most sales managers lack MOST of the skills on my list.

The second part of the coaching equation is frequency.  Salespeople need to be coached daily!  Most sales managers only provide coaching as needed.

The third part of the equation is consistency. The coaching process should be the same each time you coach a salesperson.  You want your salespeople to be comfortable with this process!

The fourth part of the equation is the credibility factor. Salespeople must trust you, respect you and have a good relationship with you.  If any of that is missing you’ll have a much more difficult time getting salespeople to have faith that your coaching is on the mark.

Finally, the last part of the equation is accountability – sales managers must hold salespeople accountable for implementing the lessons learned in each coaching session.

How effective are you at coaching your salespeople?