Coaching Your Sales People

Good sales managers spend a significant portion of their time on the coaching and development of their salespeople.  This is your opportunity to become a difference maker in your salespeople’s career.  Something you need to understand is this:  Your entire value to your company is based on the difference between your sales force’s performance unmanaged and their performance under your tutelage.  That’s how you earn your money – by getting your people to perform better than they could on their own.

Of course, coaching salespeople could entail an entire book – and will when I write that book – but this article is designed to give you the basics.  You aren’t trying to get your salespeople to sell like you; you are trying to produce profitable behavior change.  This means that, anytime you can improve their abilities, it’s a win – even if they’re selling differently than you.  I emphasize this because too many sales managers want salespeople to sell in their own image.  That doesn’t work, and in fact, it’ll shut salespeople down.  So, with that, here is an eleven-point plan for effective coaching:

1. Observe them in the real world.  Yes, you can coach through role-playing or training.  However, to be the most effective, you should coach based on an actual sales call.  Get out of your office and ride along, preferably on multiple calls.  On multiple calls, you can observe patterns of behavior.
2. Define the call objective correctly.  Your salesperson should have an objective for the call – deepening a relationship, advancing a sales process, initiating or closing a sale, etc.  You should define their objective prior to the call.  Then you should define your objective, which is to observe the call and the salesperson in the real world.  Make it clear that you won’t be helping, and that you’ll speak as little as possible.  You’re there to help them on future calls, not this call.  NOTE:  there may be joint calls where you are there expressly to help win the business (for instance, a very important account).  That’s okay, but define that with the salesperson beforehand.  And you should have a good mix of coaching calls with “assisting” calls.
3. Have the right attitude in the calls.  The reason most sales managers fail in coaching is that they have the wrong approach during observation.  They’re focused on winning the business and selling, not on improving the skills of their salespeople. On coaching calls, you must not involve yourself and change the direction of the sales call!  You are an observer, not a participant.  Your entire focus should be on analyzing your salesperson’s in-call behavior. That means – and this is one of the most painful parts of sales management – that you must let them fail, if they are failing.
4. Observe the right things.  Your focus should be on the customer.  Watch for moments where the salesperson moves the customer closer to the call objective – and where they fail in doing so.  Take good notes – not on the customer’s needs and situation, as you would if you were selling – but on the salesperson’s questions and presentations, and how that affects the customer.  Is the customer participating and moving things forward, or is the customer pushing a rope uphill?  
5. Don’t curbside coach.  Here’s another aspect of effective coaching that can be really hard.  As soon as the call is over, your salesperson will be saying, “So, how did I do?”  You’ll have a head full of information that you want to give them.  Don’t.  At least not now.  There are two reasons for this.  First of all, you want to observe patterns; repeated patterns are the best place to coach.  Secondly, you need to take the time to organize your thoughts and prioritize your help and advice.  You can’t do either of those things if you’re curbside coaching on the spot.
6. Prepare and prioritize.  Take time after the joint calls to create a coaching feedback.  List the major things that the salesperson did right, and then list the major areas where the salesperson needs improvement.  Now it’s time to prioritize – you shouldn’t attempt to change more than three behaviors at a time.  If there are more than three behaviors that need coaching, prioritize.  Which three will generate the best ROI?  Focus narrowly – you can always revisit the other behaviors.
7. Set the right environment.  When coaching your people, you want a neutral environment.  The conference room (with both of you on the same side of the table), lunch, even coffee at Starbucks – all of these are good.  At your desk with you on one side and the salesperson on the other – not so good.  (The only exception is when you’re coaching to prevent failure).  The office environment creates a power dynamic that prompts a salesperson to set up their defenses.  The message you want to send is that you are on the same side.
8. Avoid “Do it like me.”  Your salesperson isn’t you, nor do they have to be in order to succeed.  But if you try to get them to sell just like you, you’ll put up their defenses and they’ll be reluctant to adopt new behaviors.  Instead of, “I would have done this,” your philosophy should be, “This will produce a better result.”  Don’t be afraid to allow your salesperson to adapt techniques to their own selling style.
9. Sell, don’t dictate.  This is where your selling skills come to the fore.  Ultimately an improvement in the salesperson’s selling skills will benefit them through higher productivity.  The temptation is to dictate what they ‘must’ do; however, it’s better to sell them on what they ‘should’ do.  Present the benefits of adopting the new behavior, and then close and gain commitment.
10. Role Play.  After selling the new behavior or technique, you should immediately role-play the new behavior.  Go back to the situation in question during the call.  You be the customer, and have the salesperson role-play the scenario, implementing the new technique.  Repeat until they get it right.
11. Revisit.  To make sure that the salesperson is implementing the new techniques or behaviors, you should go back out on joint calls within 2-3 weeks after the coaching session.  Don’t get discouraged if you have to go back and redo the coaching. Sometimes it takes repetition to truly teach the new behavior.