Sustaining superior performance…
Whether you have been selling for two months or twenty years we all remember our first sale or the first objection we had to overcome. We also remember the times we struggled to sustain our level of performance and effectiveness, trying to rise above a plateau or break through to an even higher level of success.
I remember when I first started; trying to learn everything I could about media & advertising, striving to understand my products strengths & weaknesses and more importantly those of my competition. I was prepared, confident in my products ability to produce a return for my advertiser’s investment. With a briefcase full of layouts I was eager to show my accounts everything that my newspaper could do for their businesses. Looking back I now realize the most important asset I had was my first ad manager… right there with me making calls. Dennis was a long time newspaperman who told me once I got ink in my blood I would be hooked… I guess he was right. He was old (he must have been in his late forties… gee how time flies), spoke with a thick Scottish accent, (which somehow added to his air of confidence), and seemed to know everything about advertising. He explained that confidence comes from experience and experience comes from time… “You can’t rush it but you can learn something every day from your interactions with your accounts”.
Our sales calls together were coaching calls, although I didn’t know to call them that at the time. I did know enough to recognize that this was an opportunity not to be missed. The simple lessons learned from his “experience” are still with me today.
Experts tell us superior performance occurs because when we are committed to doing our very best. As sales professionals our willingness to be coached, or mentored, increases our effectiveness by allowing us to see our actions through someone else’s objective perspective. Giving us the feedback we need to continue learning and improving.
Coaching consists of two main components - Responding to Needs and Initiating Alternatives.
Responding to needs - Counseling, mentoring, and tutoring are coaching conversations that respond to needs… help with a current project or task, clarification about conflicting priorities, or help with a personal work issue. Needs may also address career or developmental goals or long-term learning projects. Don’t be afraid to ask for assistance. Remember, the person you may ask for help, regardless how successful they may be, once faced the same challenges you now face. You have the opportunity to gain perspective and learn from their “experience”. That is the true definition of a Mentor… an experienced and trusted counsel or teacher.
Initiating alternatives - Your manager may perceive that you are ready to move on to more difficult challenges and take the initiative to present you with such a possibility. Or they may see that you need assistance and discuss the situation with you in order to “coach” you through your challenges. You may also identify a challenge or an area for improvement and choose to discuss it with your manager or coach.
Coaching establishes the major factors that lead to success: it clarifies and prioritizes; it helps us understand what is important and what is not; it invites us to demonstrate influence over our own performance and career by improving the knowledge skills and abilities we need to do our best. Coaching helps us to focus our energy, exercise self-control, and commit to excelling in our performance.
It takes a confident sales person to know when they can use the assistance of their manager and be open to assistance when it is being offered. Being open to being coached not only helps us improve our performance; it also assists in challenging us to reach for even higher goals.
I’ve learned a lot from all the great coaching managers and sales staff I have been fortunate enough to work with over the years and from Dennis’s coaching I remember to… strive to learn from my experiences every day.
Seek out your coach or mentor… whether your current manager or someone else where you work. Their experience will assist you in reaching your true potential. Then, when the opportunity presents itself you too can share your experience with others to create a never ending system of support for sustaining superior performance for yourself and your team.
