Coaching for Success...

 

Nearly 90% of organizations will train sales managers to improve their coaching skills this year, according to a recent study by the Corporate Executive Board of more than 160 leading sales executives. While the link between effective sales coaching and better sales performance is widely known, the majority of sales organizations fail to realize the full potential of sales coaching.

First... Selling is hard work.  Even though the economy is showing signs of turning around, there are still significant challenges to overcome. Sales representatives are taking on more, facing new challenges, and making more customer contacts than ever -- but according to studies fewer than 55% of sales representatives make quota.

Confronted with these challenges, where should sales reps go for support, encouragement, and guidance to be successful? Sales reps should be turning to their sales leaders and managers -- the same studies indicate that having a defined and measured sales management system improves the likelihood of achieving Sales Targets by as much as 23%.

Sales managers that focus behavior in the right ways can create a system that revolutionizes entire teams leading to an exponential growth in revenue.  Yet most sales managers believe their effectiveness hinges on the traits they model for their team ... competencies like communication, organization, confidence, and time management skills. Meanwhile, not a single representative in these studies identified any of the same factors when describing the ideal manager.

Instead, sales representatives said they needed someone who understands their individual needs and can help them get better at the behaviors necessary to meet and surpass their goals; someone who can identify and share the current team best practices so that everyone can benefit from them. Most of all, they are looking for predictable, reliable, in-the-field coaching help to better identify and solve customer needs.
The solution for sales managers begins by equipping ourselves with a solid set of coaching disciplines built around a tightly integrated sales cadence that defines how and when the sales process rolls out, identifies where and how coaching will take place, and also captures vital information to set goals and quickly respond to changing performance and market conditions.  

A high-performance sales management system is divided into three areas, each area with a unique set of disciplines for sales manager to initiate with team members. Each discipline is designed to resolve issues and establish solutions immediately. Instead of going back-and-forth for hours over calls & email, these nine disciplines will assist in focusing & coaching their sales team.

First: Coaching the Team as a Group

1) Monthly Update Meetings: Produce a clean, accurate communication pipeline for the entire team to set a solid foundation for the upcoming month's workflow.
2) Regular Weekly Sales Meetings: Motivate & align the sales team by discussing team successes, goals, market conditions and areas to adapt & initiate change.
3) Frequent Learning Huddles: Kaizen... or continuous improvement. Boost the entire team's skills by discussing best practices around specific topics or tools... new objections faced... product deficiencies or issues.

Second: Coaching Individual Sales Representatives

4) 1:1 Forecast Meetings: Develop accurate and predictable sales forecasts with each rep projecting revenue and opportunities prior to the beginning of the month or sales cycle.
5) Daily Call Reports: Inspire sales reps to plan & meet fast-approaching deadlines by checking on their progress and offering advice on how to meet them. (This can easily be accomplished by accessing each reps Outlook for planned appointments and successes with each rep entering their PLANNED sales activity at least one day prior.)
6) 1:1 Pipeline Meetings: Build long-term pipeline health by discussing potential leads and opportunities identified from call reports that may close outside the current month or sales cycle.
7) Coaching Calls: Observe sales reps on Ride Along calls to coach and plan for their future development.
8) Monthly Sales 1:1 Meetings: Provide comprehensive coaching for success beyond the day-to-day feedback. In these meetings, you can review reps monthly progress report, discuss strategies, set goals, praise successes, and learn from failures.

Third: Assess & Report Sales Team Progress

9) Review & Report: Review department progress with your team and communicate progress reports to your manager to establish accountability, identify trends & ensure strategic alignment to company goals & objectives.
Sales managers who have made these nine disciplines their focus routinely see immediate, significant growth in open opportunities, speed to close, total sales volume, wins, and top line revenue.

Our recently researched and developed SM series has been designed to provide Sales Managers with the skills, processes and motivation to drive individual, team and business performance to face today’s challenges. With a focus on learning from both each other and thought leaders in sales and sales management, attendees have said these sessions have improved their management skills through a combination of practical exercises, work based activities and group idea sharing discussions.

Join us for our next sessions: SM022 – Coaching Salespeople Friday, August 16, 9:30 am – 1 pm, VPC & SM023 – Managing Sales Behaviour & Motivating Sales Success Friday, October 11, 9:30 am – 1 pm, VPC for useful tools, practices & tactics to effectively coach and motivate your team to even greater success.     

For more information on how our SM series and how to join our Sales & Sales Management discussion email me at bcrawley@metroland.com.