A client asked me why do organizations really need their managers to become salkes coaches. It got me thinking we need to at times to go back to the basics so here they are:

1. Why do sales organizations need to coach?

Simply speaking because everyone can improve whether they are hitting their sales goals or not. Coaching is about getting people to see in themselves “what else is possible” in regard to improvement. Reps not hitting their numbers sometimes give or worse come up with “it’s not me; it’s the economy “type excuses. Sales coaching helps build performance improvement which leads to better selling success for those who are not achieving levels they would like. Second, for those who are achieving their goals it’s a way to insulate them from complacency and protecting the success they have achieved.

2. What are the fundamental challenges facing sales organizations and their sales leaders when starting a coaching program?

Most managers know how to tell people what to do but coaching is about asking questions and facilitating choices. Managers are prone to lead meetings and set expectations; whereas, coaching is about asking questions and getting sales people to make a “true” commitment to their pursuit of improvement. Without this commitment no training or coaching will ever be successful. Coaching sessions should be filled with questions that get reps to not only look in the mirror at themselves, but more importantly be able to define actions that will drive them in the direction performance improvement and selling success. Here are some effective coaching questions that can be asked:

• “What are you going to do to overcome that challenge successfully and how would y0opu like me to help you?
• What will you do to win that deal and what actions do you feel are needed to create such success?
• How will you overcome this challenge professionally and successfully?

I underlined some words because this is a form of getting the success criteria built-in to the question to drive the sales person in the right direction and frame of mind.

3. How can sales managers & leaders coach when their time is tight?

This is the biggest hurdle when organizations initially roll out a sales coaching program is the perception of time. Most managers view coaching as something where they sit with each employee for an hour per week. Actually managers have more choices when coaching their sales people than they even think. The following are coaching methods sales leaders can deploy to ensure performance improvement without at times even being physically present:

• One on One –  where a manager sits weekly with reps to discuss, role—lay, and simulate performance improvement in one or two key areas of development. The key is to focus on one or two areas to ensure they can apply what is being coached versus 7 to 10 things.

• Peer Coaching – pair up sales people and create activities where they discuss, role-play, and challenge one another. The key is to create well defined activity and then have them report back how the activity went so accountability is ensured. You can even use score sheets where they score one another during a role-play or simulation so management has feedback they can sue to co0ach each employee

• Group Coaching – An area such as cold calling or product knowledge could be the focus. Have staff break into smaller groups where they complete an activity and report back what they did. For example, one group could come up with 3 new creative selling questions and another group could come up with what they feel are the top 3 benefits of the product. This leads to high enagagement and sharing of best practices within a coaching delivery model

• Self-Directed Coaching – this is where sales leader prescribe an activity such as reading an article or book and the sales staff report back what they learned. Fore example, an article could be distributed and have each sales person email their manager one thing they learned they feel will help them create success (again accountability)

4. How can sales organizations keep employees learning & facilitating coaching opportunities for managers when time for employees is tight too?

This is an oxymoron at times. If we do not spend time getting better we do not all of a sudden get better arbitrarily. We need to perfect our craft as sales people and gaining performance improvement does not just happen because its demanded. The key is to schedule it, stick with that schedule so the employee knows it’s a strong commitment from management, and ultimately tie the coaching to their realm world. This way they won’t view coaching as this thing they have to do; rather, as a way to help them improve their sales.