Sales coaching aims to develop a team’s skills in their daily sales activities and also helps improve work methods and procedures by providing practical tools and genuine on-the-ground support. Discover the benefits of coaching and how to apply it to become a true coach.
Coaching and Vision
Mark Roberge, HubSpot’s VP of Sales, says that “there’s a huge difference between the skills a salesperson needs and those a manager needs“. A manager’s role is to help their teams succeed. Management, control, and organizational tasks are added to their own operational duties.
Being a good manager isn’t something you improvise, and coaching is an essential aspect of management, even if it’s still rarely applied. It is considered a true collaborative process. When done well, it has the power to improve the performance of your top salespeople, motivate your teams in general, and fill the gaps of your underperforming salespeople. This tool directly impacts the levers of intrinsic motivation because it helps develop your teams’ autonomy, mastery, and sense of value. Nevertheless, there is a real gap between what managers think their teams expect and their teams’ actual expectations.
In the book by Andris A. Zoltners, Prabhakant Sinha, and Sally E. Lorimer – Building a Winning Sales Management Team: The Force Behind the Sales Force – a study on coaching was conducted in several mid-sized companies, SMEs, and multinationals. Regardless of the company’s size, the impact of coaching proved significant. In a mid-sized company with several hundred salespeople, daily 10-minute coaching sessions per salesperson were implemented by managers. Salespeople who received this coaching experienced 17% growth in achieving their objectives, unlike those who were not coached.
CORRELATION BETWEEN COACHING AND OBJECTIVE ACHIEVEMENT
“Evaluation doesn’t help you do your job better – coaching does.”
– Thomas Steenburgh, Associate Professor of Marketing, Darden School of Business.
Become a True Coach
Coaching remains underdeveloped because certain obstacles exist. Few companies train their sales managers and directors to be true coaches, who motivate, instruct, help, and coach their teams.
According to a recent study detailed in the book by Andris A. Zoltners, Prabhakant Sinha, and Sally E. Lorimer – Building a Winning Sales Management Team: The Force Behind the Sales Force:
- 22% of companies train their sales managers and directors beyond their operational tasks.
- 11% of trained managers are not sufficiently trained and encounter difficulties in helping their teams progress.
A sales manager must possess a true coaching spirit to coach their teams properly. For most, it’s a matter of practice and experimentation to succeed. Here are some common manager mistakes we advise you to avoid:
Talking Too Much
Coaching should not become a lecture where you show off your skills. While your experience may be relevant and even useful, your focus should be on your teams. Let them speak to understand their needs, how to help them, and collaborate together. Resist the urge to dictate in an overly prescriptive manner how everyone should do their job. Coaching should be a two-way street, and a relationship of trust must be established between you and your teams. Survey them, organize meetings, and together develop solutions to help everyone grow and learn in the most natural and pleasant way possible.
Not Listening
Far too many managers seem to be listening when they are simply waiting for their turn to speak and impose their ideas. Ignoring, neglecting, or simply not listening to your teams is a huge obstacle to the success of your coaching. Offer your expertise and complement, correct, or expand on the points raised by your teams, but avoid imposing your ideas too directly. This will prove your competence while showing that you care about them. They will be grateful, rest assured.
Another important point is body language. Be attentive, and you will detect each person’s problems and discomfort. It is with this information and attentive listening that you will best coach your teams.
Expecting Results Too Quickly
Change takes time. Of course, you want your teams to improve quickly, but rushing them will only stress them out. Find intermediate goals, break down tasks, and you will give them the opportunity to achieve more regularly. Furthermore, a well-segmented task will be completed faster than a long, indigestible task composed of a single block. Coaching is effective, but like any practice, it requires time and adjustment to be optimal. Adjust your sessions based on your teams’ feedback, implement a regular program, and the results of your efforts will soon be felt.
Coaching is therefore an ultra-effective tool if you apply it correctly.
Develop it and watch your sales teams naturally improve their performance.