Perhaps you've heard the management adage, you can’t manage what you don’t measure.
Studies show that sales coaching, not training or performance management is by far the most powerful tool for improving sales performance. Yet there are a number of obstacles that stand in the way of sales managers consistently providing effective sales coaching.
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There are sales managers who coach, mentor and develop their salespeople and there are sales managers who don't. Sales managers who fail to coach are not necessarily bad managers, but they are neglecting an amazing opportunity and the most effective management practice for improving sales performance. In this blog post I’m going to share with you some of the key differences between sales managers who coach and those who neglect sales coaching. I’m also going to share with you three reasons why managers should dedicate more time to sales coaching,
Do you want to lead your sales team and each of your team members to achieve even greater success? As the manager do you want to increase the value of each of your team members? Of course you do! Sales coaching is the proven vehicle to make it happen. In fact, a study conducted by the American Management Association found that firms that provide optimal sales coaching achieve 17% greater annual revenue growth than those that don't. Another study conducted by CSO Insights found that organizations that have a formal coaching program achieve 28% higher win rates. Those are some pretty gaudy numbers, and the numbers don't lie. But you might be wondering, what exactly is sales coaching and what skills make a good sales coach?
What exactly is sales coaching and what does sales coaching entail? You hear a lot about sales coaching these days. It’s one of the key skills of the modern sales manager. In this blog post I'm going to provide an overview of sales coaching. Think of it is as sales coaching 101, the what, why and how.
Our lives have become inundated with feedback. Think about all of the apps on your phone that you use to grab a ride, rent a villa, book a hotel room, make dinner reservations. They all give you the option for feedback. It's all about feedback but manager feedback is not sales coaching. In fact, the difference between sales coaching and manager feedback is significant. So what is my issue with feedback?
Many sales organizations have invested more time, money and effort over the past few years training their sales managers to improve their sales coaching skills then they did in the previous twenty-five. This makes perfect sense when you consider a recent report conducted by the Sales Executive Council shows that no other productivity investment comes close to improving sales performance than sales coaching.
Anyone who has been in sales management for any length of time knows that the key to retaining salespeople and transforming average sales performers into top performers is sales coaching. Yet the roadblocks and reasons for sales managers not being able to consistently engage their salespeople in sales coaching is endless.
Imagine going to your family doctor for your regularly scheduled check up and after catching up and discussing your your holiday plans and how your kids are doing, your doctor instantly gives you a clean bill of health. Your doctor never asked any questions about how you feel, didn't listen to your heart or check your vitals. This would never happen right, right? Doctors take their job and responsibility pretty seriously and because doctors take a holistic approach to diagnosing their patients.
Having worked with hundreds of IT staffing CEO's and business owners, I’ve heard more than my fair share of frustrations and complaints over salespeople spending too much time on the wrong activities. I'm talking about salespeople spending hours a day on non selling activities such as servicing existing customers and consultants, formatting resumes, prepping candidates, conducting sales research, preparing client facing content, writing emails and many others. They say "how can I get my salespeople to spend more time prospecting for new business and meeting with prospective customers? The answer to that question lies in the reasons for why salespeople are in fact spending so much time on these non selling sales activities.