If your sales are going to grow, your salespeople have to grow. To make that happen your sales leaders have to be great coaches.
Today more than ever before, executives are asking their sales leaders to produce higher levels of sales to boost bottom line profits. They have cut operational costs in all areas of the business. Many have grown all they can by acquisition. Now leaders are counting on organic sales growth to achieve high levels of profitability, and sales leaders must produce higher levels of results.
THE CHALLENGE: NOT A PRIORITY
Managers know that one of their primary responsibilities is improving the performance of their teams, but they struggle to find the time to invest to build their skills. Sales experts tell us that 75% of front line sales manager’s time should be invested in motivating, coaching, and overseeing the performance of their teams. Yet, most sales managers fail to invest this kind of time with their people. Instead they get pulled into corporate initiatives, building sales support tools, handling cross-functional requests, filling reporting demands and fail to spend enough time with their reps to make a difference in how their people sell.
MANAGING RESULTS — NOT BEHAVIORS
Managers often engage in coaching conversations that fail to get specific enough. Instead of pinpointing precise behaviors, skills, and the actions their people need to engage or omit in order to be successful. They talk in generalities. Coaching conversations sound much like performance reviews. General statements like “We need to get those appointments up” or “Let’s work on closing more of these accounts” fail to drill down to the actions and skills needed to actually accomplish these goals.
TELLING VS. ASKING
Managers often find themselves doing most of the talking when coaching their people instead of asking great questions that determine the mindset of the salesperson that will guide them to know how best to intervene. The DEFINE® coaching model taught by Enhanced Sales Potential incorporates key questions to engage the participation of the salesperson.
GETTING COMPLIANCE VS. ACHIEVING COMMITMENT
When a salesperson leaves a coaching conversation they should be invested in a co-designed plan, ready and excited to try new strategies, skills and behaviors. If managers merely ‘tell’ salespeople what to do, despite how much the salesperson ‘wants’ to improve, they do not yet have the means to do it. Then, because salespeople lack the skill, they eventually lose interest in coaching, become discouraged, and lose the desire to try. They also grow tired of ineffective coaching conversations. Practicing new behaviors, skills, and techniques during coaching is critical to building the confidence needed to execute on the next sales call.
HOW THE DEFINE® COACHING MODEL WORKS
The DEFINE® coaching model literally provides a ‘script’ for managers to follow. It is written in a simple format that incorporates steps that build the relationship between the manager and salesperson, and encourages the salesperson to take a more active role in their own development by including multiple questions.
The model provides a roadmap or process that helps sales managers remember to incorporate the very same skills they use when selling to influence the actions and behaviors of their customers when they were salespeople themselves. Questions are built into the model to help the manager evaluate what, how, and in what specific way they must intervene to improve each sales rep’s performance. Without first asking questions and completely understanding what the salesperson is currently thinking and acting, the manager cannot be precise when coaching.
Specifically, the model forces the manager to ask questions before attempting to change or influence the salesperson.
Perhaps the most valuable part of the DEFINE® coaching process is how it forces the manager to be precise and specific when describing what actions the salesperson is doing well, creating success and leading to results. This gives the salesperson not only acknowledgement and encouragement, but also forces the rep to think about how to leverage these strengths to achieve further wins.
By getting specific when identifying areas to improve or change, the manager is forced to determine specifically ‘how’ actions must change for different results to happen. Skills are taught, practiced, and confirmed through demonstration, role-play, and reverse role- play. In this way, the salesperson is equipped to try something new and act in new ways when they leave the conversation.
CHANGING THE WAY REPS THINK
At times, the coach must realize that it is not an issue of ‘skill’ that is missing, rather, it is a ‘will’ issue. By first understanding the mindset or perspective of the salesperson, the coach must enroll them in a new perspective or new ‘mindset’ that includes a fresh or expanded and empowered point of view that naturally unleashes their skill and talent. For example, some salespeople know how to ask for a referral, but have the mindset that referrals put customers in an uncomfortable position, feeling obligated and awkward. Until the salesperson can see referrals as an ‘opportunity’ for the customer to help others in their network, the salesperson will not ask. By enrolling the salesperson into a new, more empowering perspective or mindset, the coach unlocks the activity and skill the salesperson was unable to engage.
PROVIDING COACHING SKILLS TO YOUR MANAGERS
Just as salespeople need skills to become more effective, managers also need skills to become effective as coaches. Teaching and using the DEFINE® sales coaching training will improve the coaching skills of your managers, and improve the results your salespeople will be able to achieve. Recently, an energy company in Texas implemented the DEFINE® coaching model, as well as a sales process for their inbound telesales group. Sales improved from a 26% conversion rate to over 42% within 5 months resulting in millions of dollars of added revenue for the company.
To find out more about the DEFINE® coaching model and other ways to develop your sales managers, contact Enhanced Sales Potential at 800.880.6607 or 404.863.7992.