Sales Management Training Goals for Coaching Sales Reps
One kind of sales management training gets cast aside more than any other is sales coaching, even though it may be the most important of all.
The reason is that sales managers have a lot on their plates. And sales coaching is one of those things that just gets tossed by the wayside for one reason and one reason only:
Sales managers simply don’t have time to coach their salespeople.
Even though “coaching moments” come to sales managers every day and the opportunity to improve sales productivity as well as that of your sales force is clearly there for the taking. But first, lets be first clear on why sales coaching is so important and most importantly, if you’re going to take the time to learn the sales management training concepts included in great sales coaching, you first need to know what your actual goals of coaching your sales reps.
In this sales management training, we will delineate what those primary goals are.
1. Develop increased competence
The first thing to keep in mind is that if you’re going to coach your sales reps you really want to help them develop and get better at particular skills that are necessary for the successful completion of the job or the sale. The goal here is to not necessarily have them need you all the time. You really want the sales rep to learn, then internalize, then do what was taught on their own, with no further intervention from you.
Think of your sales reps as all having their own individual levels of potential – remember the “glass ceiling” we discussed in earlier posts? You job as an excellent sales coach is to assist your sales rep to reach that potential. Now, remember that each sales rep has a different height for their ceiling. But the point is this, is that you want to help them reach that highest level through your coaching – while developing increased competence at the same time.
The best part is that if you do it effectively, they will no longer really need you much and you’ll help them develop into low-maintenance, high performing salespeople at the same time.
2. Diagnose and correct sales performance issues
If your sales reps are not meeting quota or goal or whatever your “minimum” expectation of performance is, then you need to find out why and good sales coaching does this. As a sales manager who is close to the field, do a fair amount of sales management by walking around, the good sales coach should have a good understanding of the issues that exist in the marketplace and even the individual sales territories.
However, there’s also another ingredient to diagnosis of sales performance issues – and this comes from the sales rep themselves. Oftentimes, this part of the equation is sorely overlooked…but shouldn’t be.
A great sales coach, when uncovering a sales performance issue, first needs to go to the sales rep themselves and ask them for their input on the situation. In so doing, you’re far more likely to make a correct diagnosis. Oftentimes, this feedback can bring to light a simple solution that otherwise may never have come to the surface if it were not discussed.
Another side benefit is that when you, the sales manager discuss the issues with the sales rep and ask them for their take on the situation, the sales rep feels listened to and empowered to solve the problem. And if they feel empowered to solve the problem, then there’s a greater likelihood that the sales performance issue can be corrected.
3. Create appropriate guidance and counseling
Let’s face it; you’re more than just a manager, leader and coach for your salespeople, you’re also a mentor and a counselor for them as well. This isn’t to say that you should be providing free psychotherapy or marriage counseling to them.
However as a sales coach and a teacher, you should become a mentor and a counselor of sorts to them. At the very least, one of your main goals as a manager and leader, you’ll want to assist each sales rep in reaching their potential. And that potential could be beyond the scope of your role with them within the organization. Salespeople want more than just the big bonus check form their jobs, they want to work at a place where they feel a part of something greater as well as know how they fit within that organizational structure.
One of your goals as a sales coach and teacher is to clue them in on the inner workings of the organization so that they can help not only succeed in their role as salesperson, but if the desire is there to help them advance their careers both within as well as without the organization.
If you can accomplish these goals in your coaching session with your sales reps, you’ll both be in a far better position to succeed in your sales management career.
Random Posts
-
Picking the right salespeople is one of the most important jobs of a sales manager. The... Read Full Story » -
Here's another post for all of you Dale Carnegie trainers and sales reps using Blogger. In... Read Full Story » -
Image by OPEN Sports via Flickr Do you ever wonder why you're not politically savvy or want to... Read Full Story » -
Whether you’re a new sales manager, a veteran sales manager, a business owner or a sales... Read Full Story » -
My favourite advice to entrepreneurs – when it comes to marketing themselves – is to leverage... Read Full Story »
