Category Archives: Sales Coaching

Sales Coaching

Coaching to Win – Is Coaching Part of Your Game Plan?

Whether you are a small business owner or sales manager, you should take advantage of sales coaching. Once a salesperson understands that sales coaching can help them to make more money and have more fun, it’s inevitable that they’ll want to introduce their sales manager or sales trainer to the concept, too. Then it’s up to these potential coaches to decide if they are willing to seriously commit to sales coaching for their salespeople. That’s where the salesperson’s commitment comes into play-can the salesperson show the small business owner, manager or trainer that they will do whatever it takes?-because that’s the first big step in getting their help.

Sales management consists of everything the small business owner and/or sales manager does to develop and grow an effective sales force, including…

· Briefing and debriefing
· Growing salespeople and making them stronger every week
· Being able to motivate salespeople-and keep them motivated
· Holding salespeople accountable
· Finding, hiring, and keeping top performers

The sales manager carries out these functions in various forums, including sales meetings, sales training, the field, and sales coaching sessions. Coaching sessions differ from the other activities in that the focus of coaching is on combining technique reinforcement with one-on-one motivational interaction.

Coaching can be performed by either the sales manager or a sales trainer, although the sales manager must make the final decision as to the length and frequency of each type of session. My own experience has been that each salesperson should receive an hour per week of coaching, in a one-on-one meeting run by the sales manager or trainer, who becomes in this situation-the coach. Some of the areas that should be covered in the sessions are:

Activity.
This includes the quantity and results of dials, walk-ins, contacts, appointments booked, face-to-faces, referrals, and introductions. The coach motivates the salesperson to improve in the necessary areas, as measured against pre-established goals.

Goal Setting.
The coach may permit the salesperson to reduce some of the goals if the salesperson is having trouble achieving them, in an effort to build self-confidence. The goals then would be increased over time to steadily grow the salesperson to higher levels of performance.

Debriefing and briefing.
Debriefs are discussions about the meetings and telephone calls the salesperson made with customers and prospects in the week prior to the coaching session. Briefing is when the coach goes on to ask the salesperson what their next steps will be and how they would handle any scheduled follow-up. If necessary, the coach would work with the salesperson to modify those plans.

Salespeople’s self-esteem.
It’s important that the salesperson is receiving sales training to work on strategy, technique, and behavior. Take the case of a salesperson who just learned that when he approaches a small company in his industry, he should always call on the Chief Executive. Naturally it takes self-confidence to do this, therefore, it is key that the coach complement the training by helping build the salesperson’s self-esteem. Provided that the salesperson demonstrates commitment, the training and coaching will grow the salesperson to the point where he is performing effortlessly in pressure situations.

Future coaching sessions.
I recommend that coaching sessions always be planned out at least four weeks in advance. Sometimes it makes sense to have several shorter sessions each week. Take the case of the salesperson who is having difficulty achieving prospecting goals. Daily sessions of fifteen minutes would put light pressure on the person to achieve their daily goals. This would force the salesperson to avoid putting off their prospecting chores until the next day; after all, procrastination is one of the salesperson’s worst enemies. Daily sessions would also serve to re-inspire that rookie salesperson who is getting beaten up in the field.

If you are a small business owner or sales manager you’re undoubtedly running some sales meetings, but probably not coaching. If you plan to start, congratulations! If not ask yourself this question: If I could find the time and knew how to run quality coaching sessions, would it make a substantial difference in the results I am getting with my sales force?

If your answer is “yes” then what’s stopping you? Start coaching!

If your sales numbers aren’t where you want them to be, visit http://www.gnatraining.com to receive a FREE guest pass to one of our classes! Or call 1-781-848-0993 for more information.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Greg_Nanigian/83536

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Sales Coaching

Empower Your Sales People With the Right Sales Coaching Process!

Nearly all elite athletes have a coach. Rarely do you see an individual or team scaling the dizzy heights of success without a well thought-out coaching structure, appropriate motivators, and when needed; soft or firm guidance in the right direction.

A successful sales coach aligns a team to a common objective by both individually and collectively coaching a team to work through common or unique problems and opportunities. A coach also helps a sales team prepare for competition via a relevant interactive sales coaching process. Designed by the coach this process is most effective when the sales coach applies her experience, relevant insight into what’s worked and not worked in the past towards the team’s objectives. Whilst also being open to change and coaching the team towards uncharted possibilities.

Effective sales coaching is not proclaiming to the sale person; ‘this is how things should be done’. On the contrary; successful sales coaches guide their students to ask ‘what do I need to learn? And ‘how can I do this better?’ And by exploring and answering the question the sales person develops his or her own capacity to think, solve problems and create opportunities. Much like sales theory: telling is not selling. Moreover, directing a sales person is not sales coaching. This type of interaction is simply micromanaging, this process weakens the sales person’s capacity to think for themselves.

A successful sales coach leads the sales person to a place where true growth and personal transformation can take place: from within.

For more information on BOOM Sales! and Sales Training and Development programs and Sales Seminars please go to http://www.Boomsales.com.au

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Trent Leyshan is the Founder of BOOM Sales! and the creator of BOOMOLOGY!™ inspirational Selling Methodology. http://www.Boomsales.com.au

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1826904

Sales Coaching

The Secret to a Successful Coaching Business – It Isn’t Where You’ve Been

Are you more focused on doing coaching than on running a business of coaching?

Your Success Comes From Designing a Business, Not Just in Doing What You Do

Here’s the difference.

  • If you find yourself wanting to coach, and avoiding marketing and sales, then you are playing at coaching and not running a business of coaching. Your chances of success are small.
  • If you are wanting to coach, and not spending time designing and redesigning a business of coaching that delivers exactly the DOLLARS that you WANT, in the TIME that you want to put into this, then you are playing at coaching instead of running a business of coaching. Your chance of making a lot of money coaching is small.

I’ve seen that same pattern among most of the small business owners I’ve coached, and it’s even more rampant among the coaches that I coach. Strange, isn’t it, that coaches have the same problems that their clients have? But it’s very true. 

Are you more comfortable coaching than in marketing and selling? Do you know what needs to be done to successfully bring in tons of new clients in marketing, and getting them to buy in sales? And stepping back even further, from the 10,000 foot level to the 30,000 foot level, where you’ll start designing and redesigning the whole business, that’s where you’ll be asking questions like, how do I go from $150/hour to $500/hour, and then from $500/hour to $1,000/hour. As long as you are working as a coach and not as a business designer you’ll be stuck making $150/hour decisions and never selling many of those. So, in reality you are making way less than $150/hour.

In any business, the more focused the business owner is on “what they do” instead of building a business around what they do, the less likely they will succeed.
Coaches, who discover the principles to resolve this will be even better at helping their own clients design and redesign their business for more success and higher income.

More Time Thinking . . . Coaching . . . Than Designing and Then Redesigning the Business of Coaching

Do you spend more time thinking about coaching than designing and redesigning a business of coaching? How much time do you spend working on coaching, and how much time on building a business of coaching?

As a coach, don’t you work with people to help them get focused?

So, what should you be focused on as an owner of a coaching business?

Obviously you want to focus on becoming a better coach, thinking about how you coach, however, if you never spend time thinking about marketing better, selling better, and, at an even higher level, how would you design this business to make more money, to find clients that would spend more money, and on making exactly what you’d like to be earning from your coaching business, then it’s likely that you aren’t finding those answers that are even more critical to your success than coaching itself. Am I right?

Let’s look at one of my clients who was a cook in a restaurant. As the cook, he believed he could run a business better than his boss. However, do you want a bet that his focus was around making a better meal than in how to become successful at a restaurant business? So, he went across the street and started his own restaurant.

Where do you think he was working? In the kitchen! He believed that his success depended upon how well he cooked and what kinds of fantastic meals he cooked, yet no one was walking through the door. Does that sound like your coaching business?

It Doesn’t Matter How Good You Are at What You Do If You Can’t Sell Any

One of the things I preach to my clients would likely be defined as sacrilege in business schools, but it is the truth. It doesn’t matter how good you are in the kitchen (or in coaching) if you aren’t getting anyone to walk in the door (that’s marketing), and if you aren’t getting anyone to set down to buy (that’s sales).

To restate that: It doesn’t matter how good of a coach you are if no one is walking in to discover you, nor to buy your services. You could be the best, or the worst, and your results will be exactly the same if no one is there to buy it.

You Can Have a Successful Business If You Can Get Tons of People Walking in and Buying Even If You Aren’t Good at Delivering

In fact, let’s look at it from the other side. Let’s say that you are absolutely fantastic at marketing and sales, and aren’t any good in the kitchen (or coaching) at all. In that case you are good at getting people in the door and getting them to set down and buy, but the food (or your coaching) is absolutely horrible. The money is flowing (imagine what that would be like for coaching), yet the food is horrible. What happens is that there are a ton of people coming through the door and buying, but they’ll never come back. As long as you are out there marketing and selling there are still people flowing through the door and you are successful.

In no way am I suggesting that you do it this way, only emphasizing to you that without marketing and sales you’ll never be successful, and that with them you could be even if you aren’t any good at coaching, so marketing (the ability to get tons of people in the door), and selling (getting those that do come through the door to buy) are critical, and the ability to design and redesign a business that includes all of the pieces of your business, marketing, sales, coaching are all critical pieces.

Coaching, and how good you are at it, doesn’t even come into the picture until you’ve got them coming in the door, wanting what you have, and then getting them to buy. Sounds logical, however, most coaches start with coaching and never have many clients.

How to Become the Top 1% of All Coaches

Do, you know the statistics are that over 90% of all coaches and consultants will fail within months, and that, of those that do succeed, most will never make more than $20K? Your success will come only when you can get your hands around the BUSINESS of coaching, learn what makes less than 1% of all coaches the top earners, and design the business that not only works in all of those areas, and then focus on how to make that business deliver EXACTLY what you want it to in dollars and cents, and in the time you want to put into it.

One of the coaches I worked with was having problems getting enough people to even show an interest, let alone someone who would buy. She kept saying, but I’m good at coaching, but I can’t get anyone interested in coaching. When I finally got her to look at how to refocus on the RIGHT customer, how to sell, and THEN even how this business was to make her more and more in less and less time, she changed everything and went from less than $10K in a year to $6,000 an hour. Yes, I said that correctly.

It wasn’t just learning to market and sell, which is very important, but it also was a total redirection of what she was doing, and how she was doing it. It was redesigning her business so that it will deliver the dollars you want in the time you want to spend, and the way you want to do it.

Instead of focusing on selling at $5,000 per client, which wasn’t working the way she was doing it, she developed a marketing funnel that leads people in steps toward coaching. Each step moved from giving a free taste of coaching, to a low cost group session, to full blown coaching. She’s now making $5,000 an hour, not just per job, doing Intro to Coaching at $250 a month for groups of about 100, and has a waiting list for her one-on-one coaching, which, by the way, she now charges a lot more for and spends very little time doing. She spend 4 1-hour sessions a month with about 100 people, $25,000 a month total income for 4 hours of work. And that leads to a waiting list of people wanting her coaching.

Your Job Isn’t Just to Coach . . . It’s Designing and Redesigning a Successful Coaching Business

So, your job isn’t to coach. It is to design, and redesign a business of coaching that delivers exactly the dollars you want in the time you want to put into this. And, of course go do it.

It’s designing the business at the highest level around what you want to make and how you’ll do it, and then breaking it down to how many leads are needed from marketing, what percentage of those will be closed in sales, and, finally the delivery, your coaching.

Do you know how to deliver exactly that many leads each and every week?

Are you delivering that many each and every week?

Is your sales process converting exactly the percentage of those leads into sales that are necessary to hit your target sales in number of customers and dollars per customer?

Do you know how to fix your marketing to make it deliver at that rate, or better?

Do you know how to fix your sales to deliver at that rate, or better?

What are you going to do next to start delivering on all of those critical goals? Those are critical in that if you deliver each and every one of them each and every week, you will get the dollars you want this year in the time you are willing to put into it.

And, if you miss even one of these goals you not only won’t hit your goals for amount sold in the time you want to put into it, but you are likely going to fail in business. That’s critical!

Do you know how to make marketing work to deliver the number of leads a month you need?
Do you know how to close 40-50% of those leads?
What would it be worth to you to be able to do that?

So, would you like to do a quick assessment of your critical business goals? The things that are absolutely critical to your business?

Be sure to look for the next article, “Assessing You and Your business success, The Critical Issues of Coaching Business Success” to grade just how well you are doing at building a successful coaching business.

Do you want to learn more about how to increase your coaching business?

I have just completed my brand new guide to coaching marketing success. You’ll also get a free invitation to join a mastermind group of other coaches as they build their business. Hear what works and doesn’t work.

Get your “how to Build a Super Star Coaching Business” for free.

Alan Boyer coach’s coaches, who want more business than they can handle, or at least more than they imagined…before this…..The reports have been “5-10 times more clients in just a few weeks, and still growing.

http://www.leaders-perspective.com/Super-Star-Coaching-Business.htm

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Alan_Boyer/11225

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Sales Coaching

How to Steps to Inspirational Management and Leadership Through Coaching

What a topic! It brings me to the five steps that can help any person become a better coach of those who s/he is responsible for in terms of their performance. The five steps are embedded in the acronym: T.O.P.I.C. At my first management skills development school as a budding manager, way back when, one of the speakers focused on what he considered the formula for success in management and leadership. The formula around which he crafted his comments was: Talent X Environment = Productivity

His experience as an author and researcher in productivity matters confirmed certain key elements had to be in place for high productivity to flourish. His name, by the way, was Dr. Donald Clifton. The first element, Talent, had to do with having a system that would find and confirm top notch talent. In other words, high productivity cannot be achieved without talented people being in place to perform the necessary tasks involved. But, Dr. Clifton’s research repeatedly confirmed that even talented people could fail miserably, if not also offered an Environment that nurtures their talent. It’s like former President Dwight Eisenhower is reputed to have said: “You don’t lead people by beating them over the head. That’s assault…not leadership.” The point of that quote here is that for productivity to flourish, the work environment has to be positive and supportive. It has to allow people the opportunity to appropriately fail or make mistakes and not receive brutal, unfair punishment in return.

There are a lot of things that go into creating an environment that leads to high productivity. Things like a sense of purpose, vision and mission; a culture of trust, mutual respect and commitment; ongoing training and development…just to name a few. It is those latter couple of points that brings me to a business coaching model. A great manager/leader builds trust, mutual respect, commitment and ongoing training/development through being highly skilled at coaching people to apply their talent in the most productive way. To do that requires the skillful application of a 5 step model: T.O.P.I.C.

The “T” in the acronym literally is the first letter in the word, Topic, which is the first step in the model. The coach is always charged with starting any coaching conversation with clarity. People can’t be their most receptive to a leader’s need to coach unless there is clarity in the direction or purpose of the conversation. So, it is the manager’s responsibility to open the coaching conversation by referring to the “Topic” of specific performance for which the discussion is about.

An example of what a sales manager might say when launching into a coaching conversation with a sales representative might help here. It could go something like this: “Charlie, I would like to talk with you about your latest sales call.” A culture of trust, mutual respect and commitment demands that the manager deliver that line in a totally neutral tone of voice. It can’t be shouted or stated in a condescending way. It has to be neutral in tone, specific in topic and connote a sense of sincere interest in the person being coached. In that way, it allows the person about to be coached to not assume a defensive posture and closed mind. It is my opinion that seldom does defensiveness lead to openness. The greatest achievements are the result of someone being open to alternatives and change!

Having referred to the “Topic” of the discussion we are now at the second step in the model. It can be the hardest step for most people in leadership roles because we can be led into a “quick fix” mentality driven by our years of experience and the all-knowing attitude that experience can sometimes bring. We know what needs to be done and we’re more than happy to TELL the other person the solution to the productivity issue!!

Oh contraire! Great coaches resist the “quick fix” attack and follow the second step in this 5 step business coaching model. It’s a two word step that involves soliciting the “Observations/Opinions” of the person being coached. In other words in step two, allow the person being coached to express their observations or opinions about their performance.

And, the great coach follows a specific model to evoke those observations/opinions. First, is to take a positive approach to getting feedback from the person being coached. In the sales situation noted above it might sound like this: “Tell me what you thought you did well during the call?” It’s important here for the coach to keep the response focused on what went well. There seems to be a tendency more often than not for people to want to immediately digress to the negative…to talk about what they didn’t do. Great coaches don’t allow that to happen at this point. It is important here to have the person affirm their self-worth through focusing on what they did well. So, allow them to go on and on with what they think they did well even if you don’t agree with it. There will be time later for your thoughts.

Once the person has expressed their opinions on what they did well, then comes a critical responsibility of the coach. That responsibility is to encourage the person to look within by asking something like: “Is there anything you would change in how the call was handled?” Here again, the manager is still getting the “Observations/Opinions” of the person being coached. The only thing the manager should be doing at this point is encouraging the other person to speak. If anything is being said by the manager at this point it is to question for clarification and understanding, not to launch into a tirade of the manager’s perspective. The power of this approach is a greater sense of the coach as a person who is genuinely interested in the other person’s thoughts and feelings. It creates a powerful environment for personal growth and development for both parties to the coaching conversation.

Then, should come the step most less effective coaches do first. They offer their personal perspective on the performance issue in question with great confidence, enthusiasm and even sometimes with an arrogance of certainty! This assertiveness and insensitivity totally shuts down a collaborative conversation that could result in personal growth and greater productivity for the person being coached. Great leaders don’t assert their will on those they lead. They compel those they lead to want to follow the leader’s will. Big difference! Big change in performance results! Great leaders do that by recognizing leadership is not being out in front of the group with a great big title. It’s being right in the middle of the group with a great big heart!

So, in step three of the model, the coach offers his or her “Personal Perspective” on the individual’s performance. The model that is most effective in offering the coaches perspective is similar to that which is followed when encouraging the Observations/Opinions of the person being coached. That means the coach should first share his or her thoughts on what the person did well. Continuing with our example of a sales coaching situation, the coach might say something like: “As I reflect on your actions during that sales call, I am impressed with how you helped the prospective client understand the issues of concern they faced and how your product could specifically eliminate those issues. You demonstrated great empathy, knowledge and skill at helping the prospective client make the right decision. You should feel very good about that!” In this phase of this step, the coach should be reinforcing the behaviors s/he wants the sales representative to replicate during every sales call. The comments should be very specific as to the actions the sales representative modeled during the conversation and always focus on the positive.

Once the above aspect of this step of the coaching model is completed the natural flow of the conversation should move to the areas of growth opportunities for the person being coached. The verbalization of this part of the coaching conversation should, again, be neutral in tone and collaborative in spirit. An example: “One opportunity I see that would allow you to become even more effective is to delve even deeper into the prospective client’s situation by asking more open-ended questions. This will allow the prospect to share insights that could broaden your ability to be even more helpful to them through the solutions you provide.” The coach, having offered his/her “Personal Perspective” as suggested above, has positioned the coaching conversation as a positive and collaborative opportunity for personal growth for the person being coached.

Now, the coaching conversation can become even more powerful in delivering improved performance through the next step in the model: “Involvement.” During this step, the parties to the coaching conversation become involved in a collaborative approach to problem solving to improve the performance. The coach might start this part of the conversation by saying: “What do you think are some ways that would help you to hone your skills at asking open-ended questions?” The conversation would continue in a collaborative, neutral and focused way until agreement has been reached on appropriate actions that should be taken to reinforce the skills needing development. Once agreement is reached then the next step of the coaching model is “Confirmation.” The parties to the coaching conversation develop and confirm action steps necessary to implement the solutions to any performance issues. It is this step that assigns accountability and provides an affirmation of the coach’s belief in the person being coached. A coach that does not lead his/her people to understand their specific accountabilities for personal growth and development is a leader that will achieve mediocre results at best. It is my opinion that mediocre leader is an oxymoron.

Continuing our example from above, this part of the conversation could go like this: “So, based on our conversation we have agreed to the following action steps to help you in honing your skills at asking open-ended questions. First, you will develop a list of twenty open-ended questions that might typically be used in your sales conversations. You and I will then collaborate on refining your list of questions so that the language is exactly what you want so you can feel comfortable in asking the questions of a prospective client. Following that discussion we will work together in a series of role-playing sessions where you can practice your use of the questions. Then, I will accompany you on three sales calls where you use your new skills and provide you immediate feedback following each conversation. We will then determine any additional developmental steps that may be needed, if any. Is that your understanding of our plan?”

Having reached a clear understanding of the results of the “Confirmation” phase of the coaching conversation, it is extremely important that the person being coached be left with a sense of being affirmed by the coach. The coach’s comment could be as simple as: “I believe you are already a very effective sales representative and the actions to which we have agreed will help you grow to an even higher level. It is my pleasure working with you.” Following the business coaching model outlined above will allow for the “Environment” part of the formula of success in management to be its most inspirational. It will lead to the T.O.P.I.C. of discussion around the water cooler being positive, uplifting and highly productive.

I help people and organizations “Profit Through Performance.” As an author, consultant, coach, speaker, and trainer my areas of expertise are performance improvement solutions and great leadership. In that regard, I offer expert business solutions in time management, strategic communications skills and success principles.

Author of Life’s Ride or Fall…You Make the Call: Thoughts, Stories, Lessons Learned and Actionable Ideas to Help Create the Ride of Your Life! Available at AuthorHouse.com, Amazon.com and other fine booksellers.

Professional member of the National Speakers Association, Florida Speakers Association and the Global Speakers Federation. Past President of the Florida Speakers Association. Florida Speakers Association 2008 Member of the Year.

Visit the links below to find out how I can help you or your organization.

Website: http://www.garygreenfield.com

My blog: [http://blog.garygreenfield.com]

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Gary_Greenfield/190789

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Sales Coaching

Do I Need an Insurance Sales Coach?

There are different views as to whether a sales person requires a sales coach.

They are people who have doubts if a coach can be of much help to improve performance of an insurance agent. Yes, there are many agents who are self starters and self motivators. They are fuelled by their burning desire to go extra miles in order to succeed in their business. Many insurance agents succeed through their hard work. They put a lot of efforts in their business. They reach out to as many people as they can.

However, if you are looking for a breakthrough in your performance, you need someone to challenge your thoughts so that you can form a new belief system that will change your performance . You need someone to tell you your blind spots so that you can see more clearly what is preventing from going beyond your perceived limitation. You need someone to hold up the mirror and give you an honest reflection so that you can see your whole new self.

These jobs are best performed by a coach. You need a coach to systematically guide you to overcome road blocks and conquer obstacles on your journey to greater success. A good coach will be able to use his practical experience to help you discover your performance gap and achieve breakthrough.

Yes, you have the choice to buy a book to learn how to enhance your performance. However, what you learn from the book, though may be helpful, is meant for the majority of the readers. The book will not be able to provide you with advice that is unique to your situations. Everybody has different levels of strengths, weaknesses and potentials. You need a personal coach to design an improvement system specifically for you.

A coach is another pair of eyes that tell you things you don’t see yourself. A coach provides you with insight, objective critique and actionable feedback from an outside vantage point. You need a coach to combat your greatest enemy i.e. complacency. We are creatures of habit. We tend not to look for alternatives and we choose to do things that we can do without giving much thought. We need a coach to shake us off from the chair, take us out of our comfort zone.

If you are already in your peak performance, do you still need a coach?

The answer is “Yes” if you are not contented with what you have achieved and always looking for ways to perfect your skills. Even tip-top athletes like Tiger Woods and Michael Phelps use coaches. They need coaches for one simple reason. They need a breakthrough to bring themselves to the next level. In order to do so, they need experienced coaches to tell them what else they can do to push the limits.

A good coach places his interest before yours. His success is dependent on yours for both of you share the same goals. He can be your good friend who listens to your joy or sorrow. He motivates you when you get discouraged and alerts you to get ready for the next challenge every time you triumph. He shares both your heartbreaking and record breaking moments.

Your coach and you form a powerful partnership where both of you take each other seriously. Both strive to give the best in order to achieve your common goals. A coach to you is like the wind beneath your wings helping you soar higher ground and see things in broader perspective.

I am an insurance sales coach who has been in insurance business in the past almost 2 decades. I have an website i.e. http://www.stories-connect.com and my blog is http://xoseph.wordpress.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1484346