Sales Coaching

Sales Coaching

All outstanding sales managers engage in coaching on a daily basis and counseling on an as needed basis. Sales coaching is the proactive manner to help support the mentoring provided for sales professionals to improve their performance and to help them when having difficulties. It is mainly focused on maintaining existing, strong performance and moving it further. Counseling on the other hand is a reactive fractured approach implemented when an employee is performing below expectations due to either a skill deficiency or an attitude deficiency. It is mainly focused on restoring performance to a minimal acceptable level or failing that, removing the employee from that job.

I remember the first time that I was managing a full sales force of individuals and I was asked to evaluate the sales performance of a young woman by the name of Ivy. Unfortunately I was predisposed because I had discovered that Ivy had very poor selling skills, was typically late and was not meeting the quota goals assigned to her. It was up to me to decide whether or not she was worth keeping or terminating her employment. So, with both solutions open to for either coaching or counseling I used both to help increase her performance and reverse many of the poor things people were saying. In the next few moments I will provide you some information on coaching and how to use it to help those with weak into personal skills.

My belief is that all sales representatives should be coached on an ongoing basis. It is a form of mentoring that enables ongoing dialogue between the manager and the subordinate so that feedback on performance doesn’t occur only when there is a problem. Nor should it occur and only one time of the year-the performance review. Moreover it allows for excellent sales work and customer service to be recognized, supported, exploited and then finally conveyed to others.

Unfortunately many sales managers spend 10 times more of their effort and energy counseling. Managers often confuse the two and don’t understand the difference and usually respond only to problems, meaning that the preponderance of their time is spent on correcting weak efforts rather than supporting strength.

The most important attributes of a sales coaching relationship includes:

 

    1. That the dialogue is constant and ongoing it’s not situated around the periodic review.
    1. The feedback must be timely and it has to be offered at a point where an issue or a problem arises.
    1. It is important to understand that the manager simply coaches and mentors but the employee ultimately performs.
    1. In order for a good mentoring process to occur there must be a good relationship. In other words both sides must be approachable whenever and wherever.
  1. The employee must be able to be coached. Some people simply do not like the told by others how to improve performance therefore is how will to have someone who really wants the assistance to improve.

 

Counseling on the other hand is a short-term sequence of interactions with sales professionals that results in either restored or acceptable performance or unfortunately and when necessary the employee leaves the job where they can perform better. Counseling is essential to improving sales performance yet few sales managers ever engage systematically and most don’t effectively engage in it at all. The reason being is that many sales managers might believe that counseling requires too much time and effort of which they don’t have and that the employee might actually engage them in too much conflict.

The following is a checklist when you need to use sales counseling:

 

    1. Determine if the poor performance is caused by a lack of skills or simply a poor attitude.
    1. Focus on the behavior of the individual.
    1. Get agreement on the standard and the actual performance.
    1. Discuss the impact of the performance on others in the organization. Remember here to keep things objective never personal.
    1. Discuss the alternatives and consequences and actually have the employee, suggest some solutions.
    1. Establish action plans and dates so that the employee can be held to accountability standards.
  1. Constantly review and monitor the process.

 

©2011. Drew Stevens PhD All rights reserved.

Uncertain about business development? Take the on Business Development Scorecard, Drew Stevens is one of the world’s leading authorities on Effective Sales Management, Business Development & Sales Consulting. Drew is the author of the successful sales process books – Split Second Selling. He is also the creator of the Sales Leadership Program one of only 14 programs in the United States offering an accredited degree in the profession of selling and has a top ranked podcast called Sales Acceleration. To discover how Dr. Drew can assist your organization visit his marketing and sales consulting website – stevensconsultinggroup.com.

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Leadership

What Is Leadership?

With a title like that you might think I bit off a little more than I can chew. You might be right, but because there are literally thousands of articles, blogs and websites dedicated to discussions of leadership, I wanted to offer a logical definition of it in a thousand words or less. Here goes…

Despite the multiplicity of interpretations we read every day, leadership can be defined simply as:

“Organizing a group of people to achieve a common goal”

A leader can be anyone. There is no need for any formal authority to lead. A person simply needs to have the will, the courage, the charisma and the ability to capture the imagination of one or more followers in order to be considered a leader.

Centuries ago, it was assumed that good and powerful leaders had naturally occurring leadership traits that set them apart from others…Hence, the term, “leaders are born not made”. However, more recent studies have made it clear that given the right set of circumstances and with the appropriate motivation, most people can become true and effective leaders.

Some of the naturally occurring traits that make leadership ability come more easily to some people are:

 

  • Intelligence
  • Assertiveness
  • Diligence
  • Openness
  • Courage

 

When those instinctive traits are combined with learned skills and natural talents, variable levels of leadership ability may be reached. Without all of those traits, effective leadership is possible but much more difficult to achieve.

“It is important to note that one can lead much more effectively when the leadership endeavour involves something that the leader has good expertise in so that he or she may set an example”

It must also be something in which the followers have a need for or an interest in being lead in. For example: An expert tennis player might make a great tennis coach but a lousy sales manager. In addition, there would be no point in trying to lead someone to better customer service skills when he or she works in the depths of a coal mine.

As trite as those examples might seem, it is not unusual that people are put into leadership positions that they are not capable of handling simply because they have done well in another unrelated area. Also, self-promoting or toxic people who have no business trying to lead will often attempt to influence or lead coworkers in inappropriate directions. Both situations will create poor results.

“Good and powerful leaders need to have self-awareness and a solid grip on their own emotions”

Leadership skill necessarily includes the ability to set a mood or tone for the team. Leaders unavoidably telegraph their moods and attitudes to their followers who will adopt the preeminent emotional tone of the leader and carry it throughout the organization.

“One must not assume the only way to achieve financial success or even team success is through servant leadership, participative leadership, or compassionate leadership”

Given the right impetus and favourable circumstances an autocratic, command and control leader can drive his team to success both in the business world, on a sports court or on a battlefield. In the twenty-first century, we tend to reject that style of leadership, but it can be an effective (albeit, potentially negative and harmful) form of leadership nonetheless. If the team is not engaged and motivated, a strong autocrat might be the only leader who can create the environment needed for success.

Modern leadership lecturers and writers also reject the term “management”, since it seems to imply a lack of compassion and favours transactional or task orientation as opposed to transformational or people-oriented leadership. In reality, all organizations have some form of tasks and a specific number of people so it is evident that management may still be an integral part of the leadership cycle in many cases.

“In essence, even bad leadership is a form of leadership”

The efficacy of any leadership style can only be measured in results. In other words if the team meets or exceeds all of its goals, under the direction of its leader, those who benefit from those results may assume that the leadership was good regardless of the leader’s style. However, it is important to note that bad leadership in any form is usually short-lived.

The best and generally, most effective form of leadership occurs when a leader is able to maintain a high level of concern for his or her people while simultaneously keeping high-level performance paramount in the minds of all participants. This form of leadership often goes a step beyond servant leadership because it allows the leader to accurately control production and monitor results for maximum success. A leader who can juggle tasks and people without sacrificing integrity for either is a great leader indeed. That leader will almost always turn out better performance, more production and measurable growth while presiding over happy, well-engaged employees.

“It is important to recognize that groups of working people are assembled primarily to create some sort of product or service”

Great leaders are able to create buy-in to the vision of the organization while accepting and embracing the direction of its leaders. The key to buy-in and strong followership is communication.

Great Leaders are Great Communicators!

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Sales Coaching

9 Disciplines for the Sales Manager to Improve Sales Results

I think there are only two times a Sales Manager should be called “Manager”:

 

  1. When they hire someone.
  2. When they fire someone.

 

The rest of the time this position is really the sales team’s coach. Like any good coach, the Sales Manager’s main job is to get the best out of every one of their players/reps while moving the entire team forward. As in sports, the sales coach needs to:

 

  1. Make sure each player is giving their individually best performance while making sure the team functions in harmony.
  2. Teach the nuances of the game while drilling the basics. Sales training needs to be delivered on a consistent, regularly scheduled basis – including role playing.
  3. Study the competition to find their strengths and weaknesses. Then, teach the players how to do the same.
  4. Pick up the players when they need it. And give them a kick in the pants when they need it.
  5. Lead by example.
  6. Teach from their personal experience while letting the sales rep discover the sales process on their own. It’s a very tricky thing to do. You cannot appear to be a know-it-all/done-it-all parent. You have to point things out while the rep continues his or her own discovery.
  7. Stand up for his or her players when needed.
  8. Show up every day as the most positive person in the office. If you’re a Sales Manager, it does not matter what has happened today in your personal life. The team will think they did something wrong and will shy away from bringing you problems and opportunities.
  9. Develop an atmosphere of trust. Without trust, it’s a long road.

 

Most of the time poor sales results can be traced back to weak, ineffective, or inefficient sales management. Upper management will often ask you if your sales people need training; thinking this is always the root cause of weak sales. They seldom ask the manager if they feel need, or want to get, additional training do do their job better. As a sales manager, following the nine steps outlined above, will give you a running start at being better in your position and increasing sales revenues. However, don’t be shy about asking for the company to invest in yourprofessional development. If you follow these nine principles, and get your management team to see the importance of your position on the overall health of the organization, you and your team will be on a winning track that will let you outrun your competition.

Learn about accelerating your sales without increasing costs at http://www.sales-getters.com – A Sales Outsourcing company.

When you outsource sales with Sales Getters, a performance based sales outsourcing company, you can:
– Get your product selling quickly and build relationships.
– Start selling your product in the USA, if you are not located here.
– Make more sales at less overall cost.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Louie_Bernstein/1107724

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Capital Markets, Economy, Jobs & Careers, Market News

US July 2011 Jobs Data Shows Positive Increase

US Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 117,000 in July,
following 2 months of little change. The unemployment rate was
9.1 percent in July and has shown little definitive movement
since April. Private-sector employment increased by 154,000 over
the month.

Health care employment rose by 31,000 in July, as both
hospitals and ambulatory care services added jobs. Retail trade
employment increased by 26,000. In the manufacturing sector,
employment expanded by 24,000, with gains in motor vehicles and
semiconductors. Mining employment grew by 9,000 over the month
and was up by 140,000 since the most recent low in October 2009.
Employment in professional and technical services continued to
trend up in July; this industry has added 246,000 jobs since a
recent low in March 2010. Employment in temporary help services
was flat over the month and on net has changed little in 2011.
Other private-sector industries showed little or no change in July. Continue reading →

FAQ, Healthcare

Ayurveda and Ayurvedic Treatment

Ayurveda is a very ancient science that comes to us from the Southern Part of India. This Vedic civilization which easily dates back four thousand years has drawn much interest recently as we are trying to find solutions to our health problems.

Ayurveda truly looks to the essence of the individual and heals all aspects of the human being: mind, body and spirit.

This science achieves that by first looking to the individual who is evaluated with many different tools including but not limited to body constitution analysis (what elements are present in the individual), tongue diagnosis, eye diagnosis, pulse diagnosis, lifestyle diagnosis to only name a few methods of assessment of the patient.

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