Tag Archives: Business Growth

Sales Coaching

The Coach’s Role on Joint Sales Calls

Normally, when a manager attends a joint sales call, it is at the time of the capabilities presentation or closing presentation. Though attending these meetings can be helpful, they do little to help sales people close more business that late in the process. That is like coaching a baseball team by showing up in the final inning instead of watching the entire game. As sales manager, you may know the outcome based on the data, but you will not know how the game developed. Knowing how the sale develops is essential to effective coaching. This is why observing sales people in action is so important.

Here are 4 steps to help you and your sales people have more effective joint calls.

1. A Quality Phone Call- Remember, the quality of the phone call will determine the quality of the appointment. Your sales person must follow the 8-Step Phone Process to make sure that the joint call is taking place with a qualified prospect versus a practice call.

2. Conduct a Pre-Call Session. In pre call sessions:

– sales people make sure they are prepared to execute their sales approach effectively
– The sales manager and sales person role-play the appointment
– Everyone agrees to and identifies who will do what during the sales call

3. Identify the Reason for a Joint Call – If it is for learning purposes, then the sales manager has a very small part in the call. If it is for qualifying or closing a large account, then the role of the sales manager can be more prominent.

4. Do a Post Call Debrief – This is an opportunity to help sales people recognize opportunities that they missed, questions they could have asked better and commitments they failed to gain. First, ask the sales person how he/she thought the call went. Listen and take notes. Compare their comments with your own observations. From there, share your insights about the sales person’s performance. Then schedule a one-on-one meeting to outline specific next steps and to develop an action plan that will address the “choke points” that were demonstrated.

A few tips for the sales coach. First, schedule these calls with your sales people. Do not wait for them to schedule.

Be proactive and select the calls to join. Secondly, observe the sales person during the call. Be present during different stages of the process so you know how the sales person opens, nurtures and closes a sale. Always do a pre-call before the meeting so that the sales person is prepared and so that later you can listen and absorb what is happening on the call. Make sure that the sales person is prepared to conduct the perfect sales meeting because you are there to observe. During a joint call, the coach’s role is defined as supportive, not as main character. This means that when you are on a joint call, you must let the sales professional run the meeting and make mistakes so that he/she will learn. If you “rescue”, this will not happen.

That being said, you probably wouldn’t let a sales person blow the sale of a lifetime. However, you should not ask a critical question that the sales person has neglected to ask. If you think you must assist, address the sales person with a question. As an example, if the sales person has forgotten to get clarity on the decision-making process, you should ask him/her about it. This would sound something like – “Mary, I must have missed this in the conversation – what is the decision-making process?”

You can access Tony’s entire eBook, 9 Keys to Sales Coaching Success, on Tony’s Sales Brew Blog. Make 2013 your year to become an even more effective sales coach!

Tony Cole, CEO of Anthony Cole Training Group
http://www.anthonycoletraining.com

Download Tony Cole’s Free eBook – 9 Keys to Successful Sales Coaching at http://blog.anthonycoletraining.com/free-ebook-9-keys-to-successful-coaching/

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Sales Coaching

8 Trends in Sales and Sales Coaching for 2013

The rise of the “expert” seller

It’s been coming for a few years and 2013 will see their recognition in the field of sales. The “expert” seller also known as the accidental salesperson.

Customers need expertise from salespeople; they need something of value compared to the old days. Adding value to the sales relationship has been sought otherwise the product or service that you’re selling will be commoditised and bought on the internet or via procurement software packages.

2013 will see the expert salesperson gaining in credibility and effectiveness as sales teams realise they need expertise as well as the ability to communicate, run a sales process and help the customer solve their problems, pains and challenges.

Salespeople will fuse into experts who sell.

Cloud based CRM

Cloud based CRM is not a new idea. CRM or Customer Relationship Management software has gradually migrated from desktops to the cloud. Once there, it changes everything.

Put simply, successful sales people and their managers run their business lives through their CRM software and they do it on the move. Using mobile devices – phones, tablets – salespeople can log their calls and visits, update the customer profiles, communicate, forecast their pipeline, chat to each other and keep focussed on their sales goals and activity. Meanwhile the sales managers and support teams can work alongside the salesperson to benefit the customer.

2013 will at last witness salespeople seeing the benefit. As a result, they’ll update the CRM more regularly than the past and reap the benefits.

Online video

The vast majority of websites are stationary, still, lifeless. Online video will see a considerable growth in 2013 in the field of sales and sales coaching. Online video is being increasingly consumed using mobile devices such as your phone or tablet, which makes it easier to view. Video can be put out on YouTube, websites, Facebook, Tweets and companies will want to seriously consider putting out more video in 2013. Not the stale corporate stuff but videos of the people, the humans behind the product and service.

More of us will be creating short snippets of video and letting their customer watch the video rather than read an email or written note. Proposals can be accompanied with a video of you talking through the key points or if a customer has asked for more information, send them a video showing how the product works or can help them. Not from the shelf but created fresh.

SoLoMo

A new buzz word for 2013. Social, Local, Mobile. It means that customers want to consume from you in a social manner, using social media, locally, so bespoked to their personal needs and mobile, so they can use their mobile device to communicate with you.

This is a seriously scary trend brought about by mobile device popularity and their ability to locate wherever you are to a metre. Consumers want advertising to be local to them, delivered via their phone and done socially. So a parking ticket bought by your phone, ensures a pizza special deal is made available to you and your tribe. Coffee at the building society branch is available to you and a chance to chat through your loans, but only if you want to pop in, after all you’re only 10 metres away as you pass.

Bulk advertising, expensive TV commercials, mass mailings, eShots… all maybe a thing of the past!

Google Live Hangouts

This is a serious game changer for salespeople and sales managers. 2013 will see the move towards proper video conferences where people can look each other in the eye as they talk to one another; watch some body language and plenty of facial language to help communicate with each other.

Google hangouts works with their social media site – Google Plus – not as popular as Facebook but the same concept. You can start a hangout with anyone in your circles, up to 10 people and have a meeting, a conversation, a hangout with each other on screen. The videos of each person will be shown to everyone on the hangout. Everyone can talk, listen and enjoy.

You can also opt to have the whole thing live screened to YouTube. Suddenly the game changes. You can have as many people as you want view the hangout on your YouTube Channel and once it’s over, a recording will be automatically posted to your channel.

For sales managers I can see this technology being used to run sales meetings, run client meetings just like Webex is being used today. The main difference is video and the use of mobile devices, after all, Google + and YouTube needs no additional software. As salespeople merge into experts who sell, the live video can be used to demonstrate expertise, teach, educate and promote on a local level.

Watch this one; it’ll impact you in 2013.

The decline of email

Email use is declining and 2013 will see this trend accelerating. Viruses, Spam deluged folders haven’t helped but the greatest impact is on the younger generation’s use of email. They just don’t dig email.

It’s not going to disappear overnight and will remain hugely important but the message for 2013 is… discover another way to communicate online with your customers. This may be via social media or Socmed as it’s known, texing ironically works well, Skype, YouTube, phone.

Total selling

I first heard the term in the 1970’s with the Dutch national soccer team. Total football it was known as, then total rugby came in the 1990’s. It means that everyone can play any position and helps the game to be quicker, more fluid and exciting to watch.

Total selling involves everyone in the organisation to be involved in the sales process and each person knowing what the other person is doing. The CRM helps here. More companies will train their staff in all aspects of the sales process and it’s they that will develop the competitive advantage.

Gamification

Another new buzz word for the 2013’s – Gamification – taken from the burgeoning gaming market.

I was reading the Economist this week – the gaming industry is now worth $67 billion rivalling the movie industry. Games offer excitement, entertainment, challenge and the ability to win and it’s this Gamification that will effect selling and sales management in 2013.

How will the trend evolve. Communication with customers, whatever the means, will become more gamified and consumers will want their messages delivered in this way.

How much entertainment, reward and stickiness does you current communication provide to customers and sales teams alike?

In sales teams, sales managers will be considering how to gamify sales meetings, sales trainings, the annual conference, web meetings. In their new book “For the Win”, Werbach and Hunter argued that future communications can be enhanced by gamifying. Games have distinct ingredients and so will our messages.

I talk about WIPEing the message.

 

  • W is for win, can the activity that you create to communicate allow them to win something?
  • I is for instant feedback, how can the group players get instant feedback?
  • P is for points or badges to signify progress and success and
  • E is for excitement, which tells it’s own story

 

Sales people might be considering their sales messages to customers and how sticky these are? Particularly their online messages and communications, can they add an element of WIPE to the way it’s delivered. If they don’t others will and gain a competitive advantage.

Sign up to Paul Archer’s weekly sales and coaching tips and get the Sales Tip’s Annuals for the past three years with Paul’s compliments. http://www.archertraining.co.uk/Sales_tips.htm

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Sales Coaching

Ten Keys to an Effective Coaching Experience for Sales Success

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, was once asked, when reflecting upon his life, and sales success. “Everybody needs a coach,” he said. “The one thing that [people] are never good at, is seeing themselves as others see them-an [effective] coach really, really helps.” Great advice, right?

A coach IS a worthy investment, and for this reason demand for coaching has risen dramatically in the past decade.

So sure, we can safely conclude that the investment for Eric Schmidt was returned ten fold, but hiring a coach is just half of the work. Arming your sales goals with a business coach is a smart, and proven way to enhance your chances of sales success, but hiring a business coach alone does not guarantee that you will have an effective coaching experience. Sales success is dependent upon myriad factors, and if enlisting a sales coach happens to be one them, we must additionally learn what it takes to have effective coaching experience.

10 Keys to an Effective Coaching Experience for Sales Success

1. Commit to moving your business forward.

2. Articulate clear, concise and measurable goals.

3. Begin by being your best self. Hold yourself to a continual improvement standard. Never stop learning.

4. Honor the promises and commitments you make to yourself. They are some of the most important promises you will ever make. Be willing and ready to make commitments to yourself.

5. Schedule self-reflection time prior to each coaching session. Arrive with discussion topic and establish an agenda for each session. Think about what you need to move your business forward.

6. Reflect on the sales skills, competencies, behaviors and attitudes that you are working on. Determine what you need help with in order to thrive. Ask for help where you need it.

7. Complete agreed upon action steps and follow up prescriptions.

8. Enjoy the journey and have fun, laugh and be joyful. Self-growth is joyful and satisfying.

9. Be coachable! Be receptive to trying new methods, being bolder, and learn what works and what does not work for you.

10. Just like watching an exercise program on TV will not alone help you to lose weight, coaching alone will not change your business or sales success.

Changing behavior comes through regular, consistent activity, and that is the best formula that yields reliable results.

In sum, it is YOUR performance from one coaching session to the next that will be ultimately what determines an effective coaching experience. As we move into the season change with reformed commitments and challenges about what it takes to truly enjoy sales success, let us be reminded that worthy coaching investments can transform your journey, but with that… SO MUST YOU.

©2012 Original Work

About the author

Barb Girson, International Direct Selling Industry expert, trainer and coach, is a highly interactive, creative speaker and author offering professional skill development programs for workshops, leader retreats, annual conventions and teleconference training programs.

To learn more contact Barb: 6148550446 or to sign up for her next FREE teleconference sales training call/Timely Tactics Emails go to http://tinyurl.com/ck7z56

Permission to reprint entire articles as it is with no changes, inclusion of full resource box and source credit with active link. Article Source: EzineArticles.com

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Sales Coaching

The Top 5 Reasons To Hire A Sales Training Coach

When we hear the term “coach”, the first things that come to mind are sports and sporting activities. Most of us are aware of tennis coaches, golf coaches, swimming coaches, and of course, fitness coaches.

But did you know that there are sales training coaches as well. If you are interested in taking your business to the next level, you can hire a coach to train you in the art of selling. A sales coach can help you in a number of different areas too. Here are the top five reasons to hire a sales training coach.

1. Most of us acquire a lot of information through different kinds of training programs. But most of us do not get the full benefit of a program because we lack experience when it comes to implementation. This is where a coach can really make a difference. They would be able to guide us in implementing the knowledge that we had acquired during a training program. By providing hand-holding guidance, they can direct us through the implementation process and help us learn various techniques precisely, which we could have trouble learning otherwise.

2. Many times, we have all the knowledge and skill we need, but yet we would not use them due to lack of motivation. There could be times that failures and disappointments can demotivate us and keep us from moving forward. A sales training coach can effectively motivate us and encourage us to move forward despite our temporary setbacks.

3. At times, we could be skeptical about certain sales techniques and strategies before trying them out. Having an experienced coach at hand who has already tried and tested the techniques before and can vouch for their efficacy would be a tremendous advantage. They would be able to help us implement the strategies boldly and remove nagging doubts that could keep us from confidently trying out new strategies.

4. There are two ways to learn lessons in life. One is through the ‘school of hard knocks’ and the other is through learning the same lessons from people who have traveled the path before you. Learning from an experienced sales coach can keep you from making mistakes that can cost you time, money and effort.

5. A sales training coach can help you reach your business goals in a shorter amount of time than it would take you to reach it on your own. They can also help you set new and more ambitious goals and help you to reach your maximum potential.

For these and many other reasons, it really pays to hire a sales training coach. An experienced coach can truly make a huge difference to your profits and the future of your business.

Thomas E. Ellis is as Washington, DC Sales Training Coach [http://mrthomasellis.com/]. As a profit growth strategist, he helps implement real achievable strategies and systems to generate more business returns. He helps how you can prevent customers dismissing your Ad.

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Sales Coaching

I Hate Sales, I Can’t Do It!

Many people say to me that they don’t know how I do it; they couldn’t work in sales and could never sell anything. The strange thing is many of these people are in business and don’t see themselves as a sales person but ironically they need to sell their products and services to clients to make their business a success and in some cases to pay their mortgage.

The problem is whenever you mention salespeople most people who are not in sales think of some cheesy bloke, with a sharp suit and the gift of the gab who will sell you something you don’t want or need.

In a recent study it was found that 70% of people are engaged in some sort of sales situation every day. This is a situation that some business owners don’t want to get involved in and sometimes shy away from it. On a recent course someone said I couldn’t ask questions to qualify the opportunity I would much rather wait to see if they bought it!!!

My belief is that there are two sorts of people who make a successful business. Firstly those that sell and secondly those that support those that sell.

The thing is everything needs to be sold and if you are a business owner your knowledge of sales has a direct and important impact on your business profitability.

The first option is to employ a professional sales person. At a recent meeting I suggested this to someone and he said he couldn’t afford one and they were too expensive. My answer to this was how much would it cost you if you didn’t employ one.

The second option and a favourite option for the small business owner (I mean small in company size not a little person) is to employ a sales coach. Again the cost objection comes up the perception is that it will cost too much and what will they actually give me. The answer is to take time to understand what the coach will actually give you.

Let us look at the world of sport as an example. Golfers such as Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood, Footballers such as David Beckham and Lionel Messi employ and work with coaches. Are the coaches better than them, no they employ coaches not because they are better than them but because they can stand back and look at things objectively.

A great coach can see what is missing from your skills and work on them to improve your performance. There may be times a good coach can seem ruthless and not nice but they will always be truthful with the main objective of improving your skills and performance to give you a greater chance of sales success.

The choice is yours, stay as you are and pick up sales experience as you go along or jump start your sales by employing a sales coach. There are many great sales coaches, go visit them and work with the one that most fits your values and beliefs.

Arrow Sales proven sales advice to motivate and help you win new sales

[http://www.arrowsales.co.uk]

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