Tag Archives: Sales coaching

Sales Coaching

The Myth of ‘See More People = Increased Sales’

Given the choice between buying activity management systems and implementing a true performance coaching system to bring out the best in salespeople, my unfortunate experience is that many senior sales management teams will inevitably choose activity management. The reason? It’s easy. Granted it works in the short term, and there’s even a place for it during field induction and as a mechanism for performers to appraise themselves, but as a sales coaching tool it is a non-starter.

You teach salespeople about activity, not force it on them. The danger with the latter is that you will have your salespeople deliver the activity without a corresponding increase in business. I have seen numerous examples of salespeople forging activity levels simply to keep the manager happy. In the meantime, the manager sinks into a quicksand of statistics trying to work out where it is going wrong.

I recently visited an area sales manager who was having problems with a non-performing salesperson. The manager showed me the charts he had put together showing the pattern of calls and results. It must have taken him quite some time. The problem was that the salesperson had falsified 80% of their activity. It wasn’t his fault. He was responsible, but it wasn’t entirely his fault.

You may produce a ratio which show that from a particular level of activity that a particular financial outcome is being achieved within the sales force. You may choose to ignore the fact that top salespeople see fewer customers than their lower performing colleagues. But you need to ask yourself the question – what is it you want from the salesperson? Activity or results? Forget the relationship between activity and performance – what is you want – activity or results? If it’s results then forget activity. If it’s activity, then perhaps you have lost the plot.

You teach people about working hard by going out on calls with them. It is the only way to find out what’s going on – with them and with customers. There isn’t a professional coach alive that doesn’t sit on the touchline; stand in the wings; sit in the auditorium; watch the actual performance as part of their coaching responsibilities.

You should accompany new salespeople for five days after foundation training. You will come up with all sorts of excuses why this can’t happen but these excuses will compromise the successful outcome of both training and coaching. Unless you meet people on day one in the field; unless you test that they have acquired the levels of knowledge, skills, and attitudes required; unless you accompany them immediately on live sales calls; unless you stay with them for their first five days in the field; you’ll have to rely on luck as to whether new salespeople make it or not. It’s during these first five days in the field that you teach new starters the activity game. Ideally you will have already arranged a number of sales appointments to go on in the first week.

In the first five days you will learn more about the new starter and they will learn more about you and your company then any other mechanism I know. You must know within those first five days whether the new starter will make it or not. If after five days you still don’t know, then chances are they won’t make it – and you need to think long and hard about your recruitment and selection processes. Or perhaps set them an activity target – that will sort it!

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Sales Coaching

When to Hire a Sales Coach

When would be a better time to visit a doctor: after you are sick or before you get sick? Though many choose to see their doctor only after symptoms create enough of a demand for them to seek help, a more logical approach is to see your doctor for preventive care to ward off illness.

The same is true for your career. Why wait until your career is in jeopardy, your income falling and your stress level climbing before hiring a tenured, skilled and professional sales coach?

Day One or Day 1,000

While some coaches, eager to build their business will suggest that everyone in sales should hire them on the first day of their career, it may make more sense to delay even beginning to select a coach.

Why wait?

Actually, there are a couple of reasons why a rookie sales professional should consider waiting a while before hiring a coach. The first is the fact that many are in a sales position only because they are unable to find a job in a career or industry that really interests them. Sales has been called the “default occupation” for this very reason.

Hiring a sales coach on day 1 of your sales career may be money ill spent. A good coach will be focused on helping your increase your sales and may not be driven to help you decide if sales is really right for you.

Another reason to hold off hiring a professional coach is that your company will (should) have plenty of sales training for you to go through and master. Adding sales models and techniques on top of the training you are already receiving may be overwhelming. Beyond being potentially overwhelmed, you may not devote the time and attention to fully learning the training your company is giving you which probably wouldn’t impress your sales manager.

When the Student is Ready…

There’s an old expression that says when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. As long as your search for a coach begins before “crisis mode,” the time you begin searching for a coach is the right time for you.

Very few sales professionals who hire a sales coach would say that they were 100% certain of their decision to hire a coach. In fact, if you wait until you are absolutely certain that hiring a sales coach is the perfect way to advance your career, you’ll probably not hire a coach until it’s either too late or when your sales are so bad that you feel you have to do something.

T Patrick Phelps is the President of T Patrick Phelps Writing Services, Inc. He has worked with across many different vertical markets and specializes in writing for the sales, IT and personal development industries. Phelps is a Certified Life and Sales Coach and the founder of the Essential Needs Sales Paradigm. Visit [http://www.tpatrickphelps.com] for contact information

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Sales Coaching

The Secret Behind Swedish Sales Success

In a recent article, Annika Wihlborg interviewed sales consultant Björn Strid about his book: Let Your Heart Beat Your Sales Record (Låt ditt hjärta slå ditt säljrekord).

According to Mr. Strid, the Swedish way of selling is highly respected by clients worldwide. Several factors contribute to the excellent reputation that many Swedes have earned in international business.

Based on his many years of selling a range of products (from ice cream to complex logistical solutions), Mr. Strid concludes that the typical Swedish way of selling has five guiding principles: creating trust, showing empathy, being well-prepared, taking action and knowing the relevant profit-loss figures for a company.

These principles can be seen to have grown out of the Swedish business environment. In Sweden, flat organizations are common and this enables people to take initiative and maintain a high level of sales-driven activity.

Also, successful Swedish sales people have an exceptionally high level of competence in the services and products they sell. They keep up with the latest developments in their field, and often have a strong professional background in their area of expertise. Swedes value competence and the ability to explain a product or service, as well as its full value to a buyer.

Empathy – A Very Valuable Sales Tool

But Mr. Strid believes that the most important success factor is the Swedish capacity for empathy. He says, “We Swedes also see and encourage colleagues of the person we are meeting with. That makes us different from many other international sales people who for the most part, focus only on the person with the highest formal title.”

Keep Track of the Numbers!

Another very strong success factor is, according to Mr. Strid, the tendency that Swedes have to keep track of their own sales numbers. This makes them especially good at asking relevant questions of their prospects in international sales meetings.

Taking Action to Make Sales Happen

The consistently high level of activity that many Swedish sales people are known for is another success factor. This is largely due to the relatively flat and non-prestigious organizational structures typical of Swedish companies.

The traits that Swedes bring to the negotiating table are highly appreciated by company leaders throughout the world. Swedish sales people are good at asking questions, leading meetings and – not least of all – taking the time to really see and encourage others.

They have learned that empathy is a very valuable characteristic when it comes to sales, no matter which product or service you are selling. “Swedish sales people have demonstrated consistently that our capacity for empathy, combined with our knowledge of English and our way of taking action, is a very dependable recipe for success,” according to Mr. Strid.

Mr. Strid’s five tips for sales people who want to improve their capacity for empathizing with others:

1/ Meet with people on all levels of an organization – from decision-makers and others who may be influential in the company, down to the user-level.

2/ Don’t be so eager to talk about and share what you think. Focus on asking questions instead.

3/ Follow up with the contacts you have already made. Take the time to do this instead of always looking to find more business contacts.

4/ Get in touch with your clients, even when you are not planning to sell anything. Just let them know that you care about them and that they are important. This will often lead to more business, even if that was not the original intention.

5/ Practice building empathy by asking questions about people’s personal lives as well as their business. Allow the other person to finish what they start to tell you. Avoid jumping into the discussion and talking about yourself. It’s better to ask more questions, than to move the focus onto your own experiences.

Mr. Strid is a sales coach and popular speaker who helps companies develop their sales and marketing initiatives. He is the owner of Strid & Co in Stockholm, Sweden.

About the Author: Janet Boynton Runeson is a freelance web copywriter and director of Entrepreneurial Copy. With several advanced degrees in the Humanities, Fine Arts and Economics, she has extensive experience in international marketing and specializes in cultural awareness.

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Sales Coaching

The Benefits of Hiring a Performance Coach to Help Your Sales Team

There are many benefits to hiring a performance coach to boost your sales efforts. Here are some of the major ones:

Gain New Tips to Help Your Team Sell

Some people simply struggle with new ways of selling an existing product. It doesn’t matter how long they have been in the role for. One benefit of hiring a professional performance coach is that he or she will encourage your sales team to dig deep into their chest of ideas and come up with new benefits or processes that streamline their sales efforts. Choosing a sales coach with a strong commercial background will also help your team put these new ideas and processes into practice.

Specific Advice for Your Product or Service

As already mentioned, your sales coaching will be specific to your product or market sector. If you simply search online, or in a book for generic sales advice, or if you choose to generic sales training from a qualified trainer (not experienced sales professional), the chances are that you get what you pay for. Generic tips rather than proven, actionable ideas. Generic sales books are geared for the majority of people who have never sold anything before, you will only find a handful of texts for advanced sales professionals.

A sales coach will take time to work through your ideas, your current sales experiences, your revenue targets, your personal growth goals and help you prioritise your conflicting demands so that you start seeing progress more quickly than if you attempt to sell alone. Your coach will act as your sounding board for you to bounce ideas off or review your failures so you reduce your learning curve and are more effective on your next sale. A great sales coach will help you navigate your corporate world and ensure that your prospecting is more skilled, more targeted and more fruitful than ever.

One-on-One Time with the Sales Team

Sales coaching is not just about creating a plan. If is about working with the individuals in your team to understand their backgrounds, help maximise their strengths and minimise their weaknesses. If you hire a sales coach from a sales background, you can request mentoring support, if relevant, so that your team can draw on their coach’s actual sales experience. This has the added value of reducing learning curves, bringing forward conversion dates and increasing revenue more quickly.

While popular sales texts and online resources may seem like a cheaper option, the guidance and experience that can be drawn from a sales coach who has come from a corporate sales background is invaluable.

Carla Cotterell has 17 years experience in sales and marketing roles, gained at high-growth technology start-ups and media giants such as AOL Time Warner. She is an experience Sales Coach, qualified NLP Practitioner and works with DiSC personality profiling.

You can contact Carla Cotterell here: http://www.ccotterell.com.

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MyOrbit Blogs, Sales Coaching

Coaching an Effective Selling System

An effective selling system is a requisite for success in the world of sales. Follow those who are true leaders in selling, and you will find each has a system that allows them to excel.

In order to have a productive sales team, one must consistently teach and coach an Effective Sales System (ESS). If your team does not have an ESS, and you rely on sales people to operate within their own system, you will have a difficult, if not impossible, time affecting individual skills and behaviors.

An effective coach must clearly demonstrate what is expected of a sales person. At a minimum, one must be able to communicate how to employ concepts and tactics via stories, analogies and metaphors. Think of the athletic coach–while the coach may not physically demonstrate everything that is expected of an athlete, he/she must be able to communicate what is expected.

To effectively coach sales people, you must do the same. You must truly know and understand the selling process and the Effective Selling System. You must own the content and the process, and you must communicate the sales skills expected of your team.

Specifically, you must be able to demonstrate the 8-step phone process with an effective Unique Selling Approach (USA) opening. You must demonstrate an effective initial call starting with “What would make this meeting a great use of your time?” Your ability to demonstrate these skills will greatly enhance your sales team’s ability to execute an Effective Sales System. On the other hand, if you don’t know the system intimately, you won’t be able to effectively coach your sales people through demonstrations or identify sales-sabotaging behaviors.

Remember to ask open-ended questions. Help sales people discover their choke points through the questions you ask. Confirm that the sales person wants to fix his or her problems. Unless sales people desire to correct their weaknesses, you will have a difficult, if not impossible time, helping them improve. Verify each producer’s willingness and enthusiasm to work and get commitment that they will devote the time and energy necessary to master the skills.

A good sales coach must also be able to teach the theories and psychology which support an Effective Sales System, including: A. Why understanding the interpersonal dynamics of the buying and selling process is crucial, B. Why traditional phone approaches are ineffective, C. Why a sales person should not look, act or sound like every other sales person, D. Why effectively asking questions can make or break a sale and E. Why it’s critical to get commitment for a decision prior to presentation.

As well, a good sales coach must understand and teach the psychology and theory supporting: A. When and why a sales person asks for introductions, B. Why each sales person must have a robust pipeline, C. Why executing a personal success formula is vitally important, and D. Why participating regularly in sales huddles (weekly, 15-minute meetings in which sales people report critical numbers) is crucial to a sales person’s success.

You must coach your sales people at each step as follows: First, tell them the skill you will be teaching. Second, show them how to use the technique. Third, review what you taught and demonstrated. Next, execute with drill-for-skill and role-play so that your sales people can see the skill in action. Finally, have them practice using the technique with one another so that they are able to employ the tactic while they are under pressure in the field and on the phone.

Your team must demonstrate knowledge of the selling system and comfort while using it. Typically, human beings must perform an activity multiple times before mastering it.

Robert F. Bruner of the University of Virginia stressed the importance of repetition for learning when he wrote the following: “The deepest “Aha’s” spring from an encounter and then a return. Repeating the encounter fuses it into one’s awareness. The learning process is one of slow engagement with ideas; gradually the engagement builds to a critical mass where the student actually acquires the idea.”

Being a good sales coach is a full-time job, requiring focus, dedication and energy to learn and master the steps and processes of an Effective Sales System. The coach must then be willing and able to teach and coach theses steps and processes to the sales team. A good sales coach must be able to play “bad-guy/good-guy” and be able to motivate and mentor sales people while holding them accountable to the necessary activities.

Tony Cole, President of Anthony Cole Training Group
(877) 635-5371
http://www.anthonycoletraining.com

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