Tag Archives: Sales Training

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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Sales Coaching

Getting Sales Coaching to Happen – Target Trigger Events

People who are knowledgeable and experienced in sales excellence know sales coaching is worthwhile; it can make a difference; and it needs to be a priority. Sales pros agree coaching is a necessity if you want a world-class sales team.

While most sales leaders agree about the importance of sales coaching, most also admit “the job isn’t getting done.” Many great companies start coaching initiatives with tremendous energy and commitment. Far fewer exit the other end of the tunnel.

Two developments increase the urgency for a renewed dialogue about getting coaching to happen:

· Sales force performance is a bigger piece of the competitive advantage puzzle. Presently, it is extremely difficult to sustain a competitive advantage by product alone. Even if you have a winning product, the competition is likely to get a product to market that is just as good, at half the price… in half the time it took several years ago. Although a superior sales force is extremely difficult to assemble and train, once you have one, it is of the few sustainable advantages left.

· Sales excellence is more difficult to achieve. Not only is superior sales performance more important than ever; it’s harder to get there. Today, sales people must develop their knowledge and skills to an unprecedented level. Now top performers have to know more and know it at a higher level of competency than ever before. In many companies, a substantial number of the top performers 15 years ago would not make the first cut for this year’s President’s Club.

One step for making it happen is addressing a critical stumbling block for achieving sales excellence – why more companies don’t get serious about sustaining a coaching effort? In that regard it’s not that folks don’t think it’s important; they do – also is not primarily a lack of skill. Sure some front-line sales managers need to improve their coaching but even when they do, coaching often still does not occur.

We would submit the fundamental culprit is lack of commitment and discipline. Consequently another high priority coaching initiative or a new coaching training program, by themselves, are unlikely to fix the problem.

Enter Trigger Event Coaching. In organizations certain events occur that create an enormous amount of organic energy and focus. This is due to the strategic importance of these events and the time, effort, and financial resources the organization has committed to making them happen. Let’s call these occurrences – Trigger Events.

Launching an important new product, initiating a rebranding effort, implementing a merger/acquisition, and instituting a strategic sales shift like moving from selling individual products to selling an integrated solution are all examples of Trigger Events.

When it comes to coaching, Trigger Events are important because if you initiate a targeted coaching effort to making them successful, the importance of the Trigger Event will provide the focus and commitment necessary to make sure the coaching happens. All Trigger Events represent some type of strategic shift so the sales team will indeed need to adjust and adapt their selling skills to the new reality. So coaching is clearly needed and warranted.

Example – New Product Launches. Let’s take the example of a new product launch. In this case let’s assume the new product is a potential game changer. In such a case the company would have committed substantial R&D and Marketing dollars and lots of people would be interested in creating a success story.

In is also true if the product is a game changer, then the sales team will likely face new sales challenges and a need to upgrade their selling skills. So it will be easier than normal to get everyone behind the idea of implementing a six-month targeted coaching effort for helping the sales team get smart about selling the new product. And if needed, it will also be easier to get the budget to implement manager coaching training or purchase a coaching software package customized for the new product.

Summary

When it comes to sales coaching our observation is the problem is not so much about bad sales coaching but the fact that sales coaching does not systematically occur. When it does occur, it works.

So one answer to the dilemma is connecting the sales coaching effort to a high priority organizational Trigger Event that has everyone’s attention and focus. Our bet is under these conditions the right people will actually get serious about coaching, its merits will be demonstrated, and perhaps coaching will become institutionalized. And if the latter thing happens – that’s a good thing.

For more than 30 years Dr. Richard Ruff and Dr. Janet Spirer – the founders of Sales Momentum and Sales Horizons – have worked with the Fortune 1000 to design and develop sales training programs that make a difference. By working with market leaders – such as UPS, Smith & Nephew, Robbins & Minor, Textron, Boston Scientific, Owens & Minor – we have learned that today’s standard for a great sales force significantly differs from yesterday’s picture.

Sales Momentum offers companies a new generation of proven sales training programs designed with Fortune 1000 companies… that you can deliver, modify, and brand to your organization. Sales Horizons offers these programs to companies with a one-time license fee that is compatible with today’s economic realities.

To learn more about how Sales Momentum helps companies achieve sales success, visit our web site at http://www.salesmomentum.com or visit our blog at http://www.salestrainingconnection.com/.

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Sales Coaching

Strengths Based Sales Leadership Tactics

If you have been given the important position of acting as the leader for your sales team, then it should be your primary goal to increase productivity and lead your group of sales professionals to success. Company growth and a solid reputation all rely on the efforts and success of your sales force; so you will want to do what you can to build up the strengths of your sales team and find out ways to overcome the weaknesses. When you start to lead your sales team, you will find that different teams and different team members have different strengths and as an effective leader you will first need to identify these strengths before you can lead or make any changes.

Keep in mind that different individuals on your team will have different strengths. This is important as you will want to make sure that you treat each member of your team as an individual instead of treating the group as a whole. In addition to identifying the strengths of each sales member, you need to identify the best way to build up the weaknesses of each of your sales members and turn them into strengths. A great deal of this has to do with proper motivation. Just as each team member will have a different strength or weakness, each team member will be motivated in a different way, so if certain approaches don’t work at first you will want to keep trying.

When it comes to strong leadership within your sales team, having a mutual respect between you and your team members is essential. This can be achieved with open communication. Sit down with your team and let them know what you feel their strengths are and what areas can be improved. Also show them by example the strengths you posses as a sales leader so that they can learn by your example. Never focus on their weaknesses as being problems, but being areas that can eventually become strengths. Since the sales environment of today tends to be so stress-driven, by focusing on strength and using your strengths to find success you will keep a more positive attitude within your sales force.

Keep in mind that strength within a team is often built by taking on challenges. You can not build up the strengths of your sales team by not pushing them or by avoiding difficult situations. Instead spin every tough situation, not as a moment where weakness can prevail but where your strengths as a team can come out. However, none of this can be possible without effective leadership. In addition to being able to point out and play up the strengths of your team, you need to be a strong leader yourself and never forget that your example and your approach to leading your team will impact the way they approach your current sales efforts.

Resource Box:

Visit The Sales Coaching Institute to learn more about effective sales leadership strategies. These professionals can be found online at http://www.salescoach.us.

Doug Dvorak is the CEO of DMG Inc., a worldwide organization that assists clients with productivity training, corporate humor and workshops, as well as other aspects of sales and marketing management. Mr. Dvorak’s clients are characterized as Fortune 1000 companies, small to medium businesses, civic organizations and service businesses. Mr. Dvorak has earned an international reputation for his powerful educational methods and motivational techniques, as well as his experience in all levels of business, corporate education and success training. http://www.dougdvorak.com

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Sales Coaching

5 Step Process on What to Ask and How to Listen in a Sales Call

There is no denying that the sales process heavily relies on an effective sales call. However, it is important to remember that the sales call is more than just a time to give off your rehearsed sales pitch; it is a time to answer questions and to listen to the needs of your buyers. This is why it is important to engage in some motivational sales training to understand five basic steps that will help you ask the right questions and help you know how to listen to your buyers on a sales call so that you can get the most out of your call.

1- Ask About the Lead

You should always begin the sales process by asking questions to the client. This will let you know about who they are as a person and who their company is a little more. This is important for a few different reasons. First, it will let you know a little more about the person and what their rapport is like. It will also let you know more about the problem that they are dealing with so you can show them that your product or service is the solution. Finally, it will help develop a relationship between the two of you and build trust.

2- Ask The Lead Questions About Their Needs

Next you will want to ask questions about the lead’s needs and make sure you pay close attention to the answers. You will want to know what your prospect needs to enhance their lives or their business so you can show them how your product or service can meet that need.

3- Ask Yourself If Your Product Will Enhance the Lives of the Prospect

The next question will be a question that you ask yourself. At this time you want to ask if your product or service will really enhance the lives of the prospect. If you confirm this then this lead will qualify as a true prospective sale. If you honestly do not believe that your product or service will enhance their lives then it is not worth either of your time to move forward with the sale.

4- Ask If the Buyer’s Budget Permits the Sale

Budget questions are very important and you will want to make sure that you ask questions and listen for answers that will let you know if the prospect’s budget would even allow them to use your product or service.

5-Ask What You Can Do

This final phase of questions is important as it opens the door for further communication with the client down the line. While on the sales call make sure that you ask them if there is anything else that you can do for them to make them more comfortable with the sale or happier with their attention and services. Make sure to provide contact information to them at this time as well.

Resource Box: If you are looking for more information on what to ask and how to listen in on a sales call then you need to visit the professionals from The Sales Coaching Institute online today. They can be found at salescoach.us where you can get more tips and learn more about their motivational sales training services through a sales coach Chicago.

Doug Dvorak is the CEO of DMG Inc., a worldwide organization that assists clients with productivity training, corporate humor and workshops, as well as other aspects of sales and marketing management. Mr. Dvorak’s clients are characterized as Fortune 1000 companies, small to medium businesses, civic organizations and service businesses. Mr. Dvorak has earned an international reputation for his powerful educational methods and motivational techniques, as well as his experience in all levels of business, corporate education and success training. http://www.dougdvorak.com

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Sales Coaching

Learning Styles and Call Centre Coaching

Executive summary

In this 900 word article, I explore the four different types of coaching interventions that Call Centre Sales Managers use to drive up their team’s performance but argues that each agent has their own preferred learning style and this should dictate the coaching mode used most often with that agent.

Plus some useful tips to perform coaching at your highest level.

Learning styles and coaching

We’re all very familiar with Honey and Mumford’s Learning Styles piece of work from the 1980’s which describes the four varying styles of learning that we all have. My preferred style is a reflector since I like to look back on my learning events, take my time when learning, think things through, listen to others and I hate being dropped in at the deep end.

Others might prefer an activist style where being dropped in from a thousand feet would suit them, happy to learn from mistakes, can easily see what their mistakes have been and can figure out an alternative way in mini seconds. They just seem to want workshops to soar at a hundred miles per hour.

You might prefer a theorist style with a desire to look at all the detail and background to the training topic and to see where theories and models can benefit your learnings.

Or finally the pragmatist who, by now, has got bored with this piece because they don’t see the benefits and how it can help them.

Have you ever used these learning styles to help you maximise your phone based sales coaching? You may not have thought about it but it makes perfect sense.

Most phone sales centres or call centres or Inside Sales Operations as our friends across the Pond call them, use a variety of coaching interventions. These are:

 

  1. Live side by side coaching in the call centre
  2. Recorded call coaching in privacy
  3. 1to1 coaching with metrics and KPIs
  4. Group listening sessions followed by facilitated group discussion on best practice

 

If you have a choice which one you use with your phone salespeople, then choose the one that fits their learning style.

Side by side coaching

For activists – definitely go for live side by side coaching. Here’s some tips to make this coaching better for them:

 

  • Decide on a theme to work on during the side by sides and listen out for this area during your observations.
  • Ask your agent for their preferred theme to focus on
  • Focus mostly on feedback and keep it snappy, then ask them what they can do differently.
  • Use GROW but start on reality by giving them feedback on the reality that you just observed, then launch straight into options, giving them a chance to comment.
  • Keep the feedback to around 2 minutes, then get on the next call.
  • The beauty of live side by side is that you get to see the actual challenges they’re facing which are non-skill based, normally system or process, so empathise with them and take some action to improve these.

 

Recorded feedback sessions

For reflectors – give them more private recorded call coaching sessions. Here’s some tips to help you here:

 

  • Give them slightly longer with the “how well did you do” question, look away a little more, give them space to think.
  • Let your agent choose the calls to listen to so long as you stipulate a good one and a not so good one.
  • Don’t choose calls randomly; use intelligent Speech Analytics Software to choose keywords, phrases used, attitudes, sentiments and acoustics.
  • Allow your agent to gauge themselves against your best practice checklist, and then comment afterwards.
  • Use silence, non verbal nods and lots of matching body language to encourage the reflector to talk… and we do.
  • Once some actions start appearing, GROW them naturally and then wrap up with the WHY – where do they need to be, how will I get there and how will you help me.

 

1to1 performance coaching

Theorists might prefer the 1to1 coaching with metrics and KPIs to ponder over. Some tips here:

    • Let them have the metrics in advance.
    • With the exception reports focus equal time on the above average performance as opposed to the below average performance, this is a balanced performance review after all.
    • Try and use a balanced scorecard approach to the metrics you measure. You could split these four ways:
      1. “How well is your agent serving the customer?” – Customer satisfaction
      2. “How well is your agent performing?” – Operational efficiency
      3. “How well is your agent supporting sales?” – Business value
      4. “How am I getting the best out of my agents?” – People management
  • Always have some coaching in the metrics meetings, these are not just assessment and feedback but a chance to spot trends and determine action plans.

Group call listening sessions

Pragmatists might prefer the group interaction commenting on played-back calls, especially if you have some top performers in the group and keep it punchy. Here’s some ideas:

 

  • Choose calls carefully, some exemplars and not such good calls. Maybe choose a theme upfront.
  • Sell the WIIFMs to the agents before you start. (What in it for me’s)
  • Keep the session to about 45 minutes.
  • Ask them to complete the best practice checklists.
  • Invite everyone for their opinions but keep this tight. Request one good point and one development area and ban repeating what previous agents have said.
  • You don’t need to chip in an opinion just for the sake of it; the art is to encourage the agents to comment on their own calls.
  • My final tip is to ask the agent as to the preferred coaching, what coaching would they want from you to support their growth and how should the coaching occur. They won’t give you pragmatist, theorist, reflector – that’s technical jargon for you and I – but they will give you an impression to work on.

 

Now haven’t we breathed a breath of fresh air into Peter and Alan’s learning styles?

Paul is an international speaker, sales trainer, author and coach based in the UK. His expertise and experience is in selling and sales coaching, his books and articles focus on rapport selling which puts the customer at the heart of the sale. Visit his website http://www.archertraining.co.uk/Sales_tips.htm to sign up for his Weekly Sales and Coaching Tips or visit his blog at http://www.paularcher.com where you’ll find his unique style of weekly blog posts for you to enjoy. paul@paularcher.com

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