Tag Archives: Sales

Sales Coaching

Curbside Coaching

Much of the frustration with sales training today is that some of the sales people who need it the most don’t apply the training in the field. They seem to understand the tr1aining but still make the self-defeating mistakes that have become habits. They can answers all of the training questions correctly in class, they stand out in role plays and exercises, yet they don’t improve in front of the customer.

The assumption is that sales training has failed; yet, when we test sales professionals they have learned the principles.

The problem is we want “results” not just well “trained” sales people.

Why preseason “training camp” works.

Right now, the NFL is busy preparing for the regular season. They do this each year to introduce new plays and techniques, to train new players and to reinforce the skills of veterans.

The players do a lot of classroom training at each camp. They occupy their time studying play books, watching films, analyzing strategies…then they march out on the field and slam into each other for a couple of hours. So where does the learning occur? The most important part of learning happens as the coach watches the drills and corrects techniques.

When Bruiser makes a mistake in his footwork, the coach can stop the play, correct Bruiser and then replay the exact situation again until Bruiser gets it right.

Classroom theory ends when the pads go on and the work begins in the trenches at camp. By the time the regular season comes around, the team is prepared. But the coaching continues, before, during and after each game. Getting better never ends.

What lessons can we learn from the NFL’s training methods?

Training begins in the classroom.

Players need to understand the game plan before they can be expected to carry it out. Motivational training has no place in the classroom until the player has mastered the skills. The most motivated, dedicated, hard working and “pumped-up” player will get destroyed physically and mentally, if he doesn’t have the skills to perform! (Turnover starts where people are told to “hang in there” and then given nothing to “hang” on to.)

Classroom training needs to be principled, skills centered, specific and realistic. All successful training is based on a set of principles that support corporate strategy or philosophy. The sales person needs to understand the right direction. Are we taking a long-term consultative approach or are we selling on price hoping to capture volume. (i.e. Peddlers sell boxes; sales professionals sell solutions that help the customer make more profits.)

The sales person then needs to understand the basic sales skills. How will the sales person establish a favorable selling relationship? How will they ask open-ended questions that discover customer needs? How will they ask questions that get the customer to acknowledge the value of a solution, before the sales person asks for the order? How will the sales professional deal with premature price questions? How will he or she ask for a commitment?

In your industry, training must be very specific. The food service sales professional needs to understand how the product applies to the customer’s menu, how it will work in the customer’s kitchen. Specific training needs to deal with how product knowledge is used in selling situations, insuring that the sales person is answering customer needs instead of pushing boxes.

Realistic training is focused on situations and selling events that will occur each day in the field, not vague generalities. The sales person needs to work with and learn from case studies and role-plays based on actual selling challenges. These training techniques help the sales person recognize and understand how the sales principles apply to real field experiences.

Improvement and good habits begin in the field.

Just like the players in the NFL, our players will get the most meaningful learning experience when they are in the field, looking the customer in the eye. As you watch football games this year, watch closely what goes on, on the sideline. You will see position coaches frantically involved in animated coaching sessions with their players. The coaches will be drawing up plays or physically showing players how to handle blocking and tackling situations.

Your players need the same kind of coaching in the field. And you can give that coaching while the experience is fresh on their minds and just before they practice the new idea or skill on the next sales call. We call this “curb side” coaching and it can be the most productive learning experience the sales professional will ever get.

Selling them on improvement.

The best sales coaches recognize that the greatest opportunity to improve selling skills is in the front seat of the sales professional’s car. Here our job is to first, get the student to recognize what went right and what went wrong in the last sales call. The best way to do this is to ASK them rather than TELL them. It’s like selling; things go better, when we ask the customer what they need, instead of trying to tell them what they need.

Immediately after the call the manager can begin coaching by asking, “Tell me what you think went well?” This gives the sales rep the opportunity talk about the successes of the call. If he or she can’t think of anything that went right, then you should. People need to know what they are doing right so they can continue to repeat those things. Here the manager has an obligation to reinforce the sales rep’s strengths, acknowledging a good job.

Next, the sales person needs to recognize what is not working, so the coach will ask a question like, “What do you think could have been improved on the call?” This gives the sales rep the opportunity to talk about what did not work well on the sales call. This is where the coaching skills are most important and it is very much hands on but it is not “constructive criticism.” The coach that constantly focuses on the players’ faults is doing little more than frustrating the player.

Again, instead of telling them all of the things they need to do, ask, “What do you think you need to do differently next time?” This allows the sales rep to think about options to improve. It allows them to think about and develop their own prescriptions for a cure.

It is possible he or she will develop an answer that the coach feels is unacceptable. When this happens, there is a tendency for the manager to rush in with the “right” answer. This is counter productive, picture yourself telling the buyer that he shouldn’t use a particular technique to do his or her job. Instead, tell the rep, “That’s one option, what else might you try?” This gives the sales rep a chance to think about it again, instead of defending his or her first ideas.

Coaching should be an experience that the sales person and the coach look forward to, not an experience to be avoided. Coaching is conversational and non-threatening. It’s a discussion on improving and growing. It’s an opportunity to take the classroom education and make it work in the field.

Your training can be three times more effective.

Studies by the American Society for Training and Development find that 70% of actual job skills learning happens on the job. They estimate that classroom training only account for 30% of learning. And experienced coaches in the NFL seem to agree, for 100% effectiveness we need to be doing both sides of the training.

Rick Phillips, a veteran of three decades of sales and management, founded Phillips Sales and Staff Development in 1984. His core training philosophy is that much of the training being offered in American business was at best inadequate or woefully misplaced. “People are still taught to memorize words and techniques…instead of understanding the principles. Principles are constants that don’t change.” Rick has been a featured speaker at the international convention for the American Society for Training and Development. He is a past winner of the ASTD Training Program Design Award. Rick has received Toastmasters International’s highest earned honor being named Distinguished Toastmaster and was a featured presenter at their international convention. As a member of the National Speakers Association, he served as president of the Louisiana Chapter and has been named Chapter Member of the Year.

For more information, contact Phillips Sales and Staff Development at pssd@earthlink.net or [http://www.rickphillips.com].

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Sales Coaching

Sales Coaching, Dirty Secrets Or Misunderstanding What Coaching Is About?

I was interested in reading the Harvard Business Review post, The Dirty Secret Of Effective Sales Coaching. It’s an interesting article with many good point and you should read it.

However, I think the authors present a very narrow view of the manager’s job and the goals of effective coaching. Many of the conclusions are pretty obvious, eliciting almost a “Duhhh” response. If you think about it, “coaching the middle” has a huge return. It should be obvious, there are more people in the middle, so every percent of performance improvement you get from this population has a great impact (when taken from a macro view).

However, my problem with the article is that it implies management’s focus on coaching is primarily on producing shorter term results. They say the performance improvement from the middle may be the difference between hitting or missing this year’s goals. I’ve no argument with that point-if the job of management was to optimize performance for just this year.

This is too narrow a view of management’s job and the real importance of coaching. Manager’s are responsible for developing the highest levels of performance in the organization both this year and for future years. This means we must take a broader view of coaching and performance management.

Coaching the middle can improve performance in the current year, and sustaining this through continued coaching should drive continued performance improvement over the years.

What about coaching the top performers? The authors would claim the return on this effort is relatively small and suggest reducing time on these top performers. But that misses the point. What if we want to move those top performers into bigger contributions? What if we want to have them take much more responsibility, step into new roles-maybe moving from a territory manager, to a major account manager, to a global account manager, to a strategic alliance manager? What if we wanted to develop some of them to step into stronger leadership and management roles?

I don’t think I’m alone in this view-some of the leading companies in the world take the development of their current and future leaders very seriously-providing rich coaching and developmental opportunities-less focused on the performance of those top performers today, but more focused on preparing them to perform in future roles.

What about coaching the bottom performers? Clearly we want them to perform, we can’t afford to have them dragging down the organization. Here coaching may take a different perspective-the key coaching issue might be how we develop them and move them into roles where they can really contribute and perform. Aren’t we as managers supposed to move our people from jobs in which they are C performers into roles where the can be A performers (or at least B’s). Sometimes those are roles in our organizations and companies, sometimes it means moving them out of the company.

Coaching is about performance management and improvement. It is about getting each person to play to their full potential, in roles that maximize their contribution to the organization-now and in the future.

If this were a static world, if our people stayed in the same role forever, if the requirements for performance never changed, then I could buy the recommendations of the authors more easily. Fortunately, that’s not the way the world works.

I think it’s management’s responsibility to coach everyone in the organization. We need to get those in the middle to perform better, we need to grow those at the top to take greater responsibility and grow their contributions, we need to do something with our low performers, not just let them linger.

I do agree with the authors, coaching is not democratic. It’s naive to assume this. Not everyone needs the same “cookie cutter” approach coaching. We coach each person with different goals and objectives. With some we are looking to improve performance in their current roles, with others we are preparing them for future roles. In some we are preparing them to move into other roles or out of the company. We invest different amounts of time in coaching each person. Some need more time, some need less. What we coach and how we coach will vary by individual. Coaching will have different time dimensions for each person, perhaps in the middle we are looking for improvements for this year, but we also need to be worried about next year and the future.

So coaching is not a “democracy.”

So who do we coach? I firmly believe it’s our responsibility to coach everyone.

How do we coach? We are irresponsible if we focus only on one dimension-for example achieving this year’s goals. We have to coach for the objectives and goals we establish for each person?

When do we coach? All the time.

What do you think? Am I being naive?

Dave Brock is President and CEO of Partners In EXCELLENCE, a global management, leadership, sales, and marketing consulting company. Partners In EXCELLENCE helps clients achieve the highest levels of performance by focusing on the customer.

Read more at Dave’s blog: Making A Difference– http://partnersinexcellenceblog.com, or visit Partners In EXCELLENCE website: http://www.excellenc.com.

Dave can be reached directly at dabrock@excellenc.com.

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Sales Coaching

All At Once: Coaching Sales Team

We tend to think of sales coaching as being a tool used only for individual development. When we assemble the sales team, it is usually to have a meeting so that we can transfer information in one direction (from us to them), conduct training (us to them, again), or to collect reports (them to us).

There are occasions when assembling the sales force for coaching is extremely effective.

The After Action Review
In many sales organizations it is difficult-if not, impossible-to provide adequate training to cover every possible situation in which the salesperson may find their prospect or every available solution; sometimes, building and selling the right solution is a creative endeavor with lots of possible right answers, but where the optimal solution is difficult to discover.

You simply can’t train every scenario. Even though you cannot train for every possible scenario, through team coaching, you can help your sales force learn to think about these scenarios and to identify the best path forward.

Team coaching gives you the opportunity to assemble the sales force, using a real opportunity as a case study. The facts can be laid out for the entire team, and the salesperson that owns the opportunity can explain what they saw, what they heard, what they believed they understood, and what actions they believe were dictated by the facts.

As the sales manager, you can engage the team in asking questions to identify a greater range of possible choices that the salesperson might have taken. You can also ask questions that lead to more choices, and you can add some context to help show the sales force how some other choices might play out.

You can also conduct team coaching while the opportunity is still live, sharing the experience of making the choice of actions across the entire team, and thereby sharing the experience and the learning.

Informing Future Behaviors and Actions
The choice to coach the team instead of individuals allows you as the sales manager or sales leader to share the learning and development across the whole group. It provides the whole team the experience, and the lessons, that would have been confined to an individual.

The United States Military is extraordinary at conducting After Action Reviews, leading reviews after every single engagement, forcing their soldiers to think about what happened, why it happened, and most importantly, how they should act in future engagements. The goals of team coaching are the same.

The goal of all coaching is to apply the lessons learned to future activities. This is why we believe that coaching is the highest leverage activity that a sales manager can take: it informs the sales force’s future behaviors and actions.

Questions
When does it make sense to coach teams instead of individuals?
How do share lessons across the sales force efficiently and effectively?
How can you codify these lessons in a way that they can be continually shared and used a resource for future salespeople?
What is the best way to affect the future behavior of the sales force?

Dave Brock is President and CEO of Partners In EXCELLENCE, a global management, leadership, sales, and marketing consulting company. Partners In EXCELLENCE helps clients achieve the highest levels of performance by focusing on the customer.

Read more at Dave’s blog: Making A Difference– http://partnersinexcellenceblog.com, or visit Partners In EXCELLENCE website: http://www.excellenc.com

Dave can be reached directly at dabrock@excellenc.com

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/David_Brock/473112

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Sales Coaching

Push or Pull? How Does Your Sales Process Work?

Let’s talk about the intent of your sales process for a moment. Are you trying to push your prospects into buying from you, or pull them into buying from you?

In my opinion, both those approaches are wrong.

Selling based on features and benefits results in trying to make the prospect buy from you. Whether you attempt to:

* Push them into buying from you, by forcing your values of the features and benefits of your product or service on them, or

* Pull them into buying from you, by trying to attract them with those same values, and hoping they will match up with their own values, and you will have an ineffective and inefficient sales process.

If you’ve read some of my articles on resume writing and the job hunting process, you’ll note a similarity here. The employer does not hire you (and the prospect does not buy from you) for your reasons. They buy for their reasons.

So if you can’t push and you can’t pull in the sales process…what can you do?

This can be a very disturbing question for salespeople. I was in technical sales for several years, and worked with features and benefits selling because that’s all I knew there was. Here’s the kicker: I didn’t know why in some situations I’d get the order, and in others I wouldn’t.

Talk about a weird situation! Here I was, supposedly experienced, knowledgeable about the products and services offered by the companies I worked for…and I had no idea why things worked some times and didn’t others.

Here are some key indicators of sales confusion:

* No documented sales process
* No sales coaching
* Doing a great deal of quoting to prospects who then disappear
* Consistently getting squeezed on price.

Trying to push or pull my prospects into buying from me, based on features and benefits, resulted in this situation! Recognize any of these indicators in your own work?

Yes, there is a way to improve your sales efficiency and effectiveness and at the same time eliminate these sales confusion indicators. Remember from the last entry, customers buy from you for their own reasons, not yours! So how do you find out their reasons? Ask Them.

And that process, the systematic and effective questioning of prospects, is the real key to sales success. It’s something different in sales, and hardly anybody does it well or at all. I’ll bet 95% of salespeople have no idea, just like I used to think, that there is another way than features and benefits selling. It takes time and practice to learn. So this is the powerful alternative to trying to push or pull your prospect over the “passion fence” to buy from you: help them find out their very own reasons. Consultative Selling is what it’s called, and it will completely change how you go about the sales process.

Another take-away thought: If they say it, it’s true.

Jason Kanigan is a consultative sales training professional originally from Vancouver, BC, Canada, and now based out of Wilmington, NC, USA. If you are experiencing sales issues such as:

* trouble “prospecting” on a regular basis

* sales results that are up and down, rather than always consistent

* encountering price as a major objection on a consistent basis

then we should speak. More information at [http://www.kanigan.ca].

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5875932

Sales Coaching

Infield Sales Coaching – The Way of the Future for Sales Managers

Infield sales coaching is the term used to describe when a sales manager coaches a sales person in their sales territory. This can be a geographical or market segmented sales territory. Sales coaching is an ongoing process and not a single event. The process is designed to achieve a purpose and that is to assist every salesperson in the salesforce to reach their full potential. By providing challenges, encouragement and guiding them in continued professional growth, sales performance can be improved in a sustainable manner.

Attributes of great sales coaches

Sales coaches work with their salespeople in the area of strategy, targets, expected outcomes and potential sales call obstacles. Often the missing link is how these are to be achieved. Sales coaches also ask for feedback to ensure their salespeople understand. If the salesperson does not understand it’s up to the sales coach to show them.

Great sales coaches use the following tools:

  • Standardised formal sales process to create common understanding
  • Active listening and questioning skills so they can replicate a sales situation
  • The ability to shut up and let the salesperson lead the sales call even if they are failing
  • The ability to role-play the salesperson’s part of the sales call
  • The ability to uncover and question everything they hear
  • The ability to remain in the moment and not become emotionally involved
  • They don’t need to seek approval so they say, ask or do whatever is necessary to get the salesperson to the next competency level
  • Patience so they can take small steps to clarify a situation
  • Their hands on experience
  • Their wisdom based on years of experience
  • Their sense of humour by keeping it light
  • The respect of their salespeople
  • The trust of their salespeople
  • The relationship they have with their salespeople.

Adapted from Dave Kurlan ‘s Understanding the Salesforce:

What do you need to focus on when coaching your salespeople?

Focus on three areas:

  • Sales strategy

This relates to the customer and potential customers, selecting the right products or services and pricing

 

  • Facts

These include ratios and percentages such as the sales call to order ratio and sales margins. When this information is linked to the sales process facts can provide an indicator of future activity and sales results

 

  • Sales behaviour

Notice what your salesperson does before, during and after the sales call. Do they understand what they are doing, have they followed the sales process, have they applied skills correctly and can they self correct? If not, what competency gaps are there? What do you need to show and demonstrate?

  • Sales coaching styles

Every sales manager has a sales coaching style. Do you know what yours is? Do you know why you are a compatible sales coach with some of your salespeople and find it difficult with others?

Your salespeople want to know how you can help them become successful.

By developing your coaching style and competence as a sales coach your salespeople will want to learn and work with you. Your job will also become more enjoyable. You will find they will want to follow your example and grow professionally.

How to allocate your time to maximise results

Within a salesforce there are 3 categories of salespeople that determine where you should spend most of your time in order to maximise sales performance:

1. The concern category

These are the consistently low sales performers. Unfortunately most sales managers spend a great deal of their time working with these salespeople in an attempt to improve sales. These salespeople tend to rely heavily on the support of their sales manager so time is consumed with additional coaching sessions and often providing answers to problems.

Action –If you have this category of salesperson then you will need to cut back on the amount of time you give them. Start by asking them what they think the answer is to a problem rather than you providing it. Reduce your infield sales coaching time and replace it with a phone call. Set a realistic sales target and time frame. If the sales target is not achieved you will need to take action. The salesperson may be better suited to a different role in the company?

2. The top performer category

It is not uncommon for these salespeople to feel neglected because they receive minor or no sales coaching from their sales managers. This can affect their attitude and result in their being difficult to manage. They usually outsell the combined efforts of the average players in their salesforce so sales managers think they don’t need further development. Some sales managers who are not very competent in selling avoid their top performers for fear of being shown up

Action –Seek the top performers’ input as to the number of sessions and the objectives. They usually only need minor skills refinement which then further enhances their sales performance and motivation. If they have qualified for Level 6 – The Professional status they will more than likely want to develop sales coaching skills and pass on their expertise to other salespeople.

Introduce them to sales coaching over a period of time by allowing them to take on the additional responsibility as well as continue to manage their sales territory. This will give you the time to evaluate their performance as well as the performance of the salespeople they coach. The top performer will also have the opportunity to see if sales coaching is a career they would like to pursue full-time.

3. The average category

The majority of salespeople are in the average to above average range in terms of their sales competence and sales results. This category is ideal for the top performer to begin developing their infield sales coaching skills. There is usually at least one salesperson in this category who has the potential to become a top performer.

Action –Schedule regular sales coaching sessions for this large category and identify the salespeople who have achieved Level 4 or 5 Sales Competency. Assess their talents and strengths and outline a fast track sales development plan because they will provide you with the greatest single increase in sales. It will also motivate the more junior salespeople to work harder and achieve a higher level of sales competence.

To consistently improve sales performance is no easy task. By coaching and leading by example in their world is your greatest opportunity to really get to know them. This in turn will help you to increase your salespeople’s sales competence, motivation and sales results.

If you want more information about this subject or have any sales performance issue you would like to discuss please contact Kurt Newman direct on 0412 252 236. Alternatively email sales@salesconsultants.com.au

Kurt Newman is the co-founder of Sales Consultants Pty Ltd a firm that works with companies to increase sales and reduce the cost of selling. http://www.salesconsultants.com.au

Kurt’s expertise is in sales strategy, sales management development; group structured sales training and infield sales coaching. As a sales person he has successfully sold products and services in 4 major market/product segments: new product sales, consultative sales, relationship sales and retail. During his selling career he created sales records for three companies in two industries and won many other sales awards for outstanding performance.

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