Sales management coaching: Mistake #5 Way to go coaching
*Do you want to increase your sales performance? * Transforming your sales managers from good to great coaches can have a dramatic impact on sales.
By on Jul 29, 2009Do you want to increase your sales performance?
Transforming your sales managers from good to great coaches can have a dramatic impact on sales. In fact, sales coaching is the management No. 1 activity that drives sales performance. The only problem is that managers have not been taught how to effectively coach. Coaching is a skill that takes time to perfect and unless effectively coached or trained managers make all types of mistakes.
As the head of sales or as a frontline sales manager you can greatly enhance the performance of your sales team if you can develop great coaches.
One of the key mistakes managers make is not getting a commitment to change. They have done a perfect job coaching by asking all right questions, come to agreement on areas for development but forget to get buy in on how the problem will be fixed. When the manger and rep agree on an area for development it is critical to have the rep buys in to what steps they will take to improve.
This requires a simple 3 or 4 point plan which includes what the sales rep will do between coaching sessions. The key is to have the rep develop their own next steps and your role becomes one of holding them accountable. Without this in place the odds are that there will be no change in rep behaviour or skills on the next coaching session.
Have fun coaching,
Steven Rosen, MBA
Executive Sales Coach
http://www.starresults.com