Sales Coaching : what is it and how can it help me?

What are the business benefits of sales coaching?

• Increased sales activity and generation
• More loyal and satisfied customer base
• Improved staff retention and recruitment
• A supportive and trusting environment conducive to accelerated learning
• Better developed coaching skills in your sales managers
• Happier, more creative employees with greater self awareness and self belief

What is sales coaching?

Sales coaching is one-to-one and/or team coaching in which the skills, knowledge and capabilities of sales people are improved by building on their strengths, and addressing areas which could benefit from improvement.

For example, at the start of a coaching programme there is an in-depth questionnaire for the individual and/or team to complete so as to understand where people are at that point in time. As the coaching programme progresses, similar questionnaires are administered to track how people are moving forward, and developing and improving their performance.

At the end of the programme a further in-depth set of questions asking for overall feedback on the programme is completed. This allows the coaching sponsor within the company to have measurability of the investment. As well as one-to-one and team coaching, we can also consider accompanied client visits.

What does sales coaching involve?

Sales coaching is conducted either face to face (which is preferred) or via the telephone. Time is set aside in sales people’s diaries for their individual session (normally one hour) with the coach. In that hour, the coach challenges the individual to improve their own performance and also to align it with the needs of the company as a whole.

At the end of the session, each person selects options to work on from areas identified in their coaching session, which will improve their skills or develop new skills. The coach normally offers telephone and email support to each individual during the time between To ‘raise the bar’ for your customer, you need your people to be outstanding, exhibiting peak performance through behavioural change. Individuals will only grow when they have the passion, commitment and energy delivered from clarity, purpose, self- awareness, autonomy and responsibility. Only then will you harness the most potent commercial force in the marketplace, and develop talent that remains loyal to your business.

We can say that in the early part of the twenty-first century it is even more difficult to get the best out of a team. Some of the reasons for this are as follows:-

• People no longer work in settled groupings but are continually forming and re-forming teams
• Some teams are geographically dispersed, making contact more infrequent and more problematic
• The time scales within which teams are expected to join, form and perform to meet the business challenges are shorter than ever
• The business challenges themselves have increased in complexity
• Not all groups of people who collaborate need to be in a team to achieve their objectives

Sales team coaching can help overcome these barriers and improve overall team performance. Generating high-quality relevant feedback, as far as possible from within, rather than from experts, is essential for continuous improvement. At work Team Sales Coaching can achieve this for your team.

Why roll out a sales coaching programme for your team?

The benefits include:-

• Having a neutral person on board who can look objectively at people’s challenges
• Taking on the responsibility of maintaining focus and motivation amongst staff
• The coach offering impartiality, but continual support over a 6-12 month period
• Addressing key growth areas for the company and not being sidelined by other company issues
• Removing unhealthy, unproductive stress
• The coach being able to address problems with staff at an early stage
• Teaching individuals to set goals effectively and realistically
• Generating improved self-awareness amongst staff
• Empowering certain key management personnel with coaching skills if desired
• Having coaching as an on-going process rather than a "quick training fix"
• Coaching can be included as part of a company’s induction program

 
TCl Dec 2008