28 May 4 Steps to Coaching Sales Performance

Many sales managers realize that coaching is a key lever for driving sales performance. Despite this, many organizations don’t have a defined coaching process. Coaching tends to be haphazard and unstructured, which makes it challenging for coaching to yield predictable and consistent results.

Having a well-defined, consistent coaching process will ensure your sales organization has the performance lift it needs. Through working with companies across a variety of different market sectors and industries, we’ve found the most effective organizations follow a four-step approach to sales coaching:

Let’s take a look at what’s involved in each step.

Step 1: See the Behavior

The first step of the coaching process is to observe the current practices of the sales person in relation to the desired practices. This will enable you to identify the starting point of development for each sales person.

As you do this, you will probably notice a wide gap between where each sales person is today, and where you want them to be. However, you want to identify the #1 behavior that will have the biggest impact. Why just one behavior?

Expecting to change too many things at once is unrealistic. You run the risk of demotivating the sales person.  Focus on selecting the #1 behavior. This is what the coaching conversation will be focused around.

Step 2: Coach 

The goal of the coaching conversation is to create awareness, build responsibility, and empower the sales person to take action. This should all take place during a scheduled, one-on-one session where you will spend 15-30 minutes with the sales person.

To create a positive coaching experience, follow these guidelines:

Set the Proper Tone

How you start off the coaching conversation can have a big impact on the entire coaching session. Make sure the focus is on future potential, not past mistakes.

Ask…Don’t Advocate

One of the most important skills of an effective sales coach is the ability to ask great questions. Ask questions that will help your sales person uncover the #1 behavior that, when changed, will have the greatest impact on their performance. By asking questions, you are guiding the sales person on a journey of self-discovery.

Actively Listen

This seems so simple, yet it tends to be the greatest challenge for most sales managers. By listening in a skillful manner, you will be able to ask better questions, gain greater clarity, and build deeper levels of trust.

Gain Agreement on the Key Behavior to Change

Gain verbal agreement from the sales person on the #1 behavior to change. Once you have accomplished this, it’s time to move forward towards taking action.

Step 3: Agree to an Action Plan

During this step, you conclude the coaching conversation through co-creating the action plan (or skill development plan) with the sales person. This should be done in a collaborative manner. When you help your sales people create their own solution, they own it. When they own it, they’re more likely to take action.

Elements of the action plan should include:

The action plan is a critical step, as it paves the way for future change.

Step 4: Reinforce the New Behavior

The final step of the coaching process is getting the new behavior to “stick”.  This is all about getting out in the field, observing performance, and providing timely feedback. Ongoing, timely feedback is critical to help secure the adoption of a new behavior.

As you provide feedback, be sure to not only coach the behavior, but the emotions, feelings, and beliefs that sit around that behavior as well. Remember, most change tends to feel uncomfortable at first, so you may need to focus on the underlying emotions to help drive that change.

Summary

Great sales coaching requires the ability to create awareness, build responsibility, and create a sense of empowerment within your sales people. This can be achieved by following the four-step coaching process outlined earlier. By structuring your coaching within this framework, you will be well on your way towards achieving consistent and predictable results.