Great Sales Force Coaching
Since coaching sales reps can be stressful and difficult, let’s take a close loot at what for a great coach, and what constitutes excellent coaching. Successful field coaching of reps requires that sales managers recognize three preconditions.
- First, the manager must set aside time for coaching. Some expert believe that in typical sales management position, 75% of the manager’s time should be spent in the field coaching reps.
- Second, to be truly effective, most coaching must be done individually with reps, in sessions that last from thirty-five to forty-five minutes and take place immediately prior to or following rep activities minutes and take place immediately prior to or following rep activities with customers. This make the coaching more relevant and timely.
Coaching that is delayed or out of sync with applicable situation is not nearly so effective. Although certain amount of coaching of sales reps in a group setting is possible, most coaching of reps should be tailored to the individual to reflect the operating realities of different reps, customer sets, and distributors in a territory.
Third, the benefits of coaching are not truly realized until trust has been established between sales manager and rep. coaching involves confronting problems. Unless trust is present, the rep being coached may not feel the manager has earned the right to be as firm and direct as the situation requires. The manager’s authority is not sufficient in itself to ensure that genuine coaching session will occur.
The sales manager shouldn’t dominate a coaching session. Yet this frequently occurs in the absence of trust. Because trust involves shared values and experiences, developing a relationship takes time. Sales managers must recognize the time-consuming nature of trust building.
A great coach performs several key roles for sales reps :
The instructor-teacher role. Sales managers should help reps integrate what they learned in the classroom about products or selling skills with what their experience is teaching the “in the street.” A sales manager can provide quality instruction to reps, on the spot, before o after sales calls about :
- How to probe for genuine customer needs.
- How to categorize customers by sales potential, in ways that make the rep smarter in qualifying business prospects or more able to typify the key buying influences in an account. Customer categorization help reps stay organized. They can more readily use their accumulated knowledge of what works for customers.
- How to study and categorize competitors. Sales managers who teach reps to better understand competitors are providing them with information useful in setting sales goals in the midst of changing competition in the local territory. Reps covering key urban territories are often subject to more aggressive and numerous competitive maneuvers than are reps in larger, rural territories.
- How to optimally lay out routing plans for customer call cycles, depeding on various accounts’ sales volumes and territory. The manager can guide reps in defining “A.” “B” or “C” target accounts, then help the rep determine feasible call schedules.
- Sales managers can provide quality instruction on what the rep can do to achieve desirable outcomes. Managers can be dispassionate about which approaches work best and/or how these can be finetuned. This improves a sales rep’s adaptive selling skills. Often a manager accompanying a rep can see ways for the rep to improve his of her handling of customer objections of to improve closing techniques. Teaching reps self-assessment skills is a vital part of a coach’s role.