When most people think about coaching, they immediately think about sports. They think of a coach barking orders as they run their teams through drills to get them ready for the game. Or if you haven't had the best experiences with coaches, you may think about when teams dump a Gatorade cooler on them.
Sales coaching can be similar to sports coaching (except with less Gatorade), but let's look at the specifics of what sales coaching is and isn't.
Sales Coaching IS NOT Storytelling
This is the number one misconception about sales coaching. We envision the coacher-coachee conversation has to be based around learning about the past to understand the present. Sales managers may think their stories about when they "carried the bag" are riveting and engaging, but the smile on their rep's face hides the countdown in their mind until they can get back to work.
When you tell a story from your own experiences, you're making two assumptions: the current situation is directly relatable, and nothing's changed since then. Unless the sales rep can see what's in it for them to listen to your story, they won't pay attention. Even worse, tell enough irrelevant stories and the rep may tune out the relevant ones too.
While the basics of selling will never change, the sales field is still rapidly evolving to meet ever-increasing customer needs. Are you sure a story from ten years ago compares to the experience the rep had ten minutes ago?
Sales Coaching IS Open-Ended
Sales coaching is about "bringing the best out," not "putting the best in." If you keep things open-ended, you're letting the rep drive the conversation. This in turn means they're driving the solution. Instead of having all of the answers and acting as some sort of sage, you enable the rep to find the answers as you guide him along the process to the right one. Coaching then becomes more about tailoring the experience for each person than the sagely "one size fits all" approach.
Sales Coaching IS NOT Cheerleading
Just because you're letting the sales rep find the answer doesn't mean the answer they'll find is a good one. If all you do is motivate with no criticism, you're not adding any value to them. You're providing them with a shallow experience they can get anywhere else.
People need criticism to grow. And even when you phrase it in the nicest possible way, they may still get offended. Sometimes the truth hurts, but it's better to hurt a little now than a lot later.
Sales Coaching IS the best way to change behavior
Sales coaching succeeds where sales training ends. The best way to get results from someone is to constantly reinforce the behavior you want, and that's what successful sales coaching is. All it takes is a quick five minute chat to let someone know what they're doing right, and what you'd like to see them better. After you have the new behavior identified, you just have to keep reinforcing it.
In successful sales coaching situations, the sales rep has more control, since they have more of a say in what's happening. This means the sales rep is going to feel more invested in the changes, so they're going to want to see them come to fruition.
A sales manager can try whatever he wants to, but just like a horse being led to water, they can't make the rep change their behavior unless they want to change.
