What do sales coaches need to know in order to help their salespeople succeed? More importantly, what does a complete, well-rounded, super-star sales professional do anyway? Surely, if you cornered one of these high-performing sales professionals at a social event and asked them what they actually did as a sales professional, there would be more to it than "I help people."
What exactly is it that salespeople DO anyway? I'm talking about what they actually do, not what their company does or what their value proposition is, but what THEY DO day in and day out as a sales professional?
To be a complete sales professional, their daily activities should be in support of creating customer satisfaction and loyalty. What are these daily activities?
I have analyzed the outputs and deliverables of thousands of sales professionals. I found that these tasks can be grouped into eight key areas. The idea is to help them become highly competent (i.e. superstar) sales professional through helping them:
1. Manage Themselves - highly competent salespeople keep their personal life in check. They stay healthy. They set goals, they make plans for your future. They keep their finances in order. They find stress-reducers.
2. Manage the Sales Cycle -- The highly competent sales professionals seek out continuous comprehensive training and education to support their sales process. You should also be able to initiate, plan, and execute a sales process in order for your product or service to be assimilated into the buying organization. There are many systems out there to choose from.
3. Manage Opportunities - Highly competent sales professionals understand how to identify, manage, develop, and close the right sales opportunities. To do this, they're experts at opportunity planning, territory management, opportunity development, and closing.
4. Manage Relationships- Highly competent salespeople become a trusted advisor to the buyer only happens when the sales professional is successful at building relationships, communicating, distributing information, and influencing others ethically through collaborative dialogue. Building relationships within your own organization is just as critical. Make sure that you take the time to forge relationships with your support teams, delivery teams, management or any other party that is involved in your sales process.
5. Manage Expectations - Highly competent salespeople continue their relationship after the sale. Providing top-notch service to buyers ensures repeat business and a solid sales reputation.
6. Manage Priorities - Highly competent salespeople understand the crucial elements of managing personal time to achieve ones goals and objectives. Great sales professionals understand that they must define the right tasks for the day or month, prioritize them, schedule them and execute.
7. Manage Technology - Highly competent sales professionals utilize technology in order to maximize personal and organizational effectiveness.
8. Manage Communications - highly competent sales professionals understand their choices in selecting, delivering, and leveraging communications strategies and mediums in order to effectively get their message across.
There are many people that wonder why sales professionals are "harried," have short attention spans, are always too busy, or seem a "little flustered". Perhaps by identifying and understanding these eight areas, you have a new found appreciation and an understanding of why?
So the question is, does you sales coaching program help salespeople become better in each area? How can you help them understand which area they are the strongest in? Or which area they are the weakest? A well designed sales coaching program provided by a reputable organization can help sales managers and sales coaches build action steps and coaching programs that help salespeople improve in each area every single day.
