Tool Box
Issue No. 27 - February/March
How to coach your sales team
by Craig Stubing
A major mistake that business owners and managers make is that of not coaching their salespeople.
While this is especially true in respect of new salespeople it also applies to salespeople with experience. If coaching is so important, and failure to do so costly, why is this mistake made so often?
It is because we assume that, when a salesperson says they know something they will also do it. In the words of the song, “It ain’t necessarily so.”
To understand that knowing and doing don’t always go together we need only to look in a mirror. How often do we not do things that we know we should do, or do things that we know we shouldn’t do? It’s basic human behaviour.
But why? And how can the answer help us to help our salespeople perform better?
Knowing but not doing is caused by a lack of self-discipline. It follows that, if a salesperson doesn’t have the necessary self-discipline to do what’s necessary, the discipline must come from an outside source.
Business owners and managers must accept the challenge of being that outside source and, over time, work on helping the salesperson develop self-discipline. This is a key part of sales coaching.
Put another way, business owners and managers must accept the sales coach’s key responsibility of ensuring their salespeople work effectively.
The following tips will help you do a better job of coaching inexperienced salespeople; you will also get some ideas for use with experienced people.
Firstly, decide how you want things done in the sales function of your business and publish clear expectations in areas like:
- prospecting sources and technique
- approach technique
- qualifying practices
- presentation/demonstration structure
- work effort and activity levels
- time management, especially the use of To Do lists and a diary.
Secondly, i...
