Transforming your sales managers from good to great coaches can have a dramatic impact on sales. In fact, sales coaching is the management No. 1 activity that drives sales performance. The only problem is that managers have not been taught how to effectively coach. Coaching is a skill that takes time to perfect and unless effectively coached or trained managers make all types of blunders.

As the head of sales or as a frontline sales manager you can greatly enhance the performance of your sales team if you can develop great coaches.

Coaching Blunder #1 – “Telling vs. Asking Coaching”

As a sales manager you probably were a top sales rep. You may still see yourself as a problem-solver, like “If I solve this rep’s issue then she/he can make the sale.” As a result of your action orientation you are likely to tell the salesperson how to solve the issue. “Telling” does not create self-managing salespeople. In fact, there are numerous downsides to the tell-first approach.

First, you are not empowering your sales reps, who may perceive you as being a micro manager. Second, you are also creating a dependency on you to be their problem-solver. This creates endless emails, phone calls and resulting in needy reps. And third, you are not developing them. One of the critical areas for development is the ability to be a self manager.

Be aware of when you are in “tell” mode and remind yourself, when you have fallen into a bad habit.

Coaching Blunder #2 – “I’ll get to it Coaching”

Time management is a challenge we all face. With emails, meetings and administrative work what is a sales manager to do? If sales results are what you desire then the easy answer is to do the activities that will drive the greatest revenue. Generally we do the busy work first as they are the easiest to. It feels good when we are up to date on our emails. The stress is reduced when we have all our reports in on time and we have followed up on all our messages.

But all those activities don’t contribute to the bottom line. If great sales coaching can have a direct impact of up to 19% more sales, why is coaching not the #1 priority?

Stop making excuses and get out of the office. Get out in the field and make coaching your #1 priority. Your boss will thank you and your reps will make lots of money.

Sales’ coaching is the No. 1 management activity that drives sales performance. The only problem is that managers have not been taught how to effectively coach. Coaching is a skill that takes time to perfect and unless effectively coached or trained managers make all types of mistakes. This is the 3rd in a series of coaching pitfalls that mangers should avoid.

Coaching Blunder #3 “Laundry List Coaching”

Personal growth and change is a challenge for all of us. We all have strengths and areas for development. Mangers who decide who create a laundry list of areas for development will have little success. It is too difficult for sales rep to make wholesale changes in how they sell. Development is about working on improving 1 or 2 things and once the sales person has demonstrated that they have acquired the skill or behaviour then you can move on to the next area. 

From a sales reps perspective imagine getting a field report listing all of the things you do wrong? Some reps would not even read the report. Many will read and wonder where I start. Others may read it and be completely overwhelmed.

Great coaching is about focus focus and focus. Helping a sales rep improve in one area of their job can have a major impact on their performance.

Coaching Blunder #4 “One Size Fits All Coaching”

One of the key pitfalls sales managers fall into is when the take the “one size fits all approach”.

How many times have we witnessed a sales rep working in auto pilot? This is the rep doing the same sales pitch to each customer and delivering the message in the same way. As coaches we fail to see when we go into auto pilot, taking the same approach with each rep.

Do you ever find yourself coaching all your reps the same way? Your feedback to each rep is the same? You have fallen into the rut of one size fits all coaching. Coaching differs from training. Training is about having everyone learn the same information or skills. Coaching on the other hand is about diagnosing each reps particular area for improvement. It is about adapting your coaching style to the individual and about developing individualised development plans.

Coaching is a one to one sport. It is about growing individuals to develop to their full potential.

Coaching Blunder #5 – “Way to go Coaching”

One of the key blunders managers make is not getting a commitment to change. They have done a perfect job coaching by asking all right questions, come to agreement on areas for development but forget to get buy in on how the problem will be fixed. When the manger and rep agree on an area for development it is critical to have the rep buy in to what steps they will take to develop.

This requires a simple 3 or 4 point plan which includes what the sales rep will do between coaching sessions. The key is to have the rep develop their own next steps and your role becomes one of holding them accountable. Without this in place the odds are that there will be no change in rep behaviour or skills on the next coaching session.

Great coaching means great performance. Sales organizations that embrace a coaching culture and invest in their front line managers’ ability to coach will have a competitive advantage and outsell the competition.

 

Through sales manager jobs your remuneration is higher and the potential for higher pay is directly related to your performance. Sales manager jobs usually are paid commissions, bonuses, or a hybrid of salary plus commission.

 So if you would like to earn more then it is completely depending on you and your performance. If you want to get more income then work hard and you must concentrate your work. It can also effect on your career.

Sales manager jobs are the most important jobs in any organization. Sales drive a company’s income and growth. There would be no income without a sales department. And there would be no company and no managers without income.  

The first and the most important step for salespeople is to contact their clients. And they also know about them directly what they respond to and what’s not working for them. This also provides sales people a benefit to change their pitch as opposed to Managers who advise of the big picture administrative objectives. The job of sales manager naturally permits the salespeople to perform market research through client interactions allowing them to pass on that information to management; manager’s finish up relying on salespeople for information. Your role as a salesperson is more influential than you think when it comes to your association’s ultimate decisions and policies.

By sales prospecting meeting with decision makers from other companies meeting customers and traveling sales work especially external sales manager jobs deliver substantially more diversity in your day-to-day activities. The Salespeople always would like to do something different. They work with different people in different places. But the managers commute to the same place every day, do the same things and work with the same people. This tedium frequently leads to tediousness and an unsatisfying work life.

Sales experience will also help you succeed more than the management experience, if you ever plan to start your own business in the future. You will be successful anywhere if you can sell or if you are a successful seller. The sale’s techniques can only come by experience not learn by books. Nobody can choose up and read a sales book and instantly become a top performer.

In short words, if you are starting a career or if you find yourself at a crossroad and need to choose between a sales manager job and a management job, select the sales manager job, that is, if you are looking for higher pay and a more rewarding work experience.

“Like many of us, managers tend to spend their time on the activities they are the best at and most enjoy.  A manager who focuses extensively on administrative tasks like submitting reports on time probably is less comfortable coaching. The manager who finds creative ways to get into the field and spend more time with sales reps probably sees the value of this time. Remember that administration doesn’t generate revenue or help develop your salespeople and that time spent in the field improves your reps’ ability to be the best they can be”.

Both were struggling with individual sales managers who were not completing their administrative duties on time and they were tired of excuses. So by sending this article out they felt that they would provide an additional rationale for the sales managers to avoid completing their administrative work.

For the head of sales, managers not getting reports from their direct reports affects their ability to do their job — hence their frustration with their reports that are not on top of their admin. I can certainly see their points of view and I took two key points away from our discussions: 

It is always important to manage your boss and keep them happy. Even though the administration doesn’t generate revenue, the old adage that “the job ain’t finished until the paperwork is done” holds true. It reinforces my article that a Head of Sales has little visibility as to how well his or her managers coach. Given that lack of visibility, frontline sales managers can be poor coaches but perceived as good managers by their bosses.

The intended message of my blog was that coaching is the No. 1 management activity that drives performance. In fact, going from good coaching to great coaching can increase sales by 19 percent.  The long term impact of developing and retaining your salespeople is critical for the extended success of a sales organization. Given my experience with coaching many sales managers I find that coaching skills are an area that even the most successful sales manager can improve upon.

The message? Great coaching = great performance. Getting the paperwork completed = happy boss.

Do both and be great and happy!

 

 

 

 

1. Use a results-based decision-making process. What does this mean? Look at your current reps (most importantly, look at the high performers). What are their characteristics in common? Similar backgrounds? Similar degrees? What works for their success will likely be what makes a good current candidate. They will “fit.”

2. Talk to your top candidates several times. Make sure you’re getting a full picture of the candidate, not on just one really spectacular day. Also, have others speak to them. See if others on your team are getting the same impression you are.

3. Watch the “tells.” If you play poker, you know about “tells.” It’s just body language and behavior. Read the book: Reading People. It’s excellent. And pay attention to things like:

· how they follow up with you after the interview

· what the thank you note looks like, how it is written, and when it came

· how the candidate dressed, and what kind of behavior you noticed

4. Use an assessment tool: DISC, Caliper, OPQ, or whatever- but use this on your current team first. It’s like the background. If you know what kind of personality characteristics make for a great sales rep in your company, look for those kinds of things in new candidates.

5. CHECK REFERENCES. I’m amazed at how some hiring managers don’t check for references or pay close attention to the ones they call. There are definite signs to look for that will give you solid clues about your candidate. You will find them by interviewing references, not just settling for “He’s a great guy” kinds of comments.

These tips will give you critical information on your prospects and solidify your reputation as a great hiring manager when you bring in candidates who are assets to the company.

Peggy McKee is the owner and chief recruiter for PHC Consulting, a recruiting firm providing top sales talent, sales management, marketing and service / support personnel to some of the most prominent high growth companies in the medical and laboratory products industry for over 9 years!

We provide top talent (usually the top 10% of sales force rankings) and reduce turnover (through exceptional client knowledge and candidate screening). This in combination with our reputation for smoothly facilitating the hiring process makes us the search firm of choice in this arena.

For more information, see our website at http://phcconsulting.com

As a Sales Management Training Consultant, I often notice business cards from salespeople with titles that require some effort to decipher. As I inquire further about their role, eventually it pops out – “I’m in sales”. It makes me wonder, when did “Sales” become a five letter word that can no longer show up on one’s business card? It gets deeper…

Building high performance sales organizations is my specialty. Much of my success is a result of a startling discovery made years ago – there is no proven correlation between Personality and Sales Productivity. This discovery enabled me to lead a team that transformed a $40B business unit into a $60B business unit in 18 months for a Fortune Global 500 company. How? We recognized anyone can succeed in sales despite personality. Sales is simple if you learn how to master sales behavior intelligence and develop your salespeople accordingly. Sales is about behavior and our proven sales system is built on the 25 behaviors that is proven to impact sales productivity – Sales Identity is one of the behaviors we measure.

What is Sales Identity?

Sales Identity measures a salesperson’s pride of the sales profession. If a person views selling as noble, they are considered to have a strong Sales Identity. The opposite is true for those who view a sales position as something to be ashamed of, they are considered to have a weak Sales Identity.

Selling is noble, we all sell everyday whether we realize it or not. However, selling is often perceived negatively because of bad experiences. To some degree, society tends to cast a negative light on people in the sales profession. Due to the strength of society’s misguided views, some sales professionals feel shame and are compelled to hide their sales position and adopt deflected titles such as, “Business Development Officers” or “Procurement Specialists”. Such behavior is proven to be costly, read on…

Some people refuse to accept the notion of selling altogether, even though they are in fact trying to close a deal. A classic example…

Recently I was on a flight to a sales conference in Atlanta and I struck up a conversation with the gentleman next to me. Our idle chit chat led into a careers conversation. He shared with me how he worked for a major home improvement company in charge of the distribution centers in 4 states in the South and Southwest. After explaining my role as a Sales Management Training Consultant and how I help sales teams and salespeople. He immediately responded with “I could never be a salesperson!” We continued our conversation and he explained to me that he was preparing for a major presentation with the Executive Team of the company because he felt he needed an additional $3 Million allocated to his budget for the following year. He went on to demonstrate to me how the organization “would ultimately benefit from the additional spend with a better Return on Investment (ROI)…”

As he was explaining this to me, I began to smile and chuckle. Initially, he probably thought I was being rude. Then I asked him “So, you are trying to convince the Executive Team to give you an additional $3 million for your budget, correct?” “Yes.” He replied. I then added “And you can support the benefits of doing so, correct?” “Yes” he replied again. “Are you sure you’re not a salesperson?” He sat back in his chair and smiled, I could see the light bulb turn on. My point dawned on him. I eventually gave him some coaching on how to think more like a salesperson and improve his sales presentation.

Why Measure Sales Identity?

Measuring Sales Identity can ultimately save your organization a substantial amount of money long term. How?

Organizations all over the globe are challenged to hire high performance salespeople, not doing so can be costly in terms of sales results, hiring and training costs. Recent studies show, the average cost of hiring a poor performing salesperson has swelled to over $100,000/year. Think about it, how much are hiring mistakes costing you?

Research shows – salespeople with weak Sales Identity will under perform within 6 months of joining an organization and ultimately “self select” out of the sales profession within 18 – 24 months. In fact, we found people with weak Sales Identity prefer to apply for “sales” positions with deflected titles because they insinuate less sales accountability.

Unless detected, salespeople with weak Sales Identity will struggle and steal valuable resources from your organization via increased turnover, higher training costs and poor sales results. Here are 3 simple steps to protect your organization going forward:

Step 1: Remove the Identity Crisis

A surefire way to jeopardize long term sales productivity is to have your organization struggle through a sales identity crisis. If the role is a sales role – title it as such. Top performing salespeople absolutely love sales and prefer to be called – Sales Representatives. Having deflected titles attracts weaker performers who will struggle to get out of the ranks of mediocrity long term.

Step 2: Monitor Your “Motivational” Costs with Sales Reps

If you find your sales organization spending more time on motivating sales reps within the 6 – 24 month window of being hired, you may have a Sales Identity issue. Depending upon the severity, there may be hope.

Step 3: Know What You’re Hiring, Prior to Making the Offer

Hiring mistakes pertaining to sales positions can be costly! Use an assessment tool that measures the Sales Identity of your candidates prior to hire.