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Sales Coach - Top Vraag van Google

Wat is een verkoopcoach?

Een verkoopcoach is een professional die verkoopprofessionals helpt bij het ontwikkelen van hun vaardigheden en kennis, met als doel hun verkoopprestaties te verbeteren. Verkoopcoaches kunnen werken met individuen of kleine groepen verkopers en kunnen verschillende technieken gebruiken, zoals Ć©Ć©n-op-Ć©Ć©n coaching, rollenspellen en interactieve activiteiten om verkoopprofessionals te helpen de vaardigheden en kennis te ontwikkelen die ze nodig hebben om succesvol te zijn.

Salescoaches kunnen zich richten op verschillende onderwerpen, waaronder verkoopstrategie, verkooptechnieken, relatiebeheer, communicatievaardigheden en probleemoplossing. Ze kunnen ook samenwerken met verkoopleiders, verkoopmanagers en verkoopprofessionals om persoonlijke of professionele uitdagingen te identificeren en te overwinnen die hun verkoopprestaties kunnen belemmeren.

Sales coaches zijn meestal zelf ervaren sales professionals met een bewezen staat van dienst en kunnen een achtergrond hebben in sales management of training. Ze kunnen werken met verkoopprofessionals op alle niveaus, van starters tot ervaren verkoopmanagers en verkoopleiders.

In het algemeen kan een verkoopcoach een waardevolle bron zijn voor verkoopprofessionals die hun vaardigheden willen verbeteren en hun verkoopprestaties willen verhogen.

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1. Wat zijn de voordelen van verkoopcoaching?

Verkoopcoaching kan een reeks voordelen bieden aan verkoopprofessionals, verkoopmanagers en organisaties als geheel, waaronder:

a) Verbeterde verkoopprestaties: Door verkoopprofessionals te helpen hun vaardigheden en kennis te ontwikkelen, kan verkoopcoaching hun verkoopprestaties helpen verbeteren. Dit kan onder andere hogere verkoopopbrengsten, hogere conversiepercentages en een betere klanttevredenheid zijn.

b) Meer zelfvertrouwen en motivatie: Verkoopcoaching kan ervoor zorgen dat verkoopprofessionals zich zelfverzekerder en gemotiveerder voelen in hun rol, wat kan leiden tot betere prestaties.

c) Persoonlijke ontwikkeling: Verkoopcoaching is meestal persoonlijker dan verkooptraining, omdat het is afgestemd op de specifieke behoeften en doelen van het individu of de kleine groep. Dit kan het effectiever maken om verkoopprofessionals te helpen de vaardigheden en kennis te ontwikkelen die ze nodig hebben om succesvol te zijn.

d) Grotere verantwoordelijkheid: Verkoopcoaching omvat vaak het stellen van specifieke doelen en het bijhouden van de voortgang, wat verkoopprofessionals kan helpen verantwoordelijk en gemotiveerd te blijven om hun doelen te bereiken.

e) Verbeterde teamcultuur: Salescoaching kan bijdragen aan een positieve en ondersteunende teamcultuur, wat kan leiden tot betere samenwerking en teamwerk.

In het algemeen kan verkoopcoaching een waardevolle bron zijn voor verkoopprofessionals en organisaties die hun verkoopprestaties willen verbeteren en succes op lange termijn willen behalen.

2. De businesscase voor verkoopcoaching

Hier zijn enkele statistieken die de behoefte aan verkoopcoaching ondersteunen:

a) Bedrijven die investeren in verkoopcoaching zien een gemiddelde omzetstijging van 8,9%: Volgens onderzoek van de Corporate Executive Board zien bedrijven die investeren in sales coaching een gemiddelde omzetstijging van 8,9% binnen het eerste jaar.

b) Verkopers die coaching krijgen, hebben meer kans om hun targets te halen: Uit onderzoek van de Sales Executive Council is gebleken dat verkopers die coaching krijgen 63% meer kans hebben om hun targets te halen dan verkopers die geen coaching krijgen.

c) Coaching leidt tot een hogere productiviteit: Uit een onderzoek van de International Coach Federation blijkt dat coaching leidt tot een productiviteitsverhoging van 86%.

d) Coaching leidt tot een betere retentie van werknemers: Volgens onderzoek van de Corporate Executive Board hebben bedrijven met hoogwaardige coachingprogramma’s een 7% lager personeelsverloop dan bedrijven zonder coachingprogramma.

e) Coaching leidt tot meer klanttevredenheid: Uit een onderzoek van de Corporate Executive Board blijkt dat bedrijven met hoogwaardige coachingprogramma’s een 13,5% hogere klanttevredenheid hebben dan bedrijven zonder coachingprogramma.

Deze statistieken tonen de significante impact aan die verkoopcoaching kan hebben op verkoopprestaties, productiviteit, personeelsbehoud en klanttevredenheid.

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3. Individuele verkoopcoaching vs. verkoopcoaching in groepsverband

Individuele verkoopcoaching houdt in dat je Ć©Ć©n-op-Ć©Ć©n werkt met Ć©Ć©n verkoopprofessional om hen te helpen specifieke vaardigheden en kennis te ontwikkelen. Dit type coaching is meestal persoonlijker en afgestemd op de specifieke behoeften en doelen van het individu.

Individuele coaching kan persoonlijk of virtueel plaatsvinden en kan betrekking hebben op uiteenlopende onderwerpen zoals verkoopstrategie, bedrijfsontwikkeling en verkoopgesprekken. Een effectieve sales coach geeft ook Ć©Ć©n-op-Ć©Ć©n sessies over technieken, verkoopcyclus, het controleren van verkoopgesprekken, rollenspellen, interactieve activiteiten en feedbacksessies. Het is de taak van een verkoopcoach om vertrouwen op te bouwen en verkopers aan te moedigen om na te denken over hun eigen verkoopprestaties.

Het is niet de rol van de verkoopcoach om vertegenwoordigers te motiveren. Topverkopers worden niet alleen gemotiveerd door omzetdoelstellingen en meer verkoop, maar ook door hun eigen professionele ontwikkeling.

Groepscoaching daarentegen houdt in dat je met een kleine groep verkoopprofessionals werkt om hen te helpen hun vaardigheden en kennis te ontwikkelen. Groepscoaching kan persoonlijk of virtueel worden uitgevoerd en kan verschillende technieken omvatten, zoals groepsdiscussies, interactieve activiteiten en rollenspellen.

Groepscoaching kan een effectieve manier zijn om verkoopprofessionals te helpen van elkaar te leren en best practices uit te wisselen. Een effectieve verkoopcoach kan teamvergaderingen bijwonen, wekelijkse verkoopvergaderingen ondersteunen en prestatieverbetering binnen het verkoopteam stimuleren.

In het algemeen kunnen zowel individuele als groepscoaching effectieve benaderingen zijn voor verkoopontwikkeling. De meest geschikte benadering hangt af van de specifieke behoeften en doelen van het verkoopteam of individu, evenals de middelen en tijd die beschikbaar zijn voor ontwikkeling.

4. Hoe creƫer ik een verkoopcoachingsprogramma

Het maken van een sales coaching programma kan een complex proces zijn dat zorgvuldige planning en aandacht voor detail vereist. Hier volgen enkele stappen die je kunt overwegen bij het maken van een effectief verkoopcoachingsprogramma:

a) Bepaal je doelen: Bepaal duidelijk je doelen voor het coachingprogramma. Wat wil je bereiken? Welke specifieke vaardigheden of kennis wil je in je verkoopteam ontwikkelen? Als je duidelijke doelen hebt, kun je een programma ontwerpen dat aan je behoeften voldoet en dat je helpt je doelen te bereiken.

b) Identificeer je doelgroep: Bepaal voor wie je coachingsprogramma bedoeld is. Is het voor je hele verkoopteam of alleen voor een specifieke groep? Als je je doelgroep begrijpt, kun je het programma beter afstemmen op hun specifieke behoeften en doelen.

c) Bepaal de indeling: Bepaal de indeling van je coachingprogramma. Is het persoonlijk, virtueel of een combinatie van beide? Houd bij het kiezen van een formaat rekening met factoren zoals gemak, kosten en de voorkeuren van je doelgroep.

d) Selecteer een coach: Kies een coach die de ervaring en expertise heeft om aan je behoeften te voldoen. Houd bij het kiezen van een coach rekening met factoren zoals hun achtergrond, hun coachingstijl en hun beschikbaarheid.

e) Maak een schema: Bepaal de frequentie en duur van je coachingsessies. Wekelijks, tweewekelijks of maandelijks? Hoe lang duurt elke sessie? Houd bij het maken van een schema rekening met de roosters van je deelnemers en de doelen van je programma.

f) Plan de inhoud: Ontwerp de inhoud van je coachingprogramma om te voldoen aan je specifieke doelen en de behoeften van je doelpubliek. Dit kunnen onderwerpen zijn als verkooptechnieken en relatiebeheer.

5. Hoe coach je een verkoper?

Het coachen van een verkoper kan een lonende en uitdagende ervaring zijn, omdat het sterke communicatieve vaardigheden vereist, een diepgaand begrip van verkooptechnieken en het vermogen om zich aan te passen aan de individuele behoeften en doelen van de verkoper. Hier zijn enkele stappen om te overwegen bij het coachen van een verkoper:

a) Een vertrouwens- en respectvolle relatie opbouwen: Het opbouwen van vertrouwen en respect is essentieel voor elke coachingsrelatie. Dit kan betekenen dat je duidelijke verwachtingen schept, open en eerlijk bent met feedback en oprechte interesse toont in de ontwikkeling van de verkoper.

b) Identificeer de sterke punten en verbeterpunten van de verkoper: Het beoordelen van de sterke punten en verbeterpunten van de verkoper kan je helpen om je coaching af te stemmen op zijn specifieke behoeften en doelen. Dit kan inhouden dat je hun verkoopinteracties observeert, hun prestatiegegevens bekijkt en feedback vraagt aan de verkoper en hun collega’s.

c) Stel specifieke, meetbare doelen: Het stellen van specifieke, meetbare doelen kan de verkoper helpen om gefocust en gemotiveerd te blijven en kan een routekaart zijn voor zijn ontwikkeling. Overweeg om zowel korte- als langetermijndoelen te stellen en zorg ervoor dat je de voortgang regelmatig bijhoudt.

d) Zorg voor voortdurende ondersteuning en feedback: Bied voortdurende ondersteuning en feedback om de verkoper te helpen zijn vaardigheden en kennis te ontwikkelen. Dit kan bestaan uit Ć©Ć©n-op-Ć©Ć©n coachingsessies, rollenspellen of andere interactieve activiteiten waarmee de verkoper kan oefenen en toepassen wat hij of zij heeft geleerd.

e) Moedig zelfreflectie en voortdurend leren aan: Moedig de verkoper aan om na te denken over zijn prestaties en mogelijkheden te zoeken om voortdurend te leren. Dit kan betekenen dat ze worden aangemoedigd om publicaties uit de sector te lezen, trainingen bij te wonen.

sales coach
Verkoopcoaching

6. Wat zijn de beste sales coaching technieken?

Er zijn veel verschillende verkoopcoachingstechnieken die effectief kunnen zijn om verkopers te helpen hun vaardigheden en kennis te ontwikkelen. Hier zijn een paar voorbeelden:

a) EĆ©n-op-Ć©Ć©n coaching: EĆ©n-op-Ć©Ć©n coaching houdt in dat je Ć©Ć©n-op-Ć©Ć©n samenwerkt met een salesprofessional om hem te helpen specifieke vaardigheden en kennis te ontwikkelen. Dit type coaching is meestal persoonlijker en afgestemd op de specifieke behoeften en doelen van het individu.

b) Rollenspel: Rollenspel omvat het simuleren van echte verkoopsituaties en stelt de verkoper in staat om te oefenen en toe te passen wat hij of zij heeft geleerd. Dit kan een nuttige techniek zijn om verkoopprofessionals te helpen hun communicatie- en probleemoplossingsvaardigheden te ontwikkelen.

c) Interactieve activiteiten: Interactieve activiteiten, zoals casestudies of simulaties, kunnen een nuttige manier zijn om verkopers te betrekken en hen te helpen hun kennis toe te passen op situaties uit de praktijk.

d) Groepscoaching: Groepscoaching houdt in dat je met een kleine groep verkoopprofessionals werkt om hen te helpen hun vaardigheden en kennis te ontwikkelen. Groepscoaching kan bestaan uit groepsdiscussies, interactieve activiteiten en rollenspellen, en kan een effectieve manier zijn om verkoopprofessionals te helpen van elkaar te leren en best practices uit te wisselen.

e) Feedbacksessies: Voortdurende feedback kan een waardevolle techniek zijn om verkopers te helpen hun prestaties te verbeteren. Feedbacksessies moeten op een constructieve en ondersteunende manier worden uitgevoerd en moeten gericht zijn op specifieke verbeterpunten.

In het algemeen hangen de beste verkoopcoachingstechnieken af van de specifieke behoeften en doelen van het verkoopteam of individu, en van de middelen en tijd die beschikbaar zijn voor ontwikkeling.

7. Voorbeelden van verkoopcoaching vragen

Er zijn veel verschillende verkoopcoachingvragen die effectief kunnen zijn om verkopers te helpen hun vaardigheden en kennis te ontwikkelen. Hier zijn een paar voorbeelden:

  1. Wat zijn je specifieke doelen voor deze coachingsessie?

  2. Wat zijn uw huidige uitdagingen in het verkoopproces?

  3. Waar heb je vertrouwen in bij je verkoopaanpak?

  4. Wat zijn jouw verbeterpunten in je verkoopaanpak?

  5. Hoe ga je momenteel om met bezwaren van prospects?

  6. Hoe bouw je momenteel relaties op met prospects en klanten?

  7. Hoe volg je momenteel prospects en klanten op?

  8. Hoe meet je momenteel je verkoopprestaties?

  9. Wat zijn enkele best practices of strategieƫn die in het verleden goed voor je hebben gewerkt?

  10. Welke middelen of ondersteuning heb je nodig om je doelen te bereiken?

Vragen voor verkoopcoaching moeten worden afgestemd op de specifieke behoeften en doelen van de verkoopprofessional of kleine groep, en moeten zo zijn ontworpen dat ze aanzetten tot nadenken, leren en actie. Door doordachte en gerichte vragen te stellen, kunnen verkoopcoaches verkoopprofessionals helpen bij het identificeren van gebieden die voor verbetering vatbaar zijn, bij het ontwikkelen van nieuwe strategieƫn en benaderingen en bij het bijhouden van hun vooruitgang in de richting van hun doelen.

8. Welke vaardigheden heeft een verkoopcoach nodig?

Een goede Sales coach heeft een aantal vaardigheden nodig om verkopers effectief te coachen, waaronder:

a) Verkoopexpertise: Coaches moeten een grondige kennis hebben van verkooptechnieken, klantenrelatiebeheer en het verkoopproces. Dit kan betekenen dat je een achtergrond hebt in sales management of training, of dat je uitgebreide ervaring hebt als sales professional.

b) Communicatievaardigheden: Coaches moeten sterke communicatieve vaardigheden hebben, waaronder het vermogen om actief te luisteren, verduidelijkende vragen te stellen en feedback te geven op een constructieve en ondersteunende manier.

c) Coachingsvaardigheden: Coaches moeten een goed begrip hebben van coachingsprincipes en -technieken, inclusief het stellen van doelen, het geven van feedback en het faciliteren van leren en ontwikkeling.

d) Aanpassingsvermogen: Coaches moeten zich kunnen aanpassen aan de specifieke behoeften en doelen van de verkopers met wie ze werken en aan veranderingen in de verkoopomgeving.

e) Empathie: Coaches moeten empathie en begrip kunnen tonen voor de uitdagingen en zorgen van de verkopers met wie ze werken, wat kan helpen bij het opbouwen van vertrouwen en een goede verstandhouding.

Door deze vaardigheden te ontwikkelen, kunnen coaches effectiever worden in het helpen van verkoopprofessionals bij het ontwikkelen van hun vaardigheden en kennis en het verbeteren van hun verkoopprestaties.

Sales Coach
Effectieve verkoopcoaching

9. Heeft een salesmanager een salescoach nodig?

Salesmanagers kunnen net als salesprofessionals baat hebben bij sales coaching. Verkoopcoaching kan vooral waardevol zijn voor elke verkoopmanager, omdat zij vaak een grotere verantwoordelijkheid hebben voor het leiden en ontwikkelen van hun verkoopteams.

Verkoopcoaching kan een verkoopmanager helpen een reeks vaardigheden te ontwikkelen, waaronder:

  1. Leiderschapsvaardigheden: Verkoopcoaching kan verkoopmanagers helpen bij het ontwikkelen van hun leiderschapsvaardigheden, zoals communicatie, delegeren en teambuilding.

  2. Verkooptechnieken: Verkoopmanagers kunnen profiteren van verkoopcoaching om op de hoogte te blijven van de nieuwste verkooptechnieken en beste praktijken.

  3. Coachingsvaardigheden: Salesmanagers die verantwoordelijk zijn voor het coachen van hun teamleden kunnen baat hebben bij sales coaching om hen te helpen hun coachingsvaardigheden en -technieken te ontwikkelen.

  4. Problemen oplossen: Salesmanagers worden vaak geconfronteerd met allerlei uitdagingen, zoals het beheren van moeilijke klanten of het navigeren door complexe verkoopomgevingen. Verkoopcoaching kan hen helpen bij het ontwikkelen van probleemoplossende vaardigheden en strategieƫn om deze uitdagingen aan te gaan.

In het algemeen kan verkoopcoaching een waardevolle bron van informatie zijn voor elke verkoopmanager die zijn vaardigheden en kennis wil ontwikkelen en zowel zijn eigen prestaties als die van zijn vertegenwoordigers wil verbeteren.

10. Welke rol moet verkoopleiderschap spelen in verkoopcoaching?

Sales leadership speelt een cruciale rol bij coaching, omdat zij verantwoordelijk zijn voor het zetten van de toon en de richting voor de ontwikkeling van het team. Hier zijn een paar manieren waarop verkoopleiding coaching binnen hun organisatie kan ondersteunen:

  1. Een coachingcultuur creƫren: Het verkoopleiderschap kan helpen bij het creƫren van een coachingcultuur door het belang van continu leren en ontwikkelen te benadrukken en door middelen en ondersteuning te bieden voor coachinginspanningen.

  2. Stel duidelijke doelen en verwachtingen: Sales leadership moet duidelijke doelen en verwachtingen voor sales coaching communiceren, en ervoor zorgen dat de coachinginspanningen zijn afgestemd op de algemene doelen en doelstellingen van de organisatie.

  3. Zorg voor middelen en ondersteuning: De verkoopleiding moet de nodige middelen en ondersteuning bieden om effectieve coaching mogelijk te maken, zoals trainingsmateriaal, coachingtools en speciale coachingtijd.

  4. Zelfreflectie en continu leren aanmoedigen: Sales leadership kan verkoopprofessionals aanmoedigen om aan zelfreflectie en continu leren te doen door tijd vrij te maken voor coaching, toegang te bieden tot hulpmiddelen en training, en de inspanningen van degenen die aan coaching doen te erkennen en te belonen.

  5. Model coachingsgedrag: Het verkoopleiderschap moet model staan voor coachend gedrag door te laten zien dat het zich inzet voor voortdurende scholing en ontwikkeling, en door ondersteunende en constructieve feedback te geven aan verkoopprofessionals.

In het algemeen speelt verkoopleiderschap een cruciale rol bij het creƫren van een cultuur van coaching en het ondersteunen van de ontwikkeling van verkoopprofessionals binnen de organisatie.

11. Wat is het verschil tussen verkoopcoaching en verkooptraining?

Verkoopcoaching en verkooptraining zijn twee verschillende benaderingen van verkoopontwikkeling die kunnen worden gebruikt om verkopers te helpen hun vaardigheden en kennis te verbeteren.

Verkooptraining is een gestructureerd programma dat is ontworpen om verkopers te helpen specifieke vaardigheden en kennis te ontwikkelen. Er kunnen verschillende methoden worden gebruikt, zoals lezingen, interactieve activiteiten en simulaties, en het kan persoonlijk of virtueel worden gegeven. Verkooptraining is meestal algemener van aard en is erop gericht om verkopers een breed scala aan vaardigheden en kennis bij te brengen die ze in uiteenlopende situaties kunnen toepassen.

Verkoopcoaching daarentegen is een meer persoonlijke aanpak die is afgestemd op de specifieke behoeften en doelen van de verkoopprofessional of kleine groep. Verkoopcoaching kan bestaan uit Ć©Ć©n-op-Ć©Ć©n sessies met een coach, rollenspellen en interactieve activiteiten en is meestal meer gericht op het helpen van verkoopprofessionals om het geleerde toe te passen op specifieke uitdagingen of situaties. Verkoopcoaching kan ook inhouden dat er specifieke doelen worden gesteld en dat de voortgang wordt bijgehouden, zodat verkopers gemotiveerd en verantwoordelijk blijven.

Over het algemeen is het belangrijkste verschil tussen verkoopcoaching en verkooptraining de mate van personalisatie en de focus op specifieke doelen en uitdagingen. Beide benaderingen kunnen waardevolle hulpmiddelen zijn voor verkoopprofessionals die hun vaardigheden en kennis willen verbeteren. De meest geschikte benadering hangt af van de specifieke behoeften en doelen van het verkoopteam of individu, evenals de middelen en tijd die beschikbaar zijn voor ontwikkeling.

12. Heb ik een verkoopachtergrond nodig om verkoopcoach te worden?

Een achtergrond in verkoop kan voordelig zijn voor verkoopcoaches, omdat het je een diepgaand inzicht kan geven in verkooptechnieken, klantenrelatiebeheer en het verkoopproces. Het is echter niet noodzakelijk een vereiste voor succesvolle verkoopcoaching.

Salescoaches kunnen verschillende achtergronden hebben en expertise op het gebied van leiderschap, bedrijfsontwikkeling, communicatie en coachingstechnieken. Het belangrijkste voor een sales coach is het vermogen om de behoeften en doelen te begrijpen van de sales professionals met wie ze werken, en om ondersteuning en begeleiding te bieden om hen te helpen hun vaardigheden en kennis te ontwikkelen.

Hoewel een achtergrond in verkoop gunstig kan zijn voor coaches, is het niet de enige factor die hun effectiviteit bepaalt. De belangrijkste kwaliteiten voor een verkoopcoach zijn het vermogen om de behoeften en doelen van hun klanten te begrijpen en hen te ondersteunen en begeleiden om succes te behalen.

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Amanda – Account Manager

Coaching Sales Behaviours | Bringing out the Best

Coaching Sales Behaviours

Coaching Sales Behaviours ā€“ Top question from Google

How do you coach a sales person?

Unfortunately like sales there is no one way to coach a sales person that works every time. After all sales people are all individuals and therefore different so what works with one, may not work with the next.

With that said there are many commonalities and examples of best practice that will get you started on the path to success.

  1. Mindset.Ā Success in sales like many other areas in life is hugely dependant on mindset. Confidence, self belief, imposter syndrome, phone fear and self sabotage are all to common in sales people. With the right support these problems can be overcome, however, there is one area of mindset that many ignore ā€“ hunger. The best sales people are all hungry. Hungry to learn, hungry to help others and hungry for their own success. Whilst Vision Boards and Goal setting undoubtedly have a positive impact if the sales person you are coaching is not hungry for their own success you have a major problem. Many sales people ended up in sales by accident and many sales people are simply stuck in their current role and find it easier to stay than move on. Research from the Objective Management Group shows that between Sales Management & HR, 77% of sales hires are the wrong people. You can teach strategy, you can teach skills, but you can’t teach hunger.
  1. Planning.Ā Many companies and sales managers lack the time to implement personal development plans to their sales teams. Coaching often then becomes ad hoc, unstructured which in turn is reflected in the outcomes. In order for sales coaching to be successful and deliver an ROI, some simple planning needs to take place. In our experience it’s always best to work backwards from the objectives and tasks that the business need to happen. From there managers should document the skills required to successfully complete the tasks, followed by a GAP analysis, highlighting where the sales people are now, versus where they need to be. Lastly, this should all be documented and progress tracked to show the benefit for both the business and the coachee.
  1. Focus.Ā WhenĀ coaching sales peopleĀ it’s important to find a balance between what should be done and what can be done. Rather than giving sales people 3-4 different objectives after the coaching, we have always found it best to only give the coachee one objective to complete before the next session. This allows the sales rep to focus on one skill and perfect it before moving on to the next. A laundry list of objectives is rarely completed to any level of competency that the business would desire.
  1. Data.Ā It’s important for sales coaching to be both objective and fair in order for it to be successful. Where possible we therefore always advocate a data led approach. Data demonstrating the success and best practice of others is difficult for sales reps to deny. This in turn leads to the importance of CRM in any sales organisation, as this is where the majority of data resides.
  1. Coaches.Ā For obvious reasons coaching is different to management, so a sales coach cannot force a sales rep to do anything in terms of the outcomes of each session. Conversely, if Sales Managers are doing the coaching then they can instruct the sales people to do things, however, if the manager has to ā€œtellā€ the coachee what to do, then there is typically a problem with the mindset and any success will be limited.
Sales Motivation

At Klozers our Sales Performance coaching uses Sales Scorecards, which ensure accountability for the students. This is first used to identify a baseline, which is used to kick start and structure the sales coaching. To be effective, sales coaching should look at sales in a holistic manner. This will include addressing the all the key components of sales success, which are Mindset, Sales Craft, Activity and Development.

All successful sales people have the right mindset for success. Throughout a sales career, it is impossible to achieve success on every call or presentation. As such, salespeople need to be resilient and bounce back from rejection. Controlling our mind is a hugely important part of a successful career in sales.

We can use simple Vision Boards to identify personal and business goals. Once these have been identified it’s important to draw a correlation between the two which helps ensure sales people are focussed on the goals of the business not just their own.

Craft covers the key sales skills and competencies required to be a successful sales professional. Most modern sales roles require a huge variety of sales skills, some of which are forever changing given the fast paced nature of sales and marketing.

Activity covers the important aspects of preparation, goals, sales planning and sales actions. Development covers an ongoing commitment to improving sales learning. Reflecting on past performance is an important aspect of this section. At regular intervals it is important that salespeople reflect on their performance and use this to adapt their techniques or seek additional coaching or training.

Often when reflecting, salespeople and most sales managers tend to focus on the negative aspects of performance (e.g. the bits that didn’t quite work), but it is equally as important to reflect on the positives. If a certain sales pitch has been successful, then salespeople should reflect on what went well, and how that can be implemented in other sales pitches.

Sales coaching can be conducted online or in person, in a group setting or on a 1-2-1 basis. Regardless of the delivery method, the same coaching models are used.

Coaching Sales Behaviours
Coaching Sales Behaviours

How do you coach an underperforming sales person?

Sales coaching can motivate and enthuse an underperforming sales professional or team more widely. People are hard wired to resist change, and as such sales coaches need to be mindful of this and adapt their coaching methods to suit.

With that said, if you have an underperforming sales person you should follow this process (dependant on the HR laws in your country of residence).

  1. Via a one to one meeting have an open and honest conversation with the sales rep around why the business thinks they are underperforming and what will happen if it continues. In most cases this does not necessarily mean they will lose their job. It could mean they have to retake initial training or have additional coaching. Every situation will vary but it’s important to have this conversation.
  1. Work with the sales rep to understand the root cause of the problem and once you have done this work with them to develop an action plan that will help them overcome their current performance gap. It’s important to include the sales rep in the planning to get their buy in. The plan should detail the responsibilities of the sales rep and the level of performance required.
  1. Lastly, the company and the sales manager should do all they possibly can to help and support the sales rep throughout the coaching period. This includes reviewing their own management and leadership style.

In some cases the sales rep may have already mentally checked out as no one wants to stay in a role that they are not performing in. In some cases, however, it is possible to turn results around and it’s always worth the investment in time and training given how much it costs to replace a sales person.

What is the key to coaching a successful sales team?

The key to coaching a successful sales team is ensuring that there is a culture of learning and growing throughout the team. In order to feed that culture you will require a continuous programme of training and coaching in place. There is no quick fix to achieving the best results.

As identified earlier, one-off sales training courses may have a short-term impact, but after only 30 days its success will ware off. As such, a continuous programme of professional development needs to be in place.

Employees want to feel valued by their employers, and now expect employers to contribute towards their professional development.

Without this in place, there is a concern that your best salespeople will look for other jobs. Recruiting new staff is a resource heavy and expensive process, and you still may end up with the wrong sales staff.

Hiring the wrong sales staff can have direct (lost sales) and indirect (damage to your brand) consequences for your company, so retaining the best staff is vital.

Sales coaching techniques

Sales coaches can use a range of techniques, and some coaches prefer certain techniques more than others. Whichever technique is used, sales coaching should be driven by data and be as factual as possible.

To be effective sales coaching should question the students, and a mixture of directive, non directive and collaborative style questioning can be used.

After sales coaching has been conducted it is important to measure the effectiveness of the coaching to see if it has delivered a suitable ROI.

If the sales coaching isnā€™t providing to be effective, then amendments will need to be made to it, either in the form of its content, delivery or programme.

Sales coaching models

There is a wide range of sales coaching models available, however, at Klozers we use either the PEDAL model which isĀ Directive CoachingĀ or the GROW model. The easiest way to explain the differences are:

PEDAL ā€“ Directive in style. Solving someoneā€™s problem for them.

GROW ā€“ Non Directive in style. Helping someone solve their own problem.

In the PEDAL model the process is:

P = Position.Ā The coach positions the reasoning/need for a new sales skill or sales process.

E = Explain.Ā The coach explains how the new skills work.

D = Demonstrates.Ā The coach demonstrates how to execute the new sales skills.

A = Assess.Ā The sales professional practices the new skill and the coach assesses their competency and provides feedback.

L = Links. The coach then links the new skill to the sales reps role and key objectives.

The PEDAL coaching model is commonplace in areas where the correct execution of a skill is paramount and no choice is allowed. For example, when sales professionals need to comply with regulatory procedures, or when sales people need to follow a prove sales process.

But what does the GROW model involve?

GROW stands for:

G = Goal.Ā What are the salespersons goals for the session?

R = Reality. What is the current reality?

O = Obstacles. What obstacles are holding the salesperson or team back?

W = Way. What way and actions do you commit to taking to move forward?

Grow Sales Coaching Model
Groei Verkoop Coaching Model

Sales Performance Coaching

Selecting the right sales coach is an important step towards improving the sales performance in your team. Quota carrying sales managers can often be swamped by their own workloads, leaving them with little time to fully dedicate towards coaching sales behaviours.

In these circumstances, to avoid missed opportunities and good staff leaving, external sales coaching could be the answer. Our expert coaches at Klozers can help you with all of your sales coaching and training needs.

Coaching for Sales Leaders – how coaching drives growth

Coaching for Sales Leaders

How do you coach a Sales Manager? ā€“ Top question from Google

How do you coach a Sales Manager? ā€“ the short answer

To coach a sales manager, you must have an agreed sales strategy and a sales plan with KPIā€™s.Ā  The role of the manager is to execute the plan in line with the KPIā€™s, which is where they may need sales coaching.

Coaching Sales Leaders ā€“ hereā€™s a more detailed look at what you can do to support your sales leaders.

Many sales managers have been promoted based on their sales skills and performance.Ā  Whilst these are valuable, the role of a sales manager is very different and thus requires different skills.Ā  The simplest example is coaching itself.Ā  Most salespeople have never coached another sales rep and the whole process is often new to them.

1. What are the business benefits of sales coaching?

TheĀ benefits of sales coachingĀ are an important part of building a business case for your coaching programme, no matter how big or small.Ā  Whilst every business is different, we would suggest you take a data led approach to evaluate the ā€œsize of the prizeā€ ā€“ the potential revenue benefits.

Let’s pretend that our top sales rep generates Ā£500K in revenue per annum in an average year. In bigger teams of 10 plus sales people you should take the average of the top 3.Ā  There is no rule to follow here other than it must be truthful.

Next, take the average revenue figure that your B players ā€“ the middle sixty percent of your team generate per annum and as an example lets assume as a group they average Ā£400k per annum.

The potential opportunity from sales training and coaching is therefore Ā£100k per sales rep.Ā  In most cases the size of the opportunity is circa 10 x the cost of the training and coaching.Ā 

We encourage every client to work these figures out for themselves.Ā  Once everyone has agreed these figures then the business can work with the Sales Manager to create a coaching plan and set some KPIs.Ā 

Sales Coaching Choose Coach
Coaching for Sales Leaders

2. How do you coach effectively in sales?

Effective coaching starts before the coaching itself. As a business we believe that coaching is not for everyone, as not everyone is coachable.Ā  This can be for a number of reasons, however, in our experience there are two main reasons as follows:

  • People are not motivated to learn and improve themselves
  • People do not believe that they need to learn and improve themselves

Your business will be no different ā€“ some people will be interested and respond to training and coaching and some people will only attend because they are told to.Ā  From our experience, Sales Leader have to make difficult choices and whilst there is no one size fits all we recommend the following:

Segment your sales team by current performance.

A Group ā€“ the top 20% of your sales team that mostly hit target.

B Group ā€“ the middle 60% that miss targets but are motivated to improve, want to learn and will respond to coaching and training.

C Group ā€“ the bottom 20% of people who never hot their sales target and whilst they may need training and coaching they have no interest in it and won’t respond.

Next, work with the A players to develop a coaching plan based on what they do that makes then A players.Ā  Where possible use the A players to co deliver some of the training and coaching to the B players.Ā 

The most important part here is to make sure that you hold the B players accountable to what has been agreed and taught.Ā 

This just leaves the C-Group.Ā  The easiest thing that any sales leader can do is ignore under performance.Ā  Some people end up in sales by accident and they are simply a round peg in a square hole.Ā  They may not admit it but these C players are unhappy, as no sales rep likes to be unsuccessful.Ā  The most difficult task of any sales leader is to let someone go, even under performers but that’s why they are a leader, that’s what drives success.Ā 

As a Sales Leader when you retain underperforming sales reps you are subconsciously self-sabotaging your own sales team.Ā  You’re a ā€“ player salespeople will look around your office and say to themselves ā€œwhy should I work hard, why should I go the extra mile, when Jonny is still here and never hits a sales target?ā€.Ā  Before you know it they will have resigned and you are left trying to hire there replacement.

The best salespeople want to work with others at the top of their game, they want to train and get better, that’s what makes them the best.

So if you want your coaching to be effective you must first find people who want to be coached.

3. What is the key to coaching a successful sales team?

There are many key components to coaching a successful sales team and from our experience we would suggest:

  • The best coaching is based on data because data is difficult to argue with
  • Coaching needs to be regular and consistent to for the business and individual to benefit
  • You should follow a coaching process such as the GROW Coaching model
  • Coaching should be a KPI for both the coach and the coachee
  • Coaching should be based around established best practice and not theory
  • Each coaching session should be documented so you can demonstrate progress
  • Each coaching session should have an agreed list of actions as an outcome that are revisited.
  • Coaching sessions are not opportunities to critique salespeople or performance.Ā  They need to be positive and supportive.
  • Coaching should focus on the lead indicators of success not the lag indicators.
What Makes a Great Sales Manager
Coaching for Sales Leaders

4. What does good sales coaching look like?

In our experience, the best starting point for good sales coaching is capturing and documenting what best practice in sales within the organisation currently looks like.Ā  Once documented this provides a baseline that no one can deny is achievable.Ā 

By best practice in sales, we mean the entire sales process from opportunity creation through to post sale whereby the customer is completely satisfied and happy to provide referrals.Ā 

In most cases lead generation is the biggest obstacle for salespeople, so demonstrating via real life examples of where a new enquiry converted to a sales and a subsequent referral to another client Ā helps break down the ā€œthis won’t work mentalityā€.

Once you have identified this best practice, it’s important to map out the sales activities at each stage of the sales process.Ā  Again, in most cases the biggest problems are typically found at the start of the sales process when your team are trying to generate new sales leads.

Next up, document the type and number of activities that the top sales performer within the organisation does in an average week.Ā  This then becomes the baseline for sales activity.Ā  Ā Be sure to document the lead indicators or KPI’s and not the lag indicators.Ā 

For example sales revenue is a lag indicator and if we use this as a KPI in an organisation with a 6 months sales cycle then it will be six months before we know if we have been successful.Ā  Look for the lead indicators ā€“ the sales behaviours that lead to the revenue.

Now the sales coaching process can start. For example, if the average sales activity of the top performer is 50 dials a day, 5 discovery calls and 2 presentations from which they close one deal, then the role of the sales coach is to bring every other member of your sale team up to this level.

5. What challenges do you face when coaching salespeople?

The majority of challenges when sales managers are coaching salespeople revolves around two main areas:

  • Sales activity or behaviours ā€“ we call this Productivity.Ā  These are the actual sales behaviours required to generate new leads, close deals etc.Ā  The majority of these sales behaviours have no immediate impact or reward, and in a society that is heavily influenced by the instant gratification of likes and shares, many salespeople struggle with the discipline of constantly prospecting when the reward can be months down the line.
  • Skills & Knowledge ā€“ we call this Performance.Ā  Whilst productivity coaching is focussed around getting more done, performance coaching is about increasing conversion.Ā  Increasing the number of leads that convert to an opportunity and the number of opportunities that convert to deals can have a dramatic effect on profitability.Ā 

Whilst these areas are important there is a much bigger challenge we often find when coaching and it is simply motivation.Ā  The top performers are so self-motivated they find their own answers to the points above.Ā 

Motivation or rather a lack of it can be caused by a multitude of things, however, unless the sales manager can find a way to help the sales team motivate themselves then they will struggle.

Motivation can come from within and it’s important to tie the business goals to the personal goals of the sales team.Ā  Whilst goals are important, what’s more important is to find a ā€œcauseā€. A cause is self-fuelling, it has an energy all of it’s own that drives people forward.Ā 

How to motivate sales people without moneyv
Coaching for Sales Leaders

6. The Impact of Coaching on Sales Performance

Coaching impacts an individual in two different ways. The first is tangible and therefore quite easy to measure, however, the second is intangible and arguably more important, but difficult to measure.

What we mean by the tangible impact are mostly skills based activities such as questioning, telephone, discovery, presentation, negotiation skills and the plethara of other skills that the modern sales person requires to be successful.

There are a number of ways and different tools that can help you measure the impact of skills coaching. However, it’s worth first thinking of the journey that learners go on as they learn new skills.

As demonstrated by theĀ Theory of Learning, learners move through four stages of learning before they reach peak performance.

a) Unconscious Incompetence ā€“ the learner is inept at the skill but unaware of this.

b) Conscious Incompetence ā€“ the learner is inept but is now aware of this.

c) Conscious Competence ā€“ the learner can perform the skill well but needs to think about it

d) Unconscious Incompetence ā€“ the learner can perform the skill without thinking about it.

The speed by which learners move through the four stages is dictated by the time invested in learning the new skill, the learning support available.

Unfortunately in sales, sometimes people need to fail first before they understand there might be a different approach that they could benefit from adopting. These people are not coachable and will always resist any form of intervention.

Next up is the intangible impact on the individual which as we said is much more difficult to assess. In sales one of the most important intangible benefits is confidence. Without confidence salespeople will simply never be successful.

It takes a certain level of confidence to prospect, to present, to negotiate etc, however in sales confidence is fragile, it gets shipped away with every unsuccessful call, every no from a prospect and every failed negotiation.

The biggest killer of confidence is often the empty sales pipeline. Once it’s empty is usually much harder to refill your sales funnel as your confidence becomes overwhelmed with desperation and you enter a vicious cycle of decline.

In addition to confidence, another important intangible impact from coaching comes in the form of Emotional Intelligence. In short Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the art of identifying and managing emotions both in ourselves and those around us.

Sales can be a rollercoaster of emotions and controlling these is never easy but also managing the emotions of the people around you is hugely important. At a presentation, a negotiation or a simple sales conversation the emotions of your prospect and how you respond can be the difference between winning the sale or not.

7. Talk to us

Klozers provide Exec Sales Coaching and Sales Performance Coaching services across four time zones. Our sweetspot is working with small and medium size businesses to help them take on the big brands within their industry and win.

Our team a have a wealth of experience and are happy to provide an initial consultation at no charge.

Sales Coaching – For Individuals and Sales Teams

Sales Coaching

Thereā€™s a new way to deliver sales growthā€¦

Don’t buy Sales Training until you’ve watched this video

1. Sales Coaching - Why Invest in Coaching?

At Klozers we love sales coaching.Ā  Watching people or a company who had previously struggled, suddenly find their feet and take off, is one of the main benefits of our job.Ā 

However, as with anything in business, sales coaching must provide real value and a financial benefit to the business.Ā  Unfortunately, many companies still do not invest in professional coaching for their salespeople and the most common reason for this is the cost.Ā 

One could argue that if you canā€™t afford sales coaching then there is an even greater need for it.Ā  Perhaps itā€™s easier for people to blame the cost, than for the coaching profession to admit they could do more to help justify the costs.

We were in that position ourselves until we changed the format of our own sales coaching in order to make it easier for our clients to measure the increases in their pipeline and the subsequent sales revenue that comes from this.Ā  If you would like to learn more about this and how you can change your own sales coaching process then you can jump to the end here.

2. Sales Training vs Sales Coaching - what's the difference?

Many people get confused between what is sales training and what is sales coaching.Ā  Not only is training and coaching different, they also have different outputs which are really important.

Whereby sales training is about the transfer of knowledge, Sales Coaching is about the practical implementation of that knowledge in the field.

The easiest way to think of this is if your company has technical people like engineers or software developers.Ā  The training is what a developer would go through to learn how to write the code.

The coaching is what the developer would need to turn the code into a meaningful application for your business. This means that coaching is the part that drives productivity in the sales team.

One of the main benefits of coaching is that it reinforces the new skills and techniques learnt during the training.Ā  Without coaching studies show that up toĀ 98% of knowledge is lost within 30 days.

In other words, one off event-based training sessions have a very limited impact on sales productivity.

3. When to coach and when not to coach

A recent study on Sales Coaching identified it as one of the most productive activities for any sales team, however, not every sales rep is coachable.Ā  Some salespeople have a ā€œsuperiority complexā€ and donā€™t believe they can either learn or improve.Ā 

This can be falsely reinforced by hitting sales targets that are too low or by being the top sales performer in a group.Ā  Other people will not responding to coaching as improving sales invariably means changing sales behaviours and every human being struggles to change their behaviours.

The last reason some salespeople do not respond to coaching is because they are simply stuck in their own comfort zone, and without any really powerful reason to change they simply carry on as before.

The irony is of course that in the majority of cases these people are in the most need of training and coaching.Ā  With that said, unless there are exceptional circumstances you should not invest time or money in coaching people who have no desire to improve.Ā 

You must either accept them as they are and the potential negative impact they will have on the wider group, or you must have one of those ā€managementā€ conversations with them.

Get started with our Sales Performance Coaching

4. Sales Coaching Models

There are many sales coaching models and frameworks that you can choose from.Ā  The one we use both internally and externally is the GROW model which we find provides the simplicity and flexibility we require. Ā 

Itā€™s worth noting that coaching in sales can be very different to other forms of coaching.Ā  For example, in Exec coaching, coaches are encouraged not to provide the answers and to focus on the questions.Ā 

This forces the coachee to come up with the answer and the though process is that because its their idea they are more likely to believe it and then act on it.Ā 

In sales when there are potentially millions of dollars in terms of deal values up for grabs and time is of the essence, theĀ best sales coachesĀ will switch from a consultative coaching process to directive coaching whereby they are training, coaching and advising the coachee what they need to do.

Grow Sales Coaching Model
GROW Sales Coaching Model

Opportunities for Coaching

There are many areas within sales that lend themselves to sales coaching.Ā  The most common areas Managers should be focussing on for coaching we have found are around:

Sales Activity
Accountability
Lead Generation
Pipeline Coaching
Qualifying/disqualifying

Deal Coaching
Field Coaching
Pre-call planning
Post-call debriefing
Storytelling

5. The Six Biggest Benefits of Sales Coaching

1. Growing Sales Revenues

The more adept your employees become at selling, the more revenue they will generate for your business. We use the word employees because sales has changed and the most productive companies have people in every department that can sell to one degree or another.Ā 

For example, many companies who have now aligned their sales and marketing now acknowledge that great salespeople can do marketing and great marketers can sell.Ā 

Best in class companies have expanded this to their operations team who are now positioned as thought leaders and subject matter experts.Ā  This helps build brand authority and helps to differentiate companies in the marketplace.

By investing in training based on the very latest strategies, techniques and market activity, you can gain a real edge over your competitors.

2. Increased Sales Productivity

Productivity can be difficult to measure in many roles, however, in sales there is a tangible figure every month that can be used as a good indicator.Ā 

Thatā€™s not to say that your MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue) or other revenue goals are the only indicator of productivity, but itā€™s always the ultimate figure that sales reps are judged by.Ā 

Whereby sales training is about the transfer of knowledge, Sales Coaching is about the practical implementation of that knowledge in the field.Ā  This means that coaching is the part that drives productivity in the sales team.Ā 

With studies showing that 83% of employees want to learn new skills sales training and coaching can make your team more productive and efficient. Quality sales coaching sessions can inspire your team and help them get out of a rut.

You may find that some of your employees feel that they know all there is to know about driving sales. However, the market is always changing, and what works one year isnā€™t always as effective 12 months later.

Some of your employees may have more sales potential than they think, and training and coaching can help them unlock this.

3. Closing Bigger & Better Deals

Many times human beings create their own glass ceilings and get stuck.Ā  Salespeople are susceptible to this and often suffer from self limiting beliefs around deal sizes, sales behaviours and the whole sales process.Ā 

Sales training can give your staff the skills they need to secure bigger, more lucrative deals, however without coaching they will quickly lose the new skills and revert back to type.

A good sales coach helps embed the new skills and strategies your sales reps learn in training and helps hold them accountable to using the new skills. As your team become more knowledgeable and confident, theyā€™re more likely to close more deals and bigger ones.Ā 

By using highly experienced sales coaches who live and breathe sales you are in effect fast tracking your team past all the typical problems they will encounter that slow down company growth.

Your team will learn about the latest best practices that they can follow whilst attempting to close deals. The more successful your sales reps become, the more their confidence will grow. Success breeds success.

4. Win More New Clients

Often the most difficult activity in sales is generating new business.Ā  Sales prospecting, lead generation, whatever you call it in your business filling the top of your sales funnel is always a challenge in B2B sales.

The problem with prospecting is that nobody wants to do it, but it still needs to be done.Ā  Many of the problems associated with sales prospecting are connected to the mindset of the sales reps.Ā 

Itā€™s easy to churn out 70 calls a day, and even when you achieve some success itā€™s difficult to get motivated to come back in day after day and make more calls.Ā 

The job of the modern sales coach isnā€™t just to help improve your telephone skills, or the number of dials you make every day. A great sales coach will take a more strategic approach, and work with you on the bigger picture ā€“ revenue goals, sales coals, sales campaigns that dramatically increase your sales results.

This in turn helps to motivate and inspire your staff, and get them thinking more strategically about the sales process.Ā  Ā 

5. Boost Workplace Morale

Great sales coaching can also boost confidence and improve morale amongst your staff. Research by LinkedIn shows that 91% of people agree that teams that learn new skills together are more successful.

Furthermore 90% of people surveyed believe that team learning helps foster a sense of belonging to the organisation.

Whilst not everyone will, the majority of your team members are likely to appreciate the effort youā€™ve put into training them, and helping them improve their knowledge and skills.

Investing in training shows your staff that you care about their career development and want them to achieve more. If staff feel valued, they are more likely to meet their goals and stay with the organisation longer.

Employee satisfaction can be worth its weight is key when it achieving customer satisfaction and meeting business targets. Training can also refresh their knowledge so they can follow and new best practices and anything they may have forgotten or become unclear about.

6. Increased Decision Making by Sales Reps

Many companies struggle to grow because there are bottlenecks in their internal decision-making process.Ā  These bottlenecks occur when sales reps do not have the confidence or knowledge to make any form of decision.Ā 

This makes companies less agile and slow to react to changes in the market.Ā  Many companies are investing in sales training and coaching in order to improve the decision-making skills of their sales leadership team.

Effective sales coaching can help your team recognise and capitalise on opportunities to drive not only your business forward, but their professional development too.

Sales trainers act as a sounding board and can listen to your Teams ideas and help them fine-tune them to make them more effective in real-world situations.

Other benefits of sales coaching are that your team can become more creative and you will foster an environment where they feel more comfortable discussing new ideas.

6. Virtual or Remote Sales Coaching

During the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 many salespeople were forced to work from home. Homeworking was easier for some than others, however, many studies showed that people felt less connected and even unsettled when working from home.Ā 

Many Field Salespeople who had spent their lives on out on the road where suddenly confined to their home and confronted with a completely new way of selling. These are exactly the sort of scenarios where coaching can help people adjust to new circumstances and maintain performance.

In many cases sales reps had to retrain on how to sell remotely using tools like MS Teams and Zoom.Ā  Sales training and coaching can bring your remote team together and make it more than the sum of its parts.

The best sales trainers donā€™t just focus on boosting individual performance but foster a sense of teamwork and unity between your staff. To close big deals in the modern sales world takes a Team and not just one individual. Ā 

If everyone is using a common sales language and are working together at the best of their abilities, youā€™re more likely to close bigger and better deals than ever before.

How to manage sales activity
Behavioural Sales Coaching

7. Sales Coaching Tips

1. Focus on One-on-One Coaching

One of the most impactful sales coaching tips is to prioritize one-on-one coaching sessions. Sales representatives often struggle with specific challenges unique to their roles. By tailoring these sessions to the individual’s needs, a sales coach can offer the most relevant content and actionable advice. This personalized approach enables sales reps to make progress more effectively, ultimately achieving their business goals and hitting quotas.

2. Implement an Effective Coaching Program

An effective coaching program is essential for any sales organization looking to improve its sales performance. By regularly conducting coaching sessions on a monthly basis, sales managers can keep their teams on track. The best coaching programs include a formal process for providing ongoing feedback, focusing on areas for improvement, and setting clear objectives. Implementing such a program can significantly impact your teamā€™s effectiveness and overall success.

3. Encourage Role Play and Real-Life Scenarios

Role play is a crucial component of sales coaching that allows salespeople to practice real-life scenarios in a safe environment. This technique not only prepares them for potential sales situations but also helps them to refine their selling techniques and overcome common obstacles. By simulating conversations with prospects, sales reps can better articulate their value propositions, handle objections, and close deals more effectively.

4. Offer Constructive Criticism and Praise

Balancing constructive criticism with praise is vital in sales coaching. While itā€™s important to address areas where sales reps need to improve, recognizing their strengths and achievements is equally crucial. Offering encouragement and celebrating small wins can boost self-motivation and foster a positive coaching environment. Remember, the goal is to create an environment where salespeople feel supported and motivated to excel.

5. Align Coaching with Business Goals

To ensure your sales coaching efforts lead to tangible results, itā€™s important to align your coaching activities with your organization’s business goals. Regularly reviewing progress toward quotas, discussing action plans, and adjusting strategies as needed will help keep your team focused on what matters most. By aligning coaching with business objectives, you can create a win-win scenario where both individual reps and the organization as a whole achieve success.

6. Utilize Technology for Continuous Improvement

Leveraging technology like CRM systems and sales analytics tools can enhance the effectiveness of your coaching program. These tools provide valuable insights into sales performance, helping coaches identify areas for improvement and track progress over time. Additionally, video recordings of sales calls can be reviewed during coaching sessions to offer specific, actionable feedback. Incorporating technology into your coaching process not only improves efficiency but also ensures that your coaching remains data-driven and impactful.

7. Foster a Culture of Continuous Learning

Sales coaching should be viewed as an ongoing process rather than a one-time event. Encouraging a culture of continuous learning within your sales organization is key to long-term success. Provide your team with professional development opportunities, such as sales training courses or workshops, to help them grow their skills. A great coach knows that developing people is a continuous journey, one that requires commitment, support, and the right resources.

8. Best Practices for Sales Managers in Coaching Sessions

When it comes to improving the performance of sales representatives, the role of a sales manager in coaching sessions is crucial. Conducting effective coaching sessions requires a structured approach that leverages insights, encourages motivation, and focuses on the specific needs of each team member. Below are some best practices that sales management can follow to ensure their coaching sessions get the best results:

1. Understand Your Team’s Needs:
Sales managers should begin by identifying the unique strengths and weaknesses of each sales representative. By conducting a thorough analysis and reflecting on past performance, managers can tailor coaching sessions to address the specific challenges that sales reps struggle with, ensuring that each session is impactful.

2. Set Clear Objectives:
Establishing clear, actionable goals is essential for any coaching session. Sales managers should define what success looks like and communicate these objectives effectively to their team. Whether it’s improving close rates, enhancing product knowledge, or mastering objection handling, having a defined goal helps in tracking progress and ensuring accountability.

3. Incorporate Regular Feedback:
Consistent feedback is a key component of successful coaching. Sales managers should provide constructive criticism while also recognizing the achievements of their sales reps. Regular feedback, given during weekly one-on-ones or after team meetings, helps reinforce positive behaviors and correct any areas of concern.

4. Utilize Role-Playing Scenarios:
Role-playing is an excellent way for sales representatives to practice and refine their skills. Sales managers should incorporate role-playing exercises into their coaching sessions to simulate real-world scenarios. This approach not only builds confidence but also helps reps think on their feet and improve their performance during actual sales calls.

5. Foster an Open Communication Environment:
Creating an environment where sales reps feel comfortable discussing their challenges and successes is vital. Sales managers should encourage open-ended questions and active participation during coaching sessions. This open communication fosters trust and allows for a more personalized coaching experience.

6. Leverage Data and Technology:
Sales managers can enhance the effectiveness of their coaching sessions by leveraging data-driven insights from CRM systems and other sales tools. Analyzing sales performance data helps in identifying patterns, tracking progress, and making informed decisions. Additionally, using video recordings of sales calls can be a powerful way to provide targeted feedback.

7. Focus on Long-Term Development:
While addressing immediate performance issues is important, sales managers should also focus on the long-term development of their team members. This includes providing professional development opportunities, offering career guidance, and helping reps build a path toward achieving their career goals.

8. Balance Between Guidance and Autonomy:
A great sales manager knows when to provide guidance and when to allow reps to take ownership of their learning. Striking the right balance between offering direction and encouraging autonomy empowers sales reps to take initiative and develop their problem-solving skills.

9. Track and Measure Progress:
Regularly tracking and measuring the effectiveness of coaching sessions is critical. Sales managers should set key performance indicators (KPIs) and use these metrics to evaluate progress over time. This approach ensures that the coaching process is aligned with the overall sales goals of the organization.

By implementing these sales coaching activities, sales managers can conduct coaching sessions that not only improve individual performance but also contribute to the overall success of the sales organization. Effective coaching sessions are a blend of insight, motivation, and structured guidance, and when done right, they have the power to transform average companies into high-performing sales teams.

9. Sales Coaching Techniques

Sales coaching is a critical part of any effective coaching program, especially in a dynamic sales organization where sales representatives are constantly adapting to new challenges. Here are some essential sales coaching techniques to help your sales reps succeed:

1. One-on-One Coaching for Personalized Development

Personal 121 coaching sessions are an effective way to address the unique needs of individual sales representatives. Often a Sales rep may struggle with specific obstacles in their role, and these tailored sessions allow coaches to provide relevant content and actionable advice. By making personal coaching a top priority, sales coaches can focus on developing core performers, thereby improving overall sales performance and achieving business goals.

2. Implementing an Effective Coaching Program

A structured and effective sales coaching program is essential for ongoing development and quota attainment. According to CSO Insights, a well-implemented coaching process leads to significant improvement in close rates and overall sales performance. By scheduling coaching sessions on a monthly basis and providing ongoing feedback, managers can ensure their teams are consistently making progress. Importantly, these sessions should be seen as opportunities for constructive criticism and praise, helping to motivate and guide reps toward success.

3. Role Play to Prepare for Real-World Scenarios

Of all the sales coaching activities you could implement, Role play is by far the most productive.Ā  Role play is a proven technique that prepares salespeople for real-world interactions with prospects. By practicing different approaches in a controlled environment, the sales rep can build confidence and refine their techniques. This method not only helps reps articulate value propositions more effectively but also enables them to overcome common objections they may face during sales calls.

4. Leveraging Technology for Enhanced Coaching

The use of CRM systems and other sales enablement tools is crucial in modern sales coaching. These technologies provide valuable insights into sales activities, allowing coaches to track performance, identify areas for improvement, and review sales calls for feedback. By integrating technology into your coaching sessions, you can ensure that your coaching is data-driven and tailored to the specific needs of your sales team.

5. Encouraging a Culture of Continuous Learning

Creating an environment that fosters continuous learning is vital for long-term success. Sales coaching should not be a one-time event but rather an ongoing process that aligns with the organization’s goals. By offering professional development opportunities and encouraging self-motivation, sales leaders can ensure that their teams are consistently developing and improving. This culture of continuous learning will ultimately lead to greater job satisfaction and higher retention rates.

6. Aligning Coaching with Business Goals

To maximize the impact of sales coaching, itā€™s crucial to align coaching activities with the organization’s business objectives. Regularly reviewing progress and setting action plans based on these goals helps create a win-win situation where both the sales reps and the organization achieve their targets. By focusing on these main points during coaching sessions, sales leaders can ensure that their teams are on track to hit their quotas.

7. Fostering Trust and Ownership Among Reps

Effective sales coaching is built on a foundation of trust and ownership. Sales coaches must foster an environment where reps feel supported and accountable for their progress. By involving reps in the decision-making process and encouraging them to take ownership of their development, coaches can empower them to achieve success. This approach not only leads to better results but also helps build stronger, more resilient sales teams.

By implementing these sales coaching techniques, you can create an effective and motivating environment that drives your sales team toward success.

The ROI on Exec Sales Coaching
Sales Coaching ROI

10. Coaching your Sales Team in a Structured Way

Itā€™s common for companies to know exactly what kind of training their teams need. However, many sales management teams are unclear about how the training should be structured.

Structure is important because it ensures that the training sticks and is embedded in the organisation. Without any form of structure you will find participants forget up to 98% of what they learn in training.

Experienced training providers and coaches can help you examine your current sales culture and build a training programme thatā€™s specifically tailored to your organisations needs.

A sales training provider can carry out research such as a training needs analysis before training and coaching takes place. Any training and coaching should also be aligned with the companies sales strategy.Ā 

For example, if there is a need from the business to reduce customer churn the training and coaching on this topic might be a priority.Ā 

Training can also be built around new product launches and sales campaigns and wherever possible should be built around your current sales challenges.

Coaching Sales Behaviours
High Performance Sales Coaching

11. Product and Service Training

Buyers have very little time to spend with sales reps and when they do they want to talk to salespeople who understand their industry, their business and their own products and services.Ā 

For any new sales rep this can be a huge challenge as they get up to speed on products and services.Ā 

Buyers expect salespeople to know all the answers to their questions, and their products inside out. including all their features and benefits. While training supports features and benefits, coaching provides the all important bridge between them, and what relevance and value they provide to the customer.Ā  Ā 

Sales coaches can help reps gain a deeper, richer understanding of the context and relevance of the Ā products that theyā€™re selling.Ā  This in turn allows them to emphasise their value when discussing them with customers.

A quality sales coach will encourage your team members to talk about the most important features of your solutions, so your prospects can clearly see how beneficial they are, resulting in more sales success for everyone.Ā 

12. Coaching Sales Managers

Many companies overlook one of the most important elements of any successful sales coaching program, namely the sales manager.Ā 

In most cases a sales manager also fulfils the role of the sales coach and as such has a huge influence on the success of the sales team.Ā 

Coaching sales people will have limited results if the overall coaching program does not include the sales manager.Ā 

Modern sales managers set the bar in terms of productivity and sales performance, so unless they are learning and improving, neither will theirĀ  team be.

Most sales managers have neither been trained in sales management, let alone as a sales coach.

Running an effective sales coaching programme is very different from being a great sales person or sales manager.Ā 

13. Virtual Selling

The pandemic and subsequent lockdowns resulted in many traditional field sales reps being taken off the road and working from home.Ā 

Despite most lockdowns having lifted the traditional field sales role has in some cases merged into a hybrid role and in other cases been removed completely.Ā 

Virtual selling is here to stay and for most organisations this represented an immediate need for sales coaching and training to support reps in their changed environments.Ā 

Sales Managers with no training as sales coaches where thrown into the limelight, and overnight were required to be the sales coach.Ā 

In addition to their management duties, overnight they now had strategic coaching, tactical coaching, sales cycle coachingĀ  team motivation, coaching sales calls, coaching underperforming sales reps, one on one meetings, group sessions to keep their team motivated, boost engagement maintain accountability and sales performance.Ā 

All this whilst managing their own performance and continuing to meet the revenue and sales goals and overall sales success of the organisation.Ā  Sales managers need support, they need professional development programs themselves if they are in turn expected to support other team members.Ā 

Remote selling requires a different skill set and different coaching techniques in order to deliver results.Ā Ā 

14. In Conclusion

If youā€™re interested in providing structured and effective sales coaching program thatā€™s specifically based on your needs, we would love to talk with you. Sales coaching can reverse any negative sales trends, make your team more adept at selling, improve your sales processes and increase morale within your workforce.

By getting your sales leaders on board and involved in the training and coaching process, you can increase the chances of the training being successful.

Sales coaching can also unite sales teams, help you close bigger, better and more lucrative deals, enhance your revenue, help you win new clients, and retain existing ones. Few companies regret their decision to invest in sales coaching.

Klozers has different sales coaching programs available for salespeople, sales managers and business leaders.Ā  We have built our business on our ability to train and coach sales professionals across various industries and love what we do.Ā