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Sales managers have one of the most difficult jobs. They need to be a leader, market analyst, counselor, psychologist, and on and on. Along with all this, they are responsible for the numbers and dependent on their team to deliver.
One of the biggest frustrations for sales managers is hiring who they thought someone was and getting who they really are. Ever happen to you? The candidate seemed really qualified, great resume, personable, relevant work experience, and the interview was a winner. Now, it's months later and your new hire just is not hitting the numbers. What's going on? Is it time to let him/her go? Or can he/she be coached?
CSO Insights' research shows that coaching sales reps is the number one key to helping them rev up their sales. Greater emphasis on coaching is a necessity that will help your new sales hires become fully productive faster and more efficiently and help underperformers step up their game.
For sure, once you notice a potential problem, you want to be proactive about it before the problem gets worse. Coaching early and often is important!
So, how do you go about effectively coaching? I would like to share some fundamental steps managers can use to successfully coach and develop sales reps:
- Assess. Before you begin coaching, you need to know and understand the individual as best you can - what are their specific strengths and weaknesses, skills and attributes, and personality and behavioral traits? Most of this information isn't found in a job interview(s) or a resume. To fully understand these individuals, you need to assess them using an instrument that specifically measures how well a person fits sales jobs. The tool I use includes seven critical sales behaviors: prospecting, call reluctance, closing the sale, self-starting, working with a team, building and maintaining relationships, and compensation preference.
- Compare with Top Performers. After the individual takes a sales assessment, you can compare their results to those of your top performing salespeople. In doing this, you will be able to see the areas where the individual is struggling. The differences will show the gaps that your underperformer needs to improve to succeed. If your top performer is an 8 on Assertiveness and your underperformer scores a 3, shoot, there's a gap that tells you immediately one of the reasons this person is struggling.
Let me give you an example of how this can play out in real time: you bring in a salesperson, Bob, who appears to be doing all the "activity" to be successful: know the product inside out, know what the product can do for the client, know how to present it credibly - and, then, do all the numbers: see as many people as possible, recognizing there is always going to be a ratio of people who fall out of the sales process - talk to ten people, only eight might go on to the next stage; then, six might go so far and, maybe, you'll end up with two clients.
Because sales managers can't, routinely, go outside the office and see what's happening, let's imagine your top performing sales people - 7,8,9 on the Assertiveness scale - that means when someone says "No", they say "Well, why would you not buy, is there a problem, are you thinking about tomorrow?" Conversely, when a prospect says no to Bob, your underachiever who is a 3 on Assertiveness, he is inclined to say "Well okay, thank you very much. It's been a pleasure." Bob is much less inclined to push back. Managers seeing a 3 versus a 9 between two performers, now have the information to help improve the performance and, ultimately, results. It's your AHA! moment, "Oh, now I see where the problem is. Now, I can more effectively manage Bob, and use training appropriately" You cannot do that until you know who Bob is.
- Train and develop. Once you have the information and know the areas the individual is struggling in, appropriate sales training aimed at improving those areas can make a measurable difference. Managers can now say "Okay, let's see what I can do to help my underachiever perform more like my top performers?" That's not trying to change your sales rep's personality - for example, if he/she is not a naturally assertive person, you can help train them to act as if they are. One of a manager's goals is to help improve the sales rep's ability to not take no for an answer - and if he/she is high on the Manageability scale, for sure, they want their boss to tell them, step-by-step, what they need to do. Often, top sales performers are two's and three's in Manageability, with an emphasis on individual thinking - they just get on with getting on - but a sales rep who scores high on Manageability - needs detailed directions and is very comfortable with rules and procedures
Learning core information about your salespeople can be your Aha! moment, "Oh, now I see where the problem is. Now, I can more effectively manage Bob, and use training appropriately".
You cannot do this until you know who Bob is!
When sales managers Assess, Compare and Train (ACT), they can effectively coach their sales reps to improve their numbers and reach their full potential.
If you need to help managers in your organization to better coach for greater performance, don't hesitate to take advantage of our complimentary test drive of the tool I use specifically to better understand and coach salespeople!
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