Sales Management Association Webcast Five Sales Coaching Best Practices 29 May 2014 Presented by Copyright 2014 Sales Management Association.
The Sales Management Association A global, cross-industry professional association for sales operations and sales management. Focused in providing research, case studies, training, peer networking, and professional development to our membership. Fostering a community of thought-leaders, service providers, academics, and practitioners. Learn More: www.salesmanagement.org 2014 The Sales Management Association. All rights reserved. Slide 2
Today s Presenter #SalesCoaching 2014 The Sales Management Association. All rights reserved. Slide 3
5 Coaching Best Practices The quest for the holy grail of sales team development!
5 Must haves for Effective Coaching History of Coaching What and Why Coach How to Coach Focusing your coaching on outcomes and behaviors. Tying coaching sales process and method. Creating consistent coaching plans, and standardizing the information gathered for effective sales coaching. Coaching Types: Independent, Formal, Informal, Peer and Self-Coaching. Leveraging data and technology to enable your coaching plan and bring accuracy to your efforts.
What is Coaching? Coaching is a development process via which an individual is supported while achieving a specific personal or professional competence result or goal
What is Coaching?
What is coaching? Non Optimal Manager: Frank, I m concerned about your forecast Frank : Just submitted the final proposal to XYZ, I m confident it will close this month 8
More Non-optimal Coaching
Why Coach My Reps?
Why coach your way of selling? 87% Loss Day 1 Day 30 Training + Coaching = 4X improvement in Retention American Society of Training & Development Study Sales Executive Council Study
Why Coach Deals 60% 50% 40% 43% 47% 52% 30% 20% 10% Win Rate Loss Rate No Decision 0% Poor Coaching Average Coaching Good Coaching CSO Insights, 2014 Sales Management Optimization study 12
Why have a Formal Coaching Model Sales Performance Related to Coaching Model/Approach Percentage of Reps Meeting or Exceeding Quota Informal or NO Coaching Model Formal Coaching Model 49.9% 62.3% 24.8% improvement! CSO Insights, 2014 Sales Management Optimization study
Ok, So I m a believer What Next? Do I coach Skills? Do I coach Process? Who do I coach? When do I coach them? What does Good coaching look like? How much is enough?
Non-optimal Coaching Equation If 10 times Equals Then 30 times Equals
Driven by non-optimal Coaching Dashboard Nbr of Calls Nbr of Demo s Where is Quality in this Picture? Or Behaviors/Actions? Close Rate Or Root Cause? Pipeline Revenue
What is the path to Good Coaching? Seller Activities SMART Objectives Business Outcomes
The path to good coaching Activities Objectives Outcomes Skills/ Deals Planning/ Process Win Rate Deal Size Quota Achievement
Tactical What skills are most important? Customer Value & Handling Objections Pre-Call Planning Solution Value Prop/Competitive Discovery & Solution Alignment Story Telling/Case Studies Product/Market/Company Knowledge 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Harvard Business Review, Do you really know who your Best Salespeople Are? December 1, 2010, UK Cranfield School of Management
The path to good coaching Activities Objectives Outcomes Skills/ Deals Planning/ Process Grow Revenue
The path to good coaching - Tactical Activities Objectives Outcomes Skills/ Deals - Competitor/Industry Research - Create Call Strategy - Better Qualify Prospects Improve Win Rate 10% Improve Win Rate 10% Grow Revenue
The path to good coaching Activities Objectives Outcomes Skills/ Deals Planning/ Process Grow Revenue
The path to good coaching Activities Objectives Outcomes 1. Prioritize Territory Accounts 2. Create Account Plan Better Penetrate Top 3 Accounts Planning/ Process Grow Revenue
Who and When do I Coach?
Number of Reps Who to Coach the 3 C s Cut Coach Cherish Minimal Value in Coaching Bottom 10% Middle 80% Top 10% Sales Performance Corporate Executive Board, Defining Coaching Excellence, 2010
When to coach - Tactical Average Coaches Sales Process 1. Needs Exploration 2. Needs Identified 3. Solution Development 4. Solution Accepted 5. Final Terms & Conditions 6. Contract Received Corporate Executive Board, Defining Coaching Excellence, 2010 Highly Effective Coaches
Don t Chase the Unwinnable Deal
When to coach - Strategic Is the Rep following the Sales Process?
Who to Coach? How should I Coach?
Building the Coaching Plan 1. Hard Allocate time (3-5 hours/rep) Corporate Executive Board, Defining Coaching Excellence, 2010
Building the Coaching Plan 1. Hard Allocate time (3-5 hours/rep) 2. Build a weekly cadence Skills/Deals Plans/Process Skills/Deals Plans/Process
Building the Coaching Plan 1. Hard Allocate time (3-5 hours/rep) 2. Build a weekly cadence with Quarterly Progress checks
Building the Coaching Plan GROW Model - Goal - Reality 1. Hard Allocate time (3-5 hours/rep) 2. Build a weekly cadence with Quarterly Progress checks 3. Use a Coaching Plan/Model for each interaction - Options - Way Forward GUIDE Model - Goal Set - Uncover Gaps - Identify Root Cause - Define Correction - Evaluate Performance
Building the Coaching Plan 1. Hard Allocate time (3-5 hours/rep) 2. Build a weekly cadence with Quarterly Progress checks 3. Use a Coaching Plan/Model for each interaction 4. Build the Environment for Coaching 5. Drive it up the management chain Coaching NOT Managing Talk about Developmental Environment Establish Rapport Get Reps Perceptions first Focus on plan Get buy-in Execution, not Training NOT A FORECAST CALL
Building the Coaching Plan 1. Hard Allocate time (3-5 hours/rep) 2. Build a weekly cadence with Quarterly Progress checks 3. Use a Coaching Plan/Model for each interaction 4. Build the Environment for Coaching 5. Get your own Coach Sales Manager Skills Customer/Mark Rewarding Product/Solutio Sales Experience Gather Resources Provide direction Fair Allocation Effective Performance Coaching 0 0.5 1
Things to remember Build relationships good coaching needs good relationships Coach the middle 80% for results / Coach superstars for retention Set aside 3-5 hours/rep/month Use questions to help reps come to their own conclusions stop telling them Plan for coaching yeah, I know you re good, but plan anyway You can t fake honesty - showing your dedication to improving their results. One size does not fit all - Tailor coaching to the individual. Focus on a few things at a time
The best thing about not coaching? Failure comes as a complete surprise Rather than being preceded by a long period of anxiety
Best Practices #SalesCoaching How do firms establish best practices in coaching? 2014 The Sales Management Association. All rights reserved. Slide 42
Metrics and Scoring #SalesCoaching How do you establish metrics and score sales reps? 2014 The Sales Management Association. All rights reserved. Slide 43
Coaching and Commitment #SalesCoaching How do you get commitment from a rep without sounding too formal? When do you use directive vs. self-discovery coaching? 2014 The Sales Management Association. All rights reserved. Slide 44
Thank You. Copyright 2014 The Sales Management Association