What is sales coaching?
Sales coaching is a process followed by sales managers to maximize sales rep performance, allowing reps to positively impact the greater sales team. The process is designed so every rep is supported and coached to effectively contribute to the team's ability to reach, or exceed, quota.
Effective sales coaching is:
- Iterative
- Individualized
- Meant to reinforce or correct behaviour
- Part of each sales representative's daily or weekly routine
- Focused on skills and techniques rather than numbers
What doesn’t fall under the sales coaching umbrella?
- Telling salespeople exactly what to do (rather than giving them the end goal and letting them figure out the specifics)
- Giving the same advice to every single person
- Ignoring individual motivators, strengths, and weaknesses
Examples of Sales Coaching
To get a better sense of what sales coaching looks like, here are a few examples:
- Reviewing a call with a sales rep and discussing what went well and where they could improve
- Scheduling weekly check-ins with reps to discuss objectives and areas of the sales process they’re less confident in
- Shadowing or listening to a rep's meeting or phone call with a prospect
- Reviewing a rep's email conversations with prospects throughout different points in the buyer's journey
Sales Coaching Techniques
These commonly-used coaching techniques are applicable to all types of sales teams. Don't be afraid to incorporate some (or all) of them on your team.
1. Use data.
It can be overwhelming to figure out what to focus on in terms of sales coaching — both team-wide and among individual reps. That’s where data comes into play. Rather than using your gut to guide you, use your CRM to identify where your salespeople could improve.
Wondering what that might look like?
Keep track of funnel-stage conversion metrics on a monthly basis. If you notice deal velocity is increasing but close rates are decreasing, you should dig into your reps’ email-to-meeting, meeting-to-demo, and demo-to-close rates (or the applicable metrics for your sales process) to understand where they’re moving too fast.
You may also see many reps are skipping the discovery call and jumping straight to the demo, which saves time but leads to generic, low-value presentations … and, therefore, decreasing win rates.
In addition, compare each salesperson to their historical performance, the team’s average performance, and/or your top performers’ performances.
For example, let’s suppose your rep’s average deal size is $500. This quarter, their average was $300. Your best salespeople are averaging $600. With this context, it's clear this rep needs help.
2. Mix up your coaching style.
Selling requires a variety of skills and techniques, so make sure your coaching incorporates multiple styles.
Director of Sales Enablement at Brainshark, Mike Kunkle, recommends varying between:
- Strategic coaching, or big-picture guidance, on topics like selling into a specific market, navigating a complex buying process, working with customer champions, etc.
- Tactical coaching, or nitty-gritty suggestions on starting a relationship, qualifying, etc.
- Specific skill coaching, or helping salespeople improve their communication, questioning strategies, rapport-building abilities, etc.
3. Get buy-in.
What's one of the worst ways to try to change a salesperson’s behaviour? Tell them what to do.
Most salespeople are fairly independent — that’s why they’ve chosen to work in sales — and don’t respond well to being ordered around.
You’ll have far more success if you involve them in the improvement process. That means asking them how they think they performed, what they can do to get better, and which metrics will help them measure their progress.
4. Leverage your best reps.
Salespeople can learn just as much from each other as you. Use that to your advantage — if one person on the team is crushing it, ask them to share their learnings with everyone else.
To give you an idea, imagine two of your reps are getting great results from prospecting on LinkedIn. Figure out what they’re doing differently. Are they sending a specific message? Targeting a specific set of users? Answering questions in specific groups?
These reps should give a presentation on their winning strategy — perhaps during your next team meeting. Your other salespeople will be eager to imitate them, and the group will potentially find an even more effective way to execute this play.
Let's also take a look at the various tools that can help you manage all of these coaching tips and techniques more easily.
Sales Coaching Tips
In addition to sales coaching techniques and tools, here are some all-encompassing tips to keep in mind as well. These tips will help you effectively coach reps to ensure your team is as productive as possible.
1. Focus on the middle 60%.
According to research from Brent Adamson and Matt Dixon, authors of The Challenger Sale, most sales managers tend to spend most of their energy coaching the “very best and very worst” salespeople on their team.
Managers feel compelled to help the bottom 20% to get their team to quota. They want to help the top 20% because it’s rewarding.
Consequently, the middle 60% gets the least amount of attention. But Adamson and Dixon explain “the real payoff from good coaching lies among … your core performers.”
After all, the worst-performing salespeople (who are consistently underperforming, that is) usually aren’t right for the role. You should replace them, not try to train them up.
And the stars on the team show little to no performance improvement from coaching. So when you’re thinking about which reps to focus your attention on, think of the middle of the pack.
2. Share your vision.
Sales reps want to feel as though they’re contributing to the company’s overall success. This is motivating and provides them with non-monetary fulfilment.
Come up with a mission for your team that goes beyond “Sell X amount of business.” This goal should be specific, actionable, and exciting — think “Break into A market,” “Become known internally for doing B,” or “Break the company record for C.”
Periodically throughout team meetings and one-on-ones, share the overall team's progress toward this objective. You should also point out the people who have made significant contributions in doing so. For example, you might say, “I want to recognize Joella for landing a huge new corporate account, which will definitely increase our visibility in that market.”
3. Learn each salesperson’s drivers.
Everyone is motivated by different things. Even if the majority of your reps are motivated by making money, their specific financial goals probably vary widely. One salesperson might be paying off their student loans, while another may be saving up for a house. Some salespeople are primarily in sales because they love the autonomy.
To identify how you can engage your reps, former HubSpot sales director Dan Tyre recommends asking what they want to accomplish in both their personal and professional lives.
“This will not only show you the type of person they are but also give you insight into what things will motivate them the most,” he explains.
Tyre asks these questions:
1. Are you motivated right now?
2. What motivates you long-term?
3. What can you do to motivate yourself?
4. How will I know if you are not motivated?
5. What do you want me to do if you don’t appear motivated?
Having these insights will allow you to tailor your coaching style to each rep.
4. Use incentives effectively.
Sales contests and incentives should change behaviours, not reinforce existing ones. That’s why offering $100 to the first rep to make a sale that day probably isn’t helpful.
Figure out what your salespeople aren’t doing that you’d like them to — and design your contest around that action.
To illustrate, maybe your reps are focusing too heavily on product A because it requires less technical knowledge than product B. You might give a bonus to every salesperson who sells more than X units of product B.
5. Give personal rewards.
Individual prizes should be tied to a specific rep’s goals. For example, if a rep is working on increasing their call-to-meetings rate, you might say you’ll take them to a nice lunch once they improve by X%.
Not sure what to offer as a prize? Here’s where knowing every salesperson’s motivators are handy. You can also directly ask them, “What can I give you as a prize for achieving [objective]?”
6. Seek out and experiment with new coaching practices and resources.
There are many sales coaching techniques and tools available today — don’t be afraid to experiment with them. Every team and individual are different — meaning, no sales coaching techniques are always going to be one-size-fits-all.
Learn about what’s going to work best for your reps and their needs and ask each rep for their feedback on your coaching style in your one-on-one meetings. Then, stick with these tactics until you reach a point in time when you need to reevaluate their effectiveness and impact.
7. Prepare and practice with multiple coaching scenarios.
As a sales manager, it’s your job to prepare and practice with multiple coaching scenarios. Your team is bound to evolve and the people on it are going to change (in terms of their skillset but also rep turnover).
Stay efficient and effective in regards to coaching by preparing for different scenarios — this way, you’ll be ready to assist and teach reps with different needs and areas for improvement at any point in time.
Additionally, you might notice you have several people who need the same type of coaching in a specific problem area. In this case, you can prepare with training and information around that topic and share it among the group. Or, if one rep is struggling in a specific area, you may have a prepared outline of a plan you can then tailor towards their needs — then, you can use it again in the future with another rep.
Sales Coaching Helps You Grow Better
Sales coaching is both an art and a science. It's one of — if not the — most important components of sales management. Do it well, and your team's results will speak for you. So, begin incorporating the various sales coaching techniques, tools, and tips to help your team close more deals, boost revenue, surpass quota, and grow better.
Source: Hubspot
