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Sales coaching can be defined as having your own personal sales trainer.
Millions of sales professionals have had formalized sales training. Companies
large and small see this training as a necessary evil. After all they hire you
to be a professional, to bring in the numbers yet the employees still need ongoing training to help the company grow.
This is true regardless if it is sales training, HR training, CRM training, CPR training, etc.
If the company wants to grow it has to look at its deficiencies and try to bring
in the expert help to correct the problem.
Most formal sales training classes are excellent. They teach you how to interact
with customers, how to recognize your own sales mistakes, how to learn from
those mistakes, and generally add subtle reminders of what you should be doing
on every call.
These subtle reminders are what I call "Oh Yea" moments. "Oh yea - I used to do
that all the time, I wonder why and when I stopped?" "Oh Yea they said that in
the last sales training but I still don't do it that way."
These "Oh Yea" moments are examples of knowing what to do but not actually doing
it. Why is that? Why is it that we know we should be remembering a person's name
but we forget it immediately, or we write down the customer's information but we
don't follow up?
Maybe we spend a lot of time listening to the customer but don't actually hear
what they are trying to say.
These little things are very important in your sales cycle. Ultimately we need
to close the sale but it is these very small things, listening to the customer,
hearing the customer, remembering the next steps, following up, writing down the
information - it's these "Oh Yea" moments that are actually holding you back.
You know you should be doing them but you don't. That's where a sales coach can
help.
A sales coach takes all of those things you should be doing and makes you do
them by working with you on a one-on-one basis while you are on your actual
sales call. They ride along with you, or sit beside you on your phone calls to
provide immediate feedback of the call.
The sale's coaches job is to take all of the things you
know you should be doing, all of the things you have learn in your sales
trainings and in your sales experience and turn those things into habit.
If it becomes a habit then by definition you will do it!
Here are a couple of things to keep in mind when you are looking for a sales
coach:
- Experience - does the coach have the experience in your type of
sale? I.E.: If you have a long sales cycle make sure the coach has
experience in that type of sale vs. a transactional sale.
- Time - In order for sales coaching to be effective the coach has
to be with you on your calls to critique what just happened. It's okay to
find a coach to bounce ideas off of once in a while but the object is to
have someone that can participate on the actual call.
- Someone you can trust - This sounds silly but it you are 50 years
old and your coach is 25 then I'm not sure if their experience will count.
You are about to be criticized by someone immediately after making a sales
call. For that critique to register and for you to take it to heart you need
to trust that person's advice.
- Someone who speaks your language and your customer's language -
You shouldn't have to train your sales coach on Department of Defense acronyms. If your coach
doesn't understand government logic find another coach.
Again the objective of sales coaching is to make you a better salesperson.
This is done through one-on-one coaching during and immediately after your sales
call. The coach's job is to turn all of those "Oh Yea" moments into habits that
you will just do automatically - on every call!
If you want to be a better salesperson hire a sales coach!
Teach you reps how to sell and they will reward you with immediate sales results.
Hire a sales coach today!
To increase your sales fill out the form at the top of the page or call
770-298-0951.
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