Five Sales Coaching Best Practices

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Sales Management Association Webcast

29 May 2014

Presented by

Five Sales Coaching Best Practices

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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

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Today’s Presenter

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5 Coaching Best Practices

The quest for the holy grail of sales team development!

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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.

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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

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What is coaching? – Non Optimal

8

Manager: Frank,

I’m concerned about your

forecast

Frank : Just submitted the final

proposal to XYZ, I’m

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Why Coach My

Reps?

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Why coach your way of selling?

Day 1

Day 30

87% Loss

Training + Coaching

= 4X improvement in Retention American Society of Training

& Development Study

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Why Coach Deals

12 43% 47% 52% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% Poor Coaching Average Coaching Good Coaching Win Rate Loss Rate No Decision CSO Insights,

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Why have a Formal Coaching Model

CSO Insights, 2014 Sales Management Optimization study Sales Performance Related to Coaching Model/Approach

Informal or NO Coaching Model Formal Coaching Model Percentage of Reps Meeting or Exceeding Quota 49.9% 62.3% 24.8% improvement!

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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?

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Non-optimal Coaching Equation

If 10 times

Equals

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Driven by non-Optimal Coaching Dashboard

Nbr of Calls

Pipeline Revenue

Nbr of Demo’s

• Where is Quality in this

Picture?

• Or Behaviors/Actions?

• Or Root Cause?

Close Rate

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What is the path to Good Coaching?

Business

Outcomes

SMART

Objectives

Seller

Activities

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The path to good coaching

Activities Objectives Outcomes

Win Rate Deal Size Quota Achievement Skills/ Deals Planning/ Process

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Tactical – What skills are most important?

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Product/Market/Company Knowledge Story Telling/Case Studies Discovery & Solution Alignment Solution Value Prop/Competitive…

Pre-Call Planning Customer Value & Handling Objections

Harvard Business Review, “Do you really know who your Best Salespeople Are?” December 1, 2010, UK Cranfield School of Management

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The path to good coaching

Grow Revenue Skills/

Deals

Planning/ Process

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The path to good coaching - Tactical

Grow Revenue Skills/ Deals Improve Win Rate 10% - Competitor/Industry Research

- Create Call Strategy

Improve Win Rate 10% - Better Qualify

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The path to good coaching

Grow Revenue Skills/

Deals

Planning/ Process

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The path to good coaching

Grow Revenue Planning/ Process Better Penetrate Top 3 Accounts 1. Prioritize Territory Accounts

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Who and

When do I

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Who to Coach – the 3 C’s

Cut

Coach

Cherish

Bottom 10% Middle 80% Top 10%

Sales Performance Nu mbe r of Re ps Minimal Value in Coaching

Corporate Executive Board,

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When to coach - Tactical

1. Needs Exploration 2. Needs Identified 3. Solution Development 4. Solution Accepted 5. Final Terms & Conditions 6. Contract Received

Sales Process

Highly Effective Coaches

Average Coaches

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When to coach - Strategic

Is the Rep following the Sales Process?

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Who to Coach?

How should I

Coach?

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Building the Coaching Plan

1. Hard Allocate time (3-5 hours/rep)

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Building the Coaching Plan

1. Hard Allocate time (3-5 hours/rep)

2. Build a weekly cadence

Skills/Deals

Skills/Deals Plans/Process

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Building the Coaching Plan

1. Hard Allocate time (3-5 hours/rep)

2. Build a weekly cadence

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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

GROW Model - Goal - Reality - Options - Way Forward GUIDE Model - Goal Set - Uncover Gaps

- Identify Root Cause - Define Correction

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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

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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

0 0.5 1 Coaching Performance… Effective… Fair Allocation… Provide direction Gather Resources Sales Experience Product/Solutio… Rewarding… Customer/Mark…

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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.