Coaching Skills for Sales Managers

Triad Performance Technologies did a study on coaching sales people and cited a 1000% return on investment.  Wow!  How can that be?  Here is an example.

Maurice has been one of the top performers selling for many years.  Now he is in a slump.  His sales manager, Ed, tries a number of different approaches.  He advises Maurice to “shake it off and get back on track” and shares his own story about doing just that.  Ed gives Maurice a great book full of inspiration and ideas for sales people.  He offers Maurice a few extra vacation days.  Ed finds a class on the latest and greatest sales techniques and sends Maurice.  Nothing works.

Then Ed hears about a sales coach.  He thinks to himself (mistakenly), “I have been coaching him!”  Out of desperation to save a top performer, Ed brings in the sales coach for Maurice.

The coach asks Maurice about what he wants.  This is new to Maurice and a surprise.  Then the coach asks Maurice to identify what obstacles are preventing him from achieving what he wants and how he will move past the obstacles.  This creates new awareness for Maurice.  Through the coaching process Maurice takes ownership of his goals and moving forward.  As a result, Maurice exceeds expectations and becomes the top performer.

His manager Ed is so excited that he decides to learn more about coaching.  Ed gets training and applies his new knowledge and skills coaching his sales team.  Now Ed and his team are reaching new levels of success because of the coaching.

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