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Sales Management Association Webcast

29 May 2014

Presented by

Five Sales Coaching Best Practices

© Copyright 2014 Sales Management Association.

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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

Slide 2© 2014 The Sales Management Association. All rights reserved.

http://www.salesmanagement.org/

© 2014 The Sales Management Association. All rights reserved.

Today’s Presenter#SalesCoaching


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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

8

Manager: Frank, I’m concerned about your

forecast

Frank : Just submitted the final proposal to XYZ, I’m confident it will close this month


More Non-optimal Coaching


Why Coach My Reps?


Why coach your way of selling?

Day 1 Day 30

87% Loss

Training + Coaching= 4X improvement in Retention

American Society of Training& Development Study

Sales Executive Council Study


Why Coach Deals

12

Poor Coaching

Average Coaching

Good Coaching

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

43%47%

52%

Win RateLoss RateNo Decision

CSO Insights, 2014 Sales Management Optimization study


Why have a Formal Coaching Model


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!


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

Pipeline Revenue

Nbr of Demo’s

• Where is Quality in this Picture?

• Or Behaviors/Actions?

• Or Root Cause?

Close Rate


Deciding Who to Coach?

• Pro-active vs. Reactive• Performance?• Something Bad Happened?



What is the path to Good Coaching?

BusinessOutcomes

SMARTObjectives

SellerActivities

The path to good coaching

Activities OutcomesObjectives

Win RateDeal Size

Quota Achievement

Skills/Deals

Planning/Process

TACTICAL

STRATEGIC


Tactical – What skills are most important?

Product/Market/Company Knowledge

Story Telling/Case Studies

Discovery & Solution Alignment

Solution Value Prop/Competitive Differentiation

Pre-Call Planning

Customer Value & Handling Objections

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


Rep

Ski

ll

Trust but Verify

CoachMonitor

Ignore

When selecting Deals to coach, consider….

Priority 1

Deal Size



Grow Revenue

Skills/Deals

Planning/Process

TACTICAL

STRATEGIC

The path to good coaching - Tactical


Grow RevenueSkills/Deals

Improve WinRate 10%

- Competitor/Industry Research

- Create Call Strategy

Improve WinRate 10%

- Better QualifyProspects



Grow Revenue

Skills/Deals

Planning/Process

TACTICAL

STRATEGIC



Grow RevenuePlanning/Process

Better PenetrateTop 3 Accounts

1. Prioritize Territory Accounts

2. Create Account Plan


Who and When do I

Coach?


Who to Coach – the 3 C’s

Cut Coach Cherish

Bottom 10% Middle 80% Top 10%Sales Performance

Num

ber

of

Reps

MinimalValue inCoaching

Corporate Executive Board,Defining Coaching Excellence, 2010


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



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)




1. Hard Allocate time (3-5 hours/rep) 2. Build a weekly cadence

Skills/Deals

Skills/Deals

Plans/Process

Plans/Process




with Quarterly Progress checks




with Quarterly Progress checks3. 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

- Evaluate Performance





for each interaction4. Build the Environment for Coaching5. 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





for each interaction4. Build the Environment for Coaching5. Get your own Coach

Coaching

Effective Decision Making

Provide direction

Sales Experience

Rewarding Performance

0 0.5 1

Sales Manager Skills


Who to Coach?

Next STEPs?


A Last Thought – Independent Coaching

Performance Coached Non-Coached

Win Rate (Deals) 52.8% 37.4%

Win Rate (Dollars) 61.4% 40.4%

Source: Coaching Magazine Report

Sample Size: 400+ Coached opportunities over 3 years


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

Questions and Discussion

Slide 46© 2014 The Sales Management Association. All rights reserved.

Enter your questions in the “Questions” box on the right hand side of the webinar application window.

Did we run out of time before we got to your question? Presenters can follow-up with you via email. Feel free to submit more questions if you’d like an offline response.

#SalesCoaching
