When your sales team isn’t hitting its numbers, what can you do to help them improve? How can you make sure your training process is effective? Ask yourself this: How can I better coach my sales team?
On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we’ll discuss sales coaching, and how you can help your sales team succeed. We’ll address the things you can do to better coach your sales team.
If you have team members who are falling short, odds are that they want to succeed just as much as you want them to succeed.
There are three things you can pay attention to in an attempt to help your team.
Coach your reps
If you aren’t able to coach your sales reps yourself, then find a coach who can.
Begin by understanding the difference between training and coaching. Coaching helps the seller recognize his challenges.
Ask him appropriate questions and help him arrive at his own decisions about his selling. Allow him to participate in the process.
Tailor the approach to his particular challenges without lecturing him.
Work together to solve problems, and identify the things that aren’t working. Where does he think he can improve? What does he feel like he needs?
Training, on the other hand, is an on-going process. We cannot expect that one sales training session will help our reps instantly be effective.
That simply isn’t the case in any industry.
Training must be hands-on, and it must include application. Make it consistent; something that changes behavior.
Guide them through the process, and seek training that is continual.
Makes sales meetings educational
Sales meetings shouldn’t be focused on administrative tasks. It’s ok to talk about the effectiveness of sales, but this meeting shouldn’t be about measuring our individual effectiveness.
Sales meetings should address how the team is doing as a whole. Don’t single out individuals.
Some of your team members will obviously be doing better than others, and it’s ok to ask them to share what’s working.
Don’t single people out, because allowing the successful team members to talk excessively about their success will likely demoralize those who are struggling.
Instead of focusing on individuals during your sales meeting, focus on your team.
Best of all, ask your team members to share the tasks they are best at so that everyone on the team benefits from their experience.
Be involved in the process
Give your team members the opportunity to take ownership of the process. At the same time, though, be there with them.
- Take her on a one-on-one call.
- Go on an appointment with her.
- Make calls with her.
- Help her send emails.
When your team succeeds, celebrate with them. Your job is to motivate them and better coach your sales team.
“Better Coach My Sales Team” episode resources
We’ve been recommending the book the book, Stop Selling & Start Leading: How to Make Extraordinary Sales Happen from our sponsors at Wiley for quite some time because we believe in the message. Based upon interviews with buyers, it offers specific information for sellers to help them become trusted advisors.
As part of the series this week, we have a SlideShare available for you to download, or you can link to it here. As always, we also have a free excerpt of the book so you can try it out for yourself. We believe you’ll like it so much you’ll want to grab your own copy.
Today’s episode was also brought to you by Video Jungle podcast, your source for marketing and making your brand pop using video. Plan, create and share your way to better content and strategy.
If you think you might benefit from more stories like these, check out The Sales Evangelist Hustler’s League, an online group coaching program that brings sellers of all levels and all industries together to share insights. We’re beginning a new semester this fall, and we’d be honored for you to join us.
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