Connect Before You Correct

Using context to create insight in the 1:1 every rep will thank you for.

By Steve Jensen

7 min read

One of Gary Vaynerchuk’s most quoted observations is “If content is King, then context is God.”

Gary Vee has explained how context helps marketing content better capture the attention of a market and build a community ready to buy and evangelize the company’s products.

I’ve found Gary’s advice is perhaps even more relevant to sales leaders.

48% of Salespeople say they never get 1:1 coaching.  Only 13% say when they have a 1:1 that the coaching session is helpful.  While this is unfortunate, it isn’t much of a surprise when people read this study.  Here’s the crazy part:  83% of the managers of these salespeople believe that not only are they doing 1:1’s with each of their salespeople, but when it comes to 1:1 coaching they self-identify as “Awesome.”

This is a massive gap.  Why do salespeople feel they don’t get much help in the 1:1…when they have them…but the leaders think it is a competitive strength they have as a leader?  Why does the 1:1 fail so often?

The answer is found in Gary Vee’s observations on Content vs. Context.  Just as marketers need to earn the attention of the markets they address; sales leaders need to earn the attention of the salespeople they lead in their team.  Too many salespeople see the 1:1 as something they have to do.  Content-driven 1:1s feature activity reports, stack rankings, and a thorough discussion of the past.  Context-driven 1:1s showcase discussion on what a salesperson can do next and why it matters.

Content-driven 1:1s are sterile and leave a salesperson only with an awareness of what happened in the past.

Context-driven 1:1s are inspiring and help each salesperson to find new ways to improve in ways that matter to the salesperson.

If you aren’t having your reps thank you for the 1:1…it may be time to add a little more context to the 1:1 conversation and earn the attention of each rep.

Move Past the Stack Rankings

Too many sales leaders make the 1:1 about the content.  In the world of “Data-Driven” leadership, too many leaders use data as content and stop there.  These leaders turn to numbers and stack rankings around things like Progress to Goal (quota), activity metrics like calls, demos, call time, and proposals.

There has never been more data available to a sales leader than there is right now.

And the % of reps hitting goal has dropped for the last seven years in a row.

Sales leader tenure is now lower than it has been in 15 years at 18 months.

This is because Data doesn’t create change in an individual.  People do.

Content is what helps a sales leader, and a salesperson identify relevant areas of opportunity for a salesperson to improve.  But it is a leader’s ability to provide rich context around this area for opportunity that ignites something new in that rep.

One of the 7 “Deadly Sins” of 1:1 Coaching is “Ambushing with Data.”

Leaders are turning to stack rankings and volume metrics as a way of trying to be relevant to a salesperson.  I work with sales leaders for companies of all sizes and industries in 52 countries around the world.  And almost every single one has their “Magic Spreadsheet” so they can compare any rep to an endless number of metrics and ratios against any of their peers.  Here’s one of the ones I used several years ago, …and the spreadsheets have only become more sophisticated every year as more tools are created to power today’s “Data-Driven World.”

Put Away the Spreadsheets

I’ve got news for every sales leader reading this article:  Your reps don’t want to be benchmarked against the company averages.  The fact that so many leaders are using this play in their coaching playbook is a massive contributing factor to the gigantic coaching gap that exists.

Your salespeople don’t need the 1:1 to tell them how they stack up.

They need you to help them understand what they can do to improve, and they crave insights that might help them find the elusive next level.

They need you to immerse them in a rich context that will help them understand more than an area of opportunity for improvement…they need you to use the depth of your experience and the things you’ve observed other salespeople in your organization do that leads to success.

This is how you provide context to a salesperson in the setting of a 1:1.

Context Provides the “So What”

Systems can provide content to a sales leader very quickly.  But to be an effective 1:1 leader, a sales leader needs to learn to provide context to make the content come to life.  Here are three ways you can create context that will help every rep on your team choose to change their behaviors so they can improve in ways they care about.

1. Collaborate: In the classic movie “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” Jeff Spicoli (played by Sean Penn) has a memorable scene where he orders a pizza in to the classroom and suggests to his teacher, Mr. Hand, that since both he and the teacher were sharing the classroom together this wasn’t really just “His Time.”  Instead, it was “Our Time,” and what better thing to do with “Our Time” than to share a pizza together?

Fast Times at Ridgemont High (9 10) Movie CLIP – Spicoli Orders a Pizza (1982) HD – YouTube

There is an important leadership lesson in this scene.

Are you making the 1:1 “Our Time,” or “Your Time?”  Here are two easy ways to make sure the 1:1 is not seen as “Your Time:”

• Connect to Aspirations: Are you only focused on what you or the company needs the rep to accomplish?  Smart leaders connect to the personal goals of each rep and then align these goals to the goals of the company.  If the company sets quota, it is the rep that sets their individual goal.  Too often, sales leaders don’t even know what the rep’s personal goals are…let alone connect to them.  Make sure your coaching system helps you identify and connect to each rep’s personal aspirations.  Don’t wait for the rep to make a Spicoli-like demand for you to make it “Our Time.”  You go first and make sure you make it “Our Time” so they don’t have to.
• Activate the Agenda: Make sure your salespeople see the agenda for the 1:1 a few days before the actual 1:1.  This should remind them of the coaching goals they will be discussing, company initiatives you’ll be reinforcing, and most important, give the salesperson an ability to contribute to the agenda.  What do they want YOU as their leader to be prepared to discuss or contribute some context to?  By activating the agenda, they come to the meeting expecting you will be able to contribute to their individual development in a way that matters to them.  This is a critical element of any successful 1:1 coaching system, and unfortunately one that is overlooked in most organizations.

2. Calibrate: It isn’t enough to identify a salesperson’s position on the leaderboard or any of the stack-rankings. You need to be able to help the member of your team have a clear understanding of what the “future state” looks like if they are willing and able to make predictable, intentional improvements.  Simply telling someone where they are in the pecking order isn’t going to help many people want to improve.  However, helping them see what even a small change will do for them is a completely different experience.  I have found that you know you are providing real, meaningful context if you can help a rep calibrate.  Calibrate precisely what they can do more of or do differently in order to achieve a new level.  Calibrate what this change will do for their quest for their personal aspirations.  Calibrate what this change will do for their career at this company and beyond.

Don’t make the mistake of focusing on the past in your 1:1.  The past is not a way to inspire new levels of performance.  Instead, adopt a “Next Play” mentality.  Just as an effective athletic coach focuses on the next play in order to win, you need help each rep understand how to execute differently…even if ever so slightly…in order to help them know how to change and why it matters…to them.  The future is filled with possibilities.  Bring them to life and help each member of your team understand clearly what the next play needs to look like.

3. Commit: Another of the 7 “Deadly Sins” of 1:1 Coaching is confusing conversations for coaching. You can listen to a podcast about it here.

If you have a conversation but don’t create a commitment as a result of the interaction, you haven’t had a coaching moment.  You’ve only had a conversation.

Conversations are not coaching.  I’ve found this is perhaps the greatest reason for the “Coaching Gap” discussed at the beginning of this article.  Just as a salesperson will struggle to win business from a prospect if they aren’t able to help the potential customer make and keep commitments, a sales leader will have limited success in developing new skills in a rep if they are not helping salespeople make and keep commitments to change and grow.

I’ve found the best way to do this is create “fork in the road” moments as part of each 1:1.  A fork in the road moment comes when you ask the question “Now What?” after a contextual conversation, rather than a content share.

As a sales leader, set a binary coaching goal.  Something that the rep will either do or not do.  Examples of this would be doing specific activities with customers or prospects or doing specific activities to develop new skills.  The important characteristic of this is the only person that has to say yes is the salesperson.  A coaching goal is never dependent on a customer or prospect agreeing.  This is why I call it a “Fork in the Road” moment.  You create a construct where the salesperson self-identifies if they are willing to change, or not.

Adding commitment to the 1:1 is the only way to move past having a conversation and becoming an impactful sales coach.

Connect Before You Correct

Great leaders connect before they correct.  Connect to the aspirations of the individual.  Connect context to content.  Connect the How to the What.

Average leaders rely on numbers alone.  Legendary ones use context as a way to inspire new normals with each rep as they chart a unique pathway to the goals of the individual.

Don’t be a leader that leads with numbers and rankings.  Lead by inspiring a desire to ignite something new as you provide deep, rich context and collaborate with each member of your team in ways unique to them.

Content gets you started.  Context is the stuff legends are made of.

Be legendary.

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Steve Jensen is the VP of Marketing at Xvoyant