6 Ways to Impact Your Sales Coaching Program Today

By Steve Jensen

5 min read

Sales coaching isn’t easy. It’s also an unmatched opportunity that you can’t ignore. Fine-tuning it can be a challenge, but there are several things you can do to have an immediate impact. Here are six things you can do today to improve your program right now.

Establish a Cadence

Planning and keeping regular coaching sessions shows your reps that you are invested in then and in their success. The top reason coaching fails is lack of consistency. Here’s the reality: If you don’t have consistency, you don’t have coaching. Consistency comes in two forms:

Frequency: When an organization initiates a coaching program, a common response from the team is “This too shall pass.” There are a lot of reasons why Sales Leaders are inconsistent in their 1:1 meetings with reps, but all the reasons for hit-and-miss frequency stem back to role. “I don’t have time” has often been referred to as the adult version of “the dog ate my homework.” Inconsistent 1:1s sends a strong message to your team members that they aren’t your priority.
Agenda: A salesperson should never wonder what you’re going to discuss in your 1:1. They should know that this won’t be about having a conversation. Too many organizations engineer conversations and mistake it for coaching. Coaching is about engineering moments of commitment. A coaching session should be about:

What is the rep’s personal goal?
How responsive were they to their previous commitments to change and improve? “If process is strong, success is inevitable. If process is weak, success is unsustainable.”
What commitments to change will accelerate their journey to their desired destination?
How can the leader help them make these changes?
How will they be measured?

You know you have achieved strong consistency when your reps come to a 1:1 having conducted a self-assessment and have a game plan on what they think needs to happen in order for them to take the next step towards their professional goals. They have learned to self-assess, not self-destruct, and lean on their leaders for a different lens or point of context as they chart a path they are excited about.

Follow Up

Establish a commitment in every 1:1 and then follow up on that commitment. If you don’t follow up on commitments, you might as well not make them. Your reps won’t take them seriously and they certainly won’t inspire them to excel. Set a due date for goal completion and stick to it. Use the first 10 minutes of every 1:1 to review commitments and make sure to recognize goals that have been met. That will help the rep know what to expect in every meeting and will allow you to establish coachability metrics.

Use a Methodology

Not unlike the methodology you use for sales (Challenger, Solution Selling, Value Selling, etc.), a methodology for sales coaching will help you structure your coaching program. Adding process to your sales coaching is the single, most effective course of action you can take to improve your productivity, win rate, and employee retention.

RASR, Xvoyant’s free, basic methodology, is a perfect example. RASR stands for Results achieved through Activities and Skills using Resources. Using this system, it is easy to pinpoint where your leadership will have the most impact, both for the company and for your team. The RASR methodology was designed to help any sales leader at any level. It’s easy-to-use and designed to get started immediately. With RASR you can stop worrying about setting up the mechanics and start making your sales team more effective.

Avoid Common Mistakes

There are a few mistakes that sales leaders make without realizing it. Most leaders are guilty of one or more of these errors:

Closer (Crutch) Takes over deals rather than help reps with their skills.
Firefighter (Focused only on fires. Reacts, doesn’t act. No noise= no need).
Administrator (Focuses on admin duties at the expense of people. Engages people only when he or she needs something out of them).
Babysitter (Only coaches the problem children. Only works with those that are behind).
Pipeline Pusher (Only focus point is the pipeline. Flogs the forecast…beating the pipeline relentlessly hoping to squeeze a deal or two out of it).

(For an expanded look at common mistakes, take a look at the ebook The 7 Deadly Sins of 1:1 Sales Coaching.)

Add Empathy

Understanding your reps goes a long way. Knowing your reps, knowing what drives them and what their challenges are will make you a better leader. Think about it: if you don’t understand your rep’s challenges, you can’t design opportunities for them to thrive. Working around challenges, using aspirations to enhance performance, and showing that you have a vested interest in rep improvement are the hallmarks of a great leader.

Sales leadership is about staying in the inspiration business. Sometimes it’s easy to stay focused on the “More” and the “Panic” buttons. We have a lot of pressure as sales leaders and we need our reps to hit their numbers. Keep this in mind: the salesperson doesn’t exist who wants to suck. Most sales leaders have yet to meet the person who says, “I got into sales so I would fail.”

Every rep needs a leader that helps them by pushing the HOW button. Make how you lead your competitive advantage. The difference between pressuring team members and persuading them is very small. Decide to lead by guiding each rep to the place they want to be rather than pushing them to places you need them to be and you’ll find your reps will push themselves harder than you ever would have thought to.

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