By Steve Jensen
When my daughter was six years old, I took her to an amusement park located just outside of the city. She had always been a very vocal opponent of thrill rides and the day we chose to go was no different. But I had other children who wanted to go and so I had to find a way to bring her along.
As we prepared to leave for the park, she dug in her heels and wailed that she didn’t want to go. I planned to find a shady spot and read a book while the children went from ride to ride. But my six-year-old had other ideas.
I told her about how much fun she would have. I explained each ride and why they were fun. I pointed out that her siblings were all enjoying the rides. I had what I thought was a great conversation with her but to no avail. She was happy to converse with me about what she should do, but she wouldn’t commit to do it.
I finally realized that I could talk to her until I was blue in the face, but it wouldn’t do any good. Then, I volunteered to go with her on a river rapids ride and show her the exact spot where she could lean a particular way and get all of her siblings wet.
She came on the ride with me, and she had a blast. She couldn’t wait to go again. After accompanying her on a pair of my favorite rides, she was ready to join the other children.
Pushing the Right Button
As a sales leader, your job is often similar to my challenge with my daughter. The adage “Show, don’t tell” is very appropriate for sales coaching. You can’t just have a conversation—you have to create a commitment, and the only way to get that commitment is by sharing your time and your relevant experience.
As a sales leader, push the “How” button as often as you push the “More” button and you’ll become an inspirational leader.
Connect. Don’t correct. Don’t be the “know it all” sales manager. Every rep on your team already knows if they are hitting goal or not. Coaching isn’t about stack-ranking or averages. It is about personalization and connection. If you can’t help them connect the dots to get to where they want to be in their journey, you’re letting them down as a leader. So make sure you’re focused on connection rather than correction.
Adopt a “Tour Guide” Mentality
The only difference between conversation and coaching is commitment.
Too many people have interesting conversations but don’t have anything more than some suggestions. Elite Sales Leaders engineer moments of commitment during the 1:1. The best way to engineer these moments of commitment is to adopt a “Tour Guide” mentality.
A Tour Guide takes a traveler to places they want to go. The traveler is excited by the journey and to arrive at the place they have planned to visit. The tour guide takes them from along the path to the desired destination and shares key insights along the way. These insights come from “insider information” the guide has because he or she has experienced these locations personally and is now an expert regarding these destinations. The tour guide can provide experiences that might not have otherwise been possible. The tour guide makes the entire journey a reality.
Compare this to a travel agent. The travel agent has a handful of brochures about places he or she may have never experienced. They can’t share insights about why a given destination is desirable because the agent has never have been there. Many times, they can only say: “I hear it’s a nice place.”
To engineer a moment of commitment with a sales rep, we must be tour guides. The first step is to ask the rep where they want to land on the segmented distribution. Once they tell you their destination, learn why it matters. There may be commissions that are meaningful. Maybe this person wants to earn President’s Club. Perhaps this person needs a strong year to earn a promotion. Regardless of the reason, understand where the rep wants to land and discuss the reasons why.
With this in mind, it is now your job to provide the road map:
- What are the activity cadences that will move the rep from the current state to the future state?
- What are the target competency levels that will have the activities convert to desired outcomes?
- What resources do you need to leverage so the rep can experience this desired success level?
Your role is to be that tour guide that makes sure that not only does the rep have every opportunity to reach their target destination, but they have a memorable ride along the way.
Sales Leadership is About Staying in the Inspiration Business
You have a lot of pressure as sales leaders, and you need your 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 being the tour guide. 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.
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Steve Jensen is VP of Marketing at Xvoyant
Xvoyant’s coaching technology helps sales leaders transform rep performance through analysis and the one-on-one.