Consider this …

To unleash the true potential of an athlete involves much more than just identifying and training a promising talent, which alone does not guarantee peak performance. Peak performance takes ongoing expert coaching.

In your sales teams, all of the time that your sales managers and team leaders give to front-line salespeople should be recognised as a sale coaching opportunity that should be maximised.

The question is, how well equipped and prepared are your sales managers for this vital, peak performance ‘sales coaching’ role?

COACHING

Today, more and more organizations are waking up to the value of building a strong coaching culture. Analogies to athletic coaching are common but especially apt. Training alone does not guarantee that a great tennis player will deliver Grand Slam-winning performance. This can only come from continuous daily support and guidance from an expert coach.

Equally, top sales professionals need expert coaching support from their managers to stay at the top of their game. Whether sales managers deliver their coaching support face-to-face, on the telephone, or via e-mail, those organizations that have a strong coaching culture attract and retain the best salespeople.

The challenge for Sales Directors is to provide the support that sales managers—all of whom are hard-pressed for time—need in order to provide the kind of support their salespeople must have. Successful Sales Directors have found a range of supporting tools, resources, and kits that save managers’ time and enhance the impact of their coaching time. Whatever coaching framework is chosen by an organization, it must be easy to use, flexible so that each sales team leader can tailor the coaching sessions to the needs of their team, participative so all of the salespeople are engaged, and, above all, fun.

The Fun Factor

The fun factor encourages salespeople to become "hooked" on their own continued development. This view is endorsed by Sir John Harvey-Jones, who says, "In my experience, it is extremely difficult to teach grownups anything. It is, however, relatively easy to create conditions under which they will teach themselves."

Sales Directors who recognize that the different roles played by salespeople and managers require different skill sets factor those differences into their recruitment and selection of sales managers. Instead of promoting top-performers purely on the strength of their sales performance, these Sales Directors look for management candidates who can demonstrate an ability to help others strategize, work effectively with customers, and build their self-confidence.

These Sales Directors recognize that coaching competence is absolutely pivotal and feature it highly in managers’ performance reviews and remuneration packages.

PROVIDING DEVELOPMENT FOR SALES MANAGERS

Successful Sales Directors ensure that some sort of training and development program is in place to help sales managers continually improve the way they coach and develop their team. Equally important, top-performing Sales Directors look for ways to provide sales managers with the resources they need to perform effectively.

This may mean, for example, giving managers tools with which to identify each individual salesperson’s strengths and development areas, providing them with an easy-to-use framework to address development areas, and putting a process in place that helps their team to implement new skills.

PROVIDING RESOURCES TO MOTIVATE DEVELOPMENT SESSIONS

Sales meetings provide a wonderful opportunity to offer appropriate team development, yet sales managers often lack resources and assistance to help them make the most of this opportunity. The more resources Sales Directors provide to sales managers, the more likely managers are to run effective, fruitful meetings, because they won’t need to spend time preparing to conduct these development sessions.

The most successful Sales Directors of all bend over backwards to make sure that the development resources they give their managers are easy to use, are designed to appeal to and engage salespeople regardless of experience level, and, above all, can be used in manageable pieces so that sales teams can absorb and actually implement new ideas.

"Sustainable shifts in behaviour will only ever be realized when first-line leaders have the skills and capabilities to provide coaching ‘in the moment.’ The greatest value will be created by investing in building coaching capability and providing toolkits for support rather than endless programs that rarely have impact longer than a three month period."

Pavita Walker, Director, Organization and Leadership Development, Barclays Group

A COACHING CULTURE

Every interaction that sales managers have with their salespeople provides a coaching opportunity, and the organizations that have committed to building a strong coaching culture are the ones most likely to succeed in today’s competitive selling environment.

COACHING GETS MEASURABLE RESULTS

Charlotte Gould, a CRM Manager for The Shell Company of Australia Limited, commissioned Millward Brown to conduct a survey to identify what tangible success had been achieved since the organization became more coaching-orientated. Within a 12-month period, here are just some of the successes:

● Overall customer satisfaction increased from 80% to 88%

● Professional manner increased from 81% to 96%

● Ability to understand customer needs increased from 79% to 90%

A Truly Effective Sales Coaching System

Imagine the benefits of a system that takes the time your sales managers and team leaders already spend in ...

• sales meetings,

• training sessions,

• one on one meetings,

• performance reviews,

• accompanied sales calls

• and phone calls

...and dramatically boosts the sales performance of your business … instantly, easily and permanently by turning them into great ‘peak performance’ coaches?

The Sales Activator® is designed to do just that… 

See it here>

The Sales Activator® offers a real treasure trove of resources and a wealth of learning and development opportunities for sales people. This toolkit includes over 70 hours of flexible sales development sessions you can implement to improve the performance of your sales team.

The Trynamic Sales Game™

This simple, entertaining board game encourages sales people to think in a more systematic way about their sales activities so that they focus on doing the things that get the best results. In this way, they enhance their effectiveness and productivity.

The Trynamic Sales Process™ Suggestion Cards

These 20 cards provide the underpinning knowledge for The Trynamic Sales Game and can be used in a variety of ways. Each card includes a suggested activity that you can run with your team and provides development in bite-sized chunks to ensure easy application.

The Selling Game™

Designed to reinforce a consultative sales approach, this sales simulator is designed to promote the sharing of best practice and can help sales managers to identify their teams' most immediate development needs. Fun and participative this game also develops active listening skills and encourages 'on-the-spot' thinking.

The Selling Game™ Suggestion Cards

These 42 cards contain powerful sales coaching sessions to improve overall ability in consultative selling from pre-call preparation to handling objections and closing. Sales managers can choose to run these team coaching sessions for themselves or encourage their sales team to introduce the techniques contained on these cards.

The Team Leader's Guide and Video Demonstration Tutorial

These materials have been designed to support sales managers with introducing The Sales Activator® to their team. These resources are packed with hints and tips for ensuring that sales managers are confident and motivated to want to use The Sales Activator® regularly.

Free Demonstration

If you would you like to see a free demonstration of The Sales Activator® click here.