Excellent sales coaching is vital to excellent sales performance |
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Why is sales coaching so neglected, especially for the sales superstars? If great coaching is such a critical component of success, why is it so largely ignored in the sales effectiveness industry? The reasons are many and varied, and we shall look at some of them as we progress. But let us reflect for a moment on a few of the most obvious reasons that sales coaching is disregarded. The first reason is that sales coaching is hard. Many top performers are prima donnas (don’t misunderstand us – they are prima donnas, and need to be treated as such), and are simply not easy to coach. The second reason is that there is a lack of great coaches. Many managers were promoted from being sales stars themselves and were never trained in coaching. The skill sets required for selling and coaching have little in common. (Tiger Woods would likely triumph over Butch Harmon in even the friendliest of golf matches... every time.) Thirdly, where does a busy manager find the time to coach? For great coaches it is not about incremental time; it is about using what little coaching time may exist wisely; discarding non-productive behaviours and replacing them with productive behaviours. It is also about choosing the right salespeople to coach and not spreading the time over the gamut thinly (more on this shortly). And finally, most organisations do not support a coaching culture. We shall look at this in some depth later. The reason we need sales coaches is that we simply cannot see our own swing; we humans are notoriously bad at self analysis. Many top performers haven’t a clue what it is they do that is so successful. Huthwaite research actually reveals that there is very little relation between what top salespeople say is effective and what they do in the field. We need another with a critical eye to see our strengths and help us build on them; to recognise our weaknesses and help us compensate for - or control - them. Gallup research shows a significant link between great salespeople and their managers. Wherever they found a great salesperson, a great manager was not far behind. Indeed, the Gallup research shows that salespeople with the right managers can improve their performance up to 20 percent. Perhaps the strongest argument for sales coaching is this; however good your skills training in the classroom, unless it’s followed up on the job, most of its effectiveness is lost. The Xerox Corporation carried out several studies, one of which showed that in the absence of follow-up coaching, 87 percent of the skills change brought about by the program was lost. That’s 87 cents out of every skills dollar. Knowledge training, on the other hand, generally shows a much smaller loss. The reason for this painful finding lies in the nature of a skill. By definition, a new skill feels awkward and uncomfortable. It doesn’t bring instant results. Think of any skill you’ve tried to change, such as your golf swing, your presentation style or your methods of handling your children. Does the change bring instant success? Almost certainly not. In learning most skills, we go through an awkward period where the skill doesn’t feel natural and isn’t bringing results. This period, sometimes called the “results dip,” or “incorporation lag,” is a bad time for most people. However, those who persevere gain the expected reward. If the learner continues with the new behaviour, the skill feels more and more natural and begins to result in better sales performance.
What does this have to do with coaching? Coaching is the only way to keep a new skill reinforced and encouraged during the dismal period of the results dip. Without coaching, very few people can maintain a newly acquired skill. When we are in the results dip, we abandon the new skill. Particularly in sales training, our evaluation studies show that classroom methods are almost useless for skills development without effective follow-up coaching. Most salespeople try out the new skills for a few calls only to find that they feel awkward, and the new method isn’t bringing instant results. So, they go back to their old ways. However excellent your classroom training, without good coaching you are probably wasting 87 cents out of every skills dollar you spend. Coaching is the only cost-effective way to reinforce new behaviours and skills until a learner is through the dangerous results dip. Once through the dip, when the new skills bring results, they will become self-reinforcing. It is clear, then, that sales coaching is imperative. The question then becomes: Who do we coach? Time is limited, and we may have more people reporting to us than is optimal (an 8 to 1 ratio is optimal, but not always practical or actual). So then where is coaching time best served? Our research has made this a fairly clear cut determination. It is not about equality, but rather about fairness and good business sense. Six Characteristics of World Class Sales Coaches:
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