Sales Coaches are Your Key to Sales Success
Over the years, many organizations have called me in to request a proposal for selling skill training as the solution to boost flagging sales, improve negotiating or to advance key account management. I have used the classic problem analysis tool called the “5 Why’s” to not just uncover symptoms of poor sales but root causes.
More often than not, a root cause is ineffective or a non-existent sales coaching culture. ELAvate! Sales believes globally, yes, around the world, one of the toughest positions to fill with world-class leaders is the sales coach or manager. No leaders, no sales coaching culture. Companies will spend a fortune on sales training for their front liners only to neglect or discount the need to find, train, and retain excellent sales coaches.
Sales coaches are either the strongest or weakest link in your revenue chain. They are the accelerator or the brake in your company’s drive to grow and remain competitive. The reason is simple. Sales people who perform well are motivated by a boss that guides and helps them in their success. Poor sales teams are usually led by poor sales coaches. You do not have to stretch your imagination to see how this applies to your favorite sports team!
Many organizations will promote sales coaches from within because of a sales rep’s past sales results, seniority, or the pressure to “get someone we know” into that empty position. Sometimes this quick fix works out, other times it can be a disaster leading to lower sales revenue and high turnover of your best sales people.
What makes a world-class sales coach? Over the years, I have discovered that great sales coaches have a unique blend of motivators and skills that are unlike other leadership positions. This combination is summed up in the Chally Group profile for Sales Manager/Coach. My sales organization has used this legally defensible profile since 1997 across Asia Pacific to hire, motivate and retain our own sales coaches and to assist our clients to identify potential sales coaching talent. Unlike the more greying geographies of Europe and North America, most developing nations have a very young sales population and therefore a shortage of experienced sales talent and even more so effective sales coaches.
Let’s review the time-tested competencies of an effective sales coach from Chally Group. Here are the top “thoroughbred” predictors of sales coaching success:
- Willingness to Train and Coach
- Willingness to Make Joint Sales Calls
- Ability to Direct and Control Others in a Small Business Team
- Profit Mentality
- Take Initiative
- Effective Communication
- Focused on Quantitative Results
Earlier I mentioned these competencies for a sales coach are unique. And, yes, they are! Review the list of 7 competencies from the above list. How many of them are based on motivation and attitude? Five out of the seven are motivational, only two are skill. What then must be your strategy for finding and developing sales coaches?
This profile clearly indicates that all sales focused organizations should attract, promote or hire sales coaches for their coaching attitude and motivation, then develop and train these coaches in process, knowledge and skill. These core competencies also reflect a sales leader who actively takes initiative to grow the sales team while ensuring his/her team and organization is developing and securing profitable revenue.
If you want to dig deeper into the descriptors of these Chally Sales Manager/Coach competencies and how they relate to the behaviors and attitudes of sales coaches that “ELAvate Sales,” just click on the “Download” button below.
If your organization would like to discuss how to boost your sales coaching effectiveness, contact us at ELAvate! Sales for a no obligation discussion on how our unique Assess, Train, Coach and Measure process can boost sales productivity of your sales teams.
