When you ask anyone about the importance of coaching, they will probably answer that they know coaching is the key to unlocking the best in people, no matter the background. The same applies to sales professionals. Whilst individuals may perform well without coaching, talent will truly excel when given proper guidance and produce the best contribution to the company possible.
Today we will explore what start-ups and scale-ups may run into during their early phase in business, where there may be a less formalised approach to coaching or you may not have the resources for a professional coach. We will explore some of the roadblocks you may encounter so you can spot these early on and explore what a sales mentor can do to help.
Developing Without Sales Coaching: The Roadblocks
Sales professionals who join a small and/or early stage company are very likely to have less support than those in large companies, simply because they may not have the resources yet. Furthermore, founders of new companies are unlikely to have a history in sales which means they are also unlikely to provide the professional sales coaching associates need.
If you find yourself in this position, either as a sales professional or as an employer, you can see the signs your sales team may struggle to reach their full potential:
Struggles with Strengths and Weaknesses
A sign your sales team may be struggling with their development is when they are unable to clearly assess their own strengths and weaknesses. This lack of self-awareness will make it hard to objectively review a meeting they've had with a client, finding areas of improvement. It may lead to an inability to see the story metrics are telling them.
If there is no clear list of strengths and weaknesses, the team will not be able to work in their own improvement. If there is a list, but it is not an accurate reflection of true strengths and weaknesses, it may even lead to individuals focusing their efforts in the wrong areas. At the very best this will have no impact on performance and more likely, performance will actually decline over time. Imagine the detrimental effect this has on a highly motivated person.
Setting Realistic Goals
Goal setting is crucial for sales teams, perhaps more so than in other professions, because clear goals set at each stage of selling will allow people to effectively assess whether they are on the right track and where they need to improve. Realistic goals can drive motivation, by feeling success of reaching intermediate goals and inspiring to do more. Conversely, an inability to set realistic goals will lead to a lack of direction, motivation and often results in people leaving their position.
If sales people struggle set goals which are realistic, measurable, timebound and objective, it shows they struggle to understand their environment. Having unclear goals for each stage of the sales cycle makes it very difficult for sales people to focus on the right type of activities. For example, a sales person may focus heavily on deal conversion but forget about needing a decent pipeline. They may focus on conversion of a few, where they should focus on having more buyers in the first place.
Even the most positive minded sales people will start to doubt their abilities if they keep on missing goals they have set. On the short term this lack of confidence inhibits them from selling effectively, bringing performance down even more. On the longer term it is a near guarantee you may lose a great talent, simply because the goals were wrong.
Struggling to Adapt to Markets
The market place is becoming increasingly dynamics. Buyers prefer online channels over traditional sales routes and as a result, sellers spend less time with their potential customers and have less time to have an impact on the buyer journey. Ironically, buyers show a higher buying regret if they don't work together with your sales team, so their role is crucial.
Some sales people may struggle to adapt to these new market dynamics, employing traditional tactics and doing 'what sales should look like'. A great example is when sales people say it's a matter of numbers and a sheer number of calls will eventually lead to success. It will not, it's the approach that needs to change and sales people will burn out if they don't adapt.
When sales people cannot find a good approach to their market, or they don't recognise a struggle and attempt different approaches, it is a clear sign they need a coach to guide them through the obstacles.
The Role of a Sales Coach
A sales coach gets the best out of sales people by guiding them through challenges and helping them on the way to success. They will have extensive sales experience and have dealt with these challenges themselves, uniquely positioning them to help anyone deal with them effectively. A few ways a sales coach helps overcome challenges are:
Providing Guidance and Support
A great sales coach offers insights, advice and guidance that help the sales person overcome their specific challenges. More importantly, they will not just provide answers. They ask questions to guide the salesperson to the answers and as such apply (what we like to call) a 'coaching with impact' approach.
Sharing Best Practices
A coach will bring the right solutions to life with best practices and real life stories. They will give pragmatic, practical solutions that salespeople can apply straight away and make them aware of potential pitfalls before they become an issue. Sharing these best practices will help salespeople understand how to improve performance and bring it to life, accelerating adoption and performance.
Driving Accountability
A coach holds a salesperson accountable for their goals and actions. Moreover, they will help the salesperson create their own framework for accountability ensuring they stay focused and on track. Learning is a process of making mistakes and accountability means these mistakes lead to personal growth.
Benefits of Sales Coaching
When sales gets a professional coach, they tend to accelerate performance dramatically. This is true for even the most talented salespeople who do not need to meet a target, but can truly excel by getting the right focus and motivation.
Skill Enhancement
The coach helps to identify those skills that will have the greatest impact on sales performance, and provides targeted solutions to quickly impact the development of those skills. It is a personalised approach that focuses on developing an individual's skills over time, always looking for the next skill that will get them to the next level.
Motivation and Confidence
A sales coach boosts motivation and confidence. It is a fact that we all continuously need to learn and make mistakes along the way. There is nothing more challenging than making hundreds of cold calls and not seeing any results from it. A coach will turn this negative situation into a learning experience, taking away roadblocks and showing the salesperson the route to success.
Performance Optimization
Working with the salesperson, the coach analyses performance, looking at activities, conversions and meeting outcomes. They will not only find the most important improvement areas, but also teach the salesperson how to look at their performance. This makes them more independent and increase self-awareness.
Coaching in a Start-Up Environment
Now that we have reviewed how important a coach is for the success of a sales person, let's see how a start-up or small company can deliver high quality coaching. We came to the conclusion it is not always (or perhaps usually not) feasible for a start-up to hire the right type of coach, unless one of the founders or early employees happens to be that professional.
Gysho has created a virtual sales coach for this purpose. The virtual sales coach works on an hourly basis an is linked to the salesperson. They work together on a periodic and as-needed basis to build their skills. They tackle all the items discussed in this blog post and have the sole goal of furthering the salesperson's career. The coach has lots of experience in the field and knows which questions to ask, making the hourly sessions high impact. Of course they only focus on building skills and will not interfere with regular team management.
Conclusion
Investing in sales coaching and training not only benefits individual salespeople but also contributes to the overall success of the organization. By cultivating a culture of continuous learning and providing the necessary support, companies can empower their sales teams to thrive in a competitive marketplace. So, if you aim to unlock the true potential of your sales force, consider the necessity of good sales coaching as an essential driver for success.
Remember, great salespeople are not born; they are shaped and nurtured through effective coaching and training.
