Coaching Can Change Sales Culture
No matter what industry you are in, generating revenue profitably is likely the most important aspect of your company. With that in mind, the most important job for sales managers is to coach salespeople to close business. Unfortunately, most sales managers can only spend about 20 percent of their time doing that. If companies want more business, they need to make sure managers have time to coach their salespeople to close business.
So why don’t they? It might be that they don’t know how to coach or closing has not been set as a priority. But most likely they just don’t have the time. Every chief executive in America should change their sales culture to make certain sales managers can spend 80 percent of their time coaching their salespeople to close business.
If your company wants more sales, the quickest way to achieve them is to focus on sales.
To determine what is preventing a manager from having time to coach, have them log everything they do on a daily basis for a business week and decide what percentage of that time is spent coaching salespeople to close business. Then, determine what percentage of time was spent doing other things; particularly noting tasks that don’t generate revenue. (Hint - that is nearly everything else unless the sales manager is also responsible for selling.)
Most sales managers spend 80 percent or more of their time doing work that doesn’t generate revenue. So what are they doing with their time? They are doing paperwork, writing reports, e-mail, attending meetings, putting out fires along with many other things. Instead of proactively managing salespeople, managers are doing a long list of other things required by senior management.
Have you ever wondered why a salesperson doesn’t hit his quota? There could be many reasons, but it may be because no one is coaching him to do so. Just as every tennis player needs a good coach to win tournaments, every salesperson needs a good coach to win sales. They might have plenty of potential, but with no coaching, they can’t win. Who is coaching your salespeople? I believe that salespeople can and should be coached to improve performance and increase their success.
What can be done to change this situation? First and foremost, senior executives need to understand and believe that sales managers should focus their attention on coaching salespeople. Next, the senior executives need to make it possible for the sales managers to focus on their salespeople. Then the sales managers need to be trained to focus their attention on coaching salespeople. Why? Because managers may not have been afforded the time to coach and might not have the know-how. Sales managers need to learn to be successful coaches.
What does a coach do? Let’s take an example straight from sports. A football coach takes his team to victory one game at a time. He sets the strategy and then helps his players understand how to execute that strategy. A coach never plays the game, but he will demonstrate proper techniques. When a player is performing poorly, he gives him a pep talk. When the game is over, he helps the team analyze the results so it can continue doing what the team did right and learn from the mistakes. The coach is constantly providing training experiences that improve the players. He keeps the players and team motivated.
Coaching salespeople is no different. A manager helps his salespeople reach their quota one sale at a time. The manager sets the strategy for the territory and helps the salespeople execute that strategy. He never does the selling work for them, but demonstrates sales techniques when needed. If a salesperson is having a tough time, he gives that person a pep talk. Whether a salesperson loses or wins a sale, the manager helps him analyze the results. The manager constantly provides training in the area that the salesperson needs improvement and keeps his sales team motivated.
In order to do this successfully, a company must have one manager for every 10 salespeople. Sales managers need to be taught to be good coaches and also need to be rewarded for coaching to success. Every ten salespeople should be able to pay for the “coach” ten times over if the “coach” is doing the job properly. So, do you want more business? One sure-fire is to make it possible for sales managers to focus on sales.
