Sales Progress Blog

Reflection is powerful is you use it wisely. Lets say you have an employee who has a negative attitude. What do most managers do? They ignore until it gets so bad they say "Bill, you have to improve your attitude or else"! Really? Wow, that works? Of course NOT!

Reflective Coaching takes on 3 steps:

1. Identify a performance  issue -  that needs improvement such as being negative, poor attitude, etc. It does not have to be something like this but I am using these as examples to illustrate the coaching technique.
2. Learning Activity - facilitate an activity that prompts the employee to learn like reading an article, watching an inspirational video, observing another employee who is really positive, etc.
3. Reflective Activity - after the activity is over ask the employee to state what they learned and what they learned about them self they feel they can improve.

This approach absolves the manager from being viewed as "picking" on the employee which only fuels the employee challenge!

Here is an overview of the technique:http://salebuilder.audioacrobat.com/download/3167bbef-0da3-65a7-9f16-3697195fc52b.mp3

Free Whitepaper: http://www.salesprogress.com/do-your-employees-have-a-bad-attitude/

Hope this helps!

What are the reasons we need sales coaching? They are a lot of them but quite simply sales people do NOT perform better or create better skill sets because we tell them to. Hope this video helps!

Free Whitepaper: 7 Ways to Start A Sales Coaching Program: http://www.salesprogress.com/7-ways-to-start-sales-coaching/

This is called a "Self-Actualized" question which prompt sales people to think about the success imperatives they need to handle specific selling challenges that face them on a daily basis:

Listen by Clicking Here: The Greatest Sales Coaching Question

Free Whitepaper: 7 Ways to Start A Sales Coaching Program: http://www.salesprogress.com/7-ways-to-start-sales-coaching/

Free Video: http://youtu.be/ldsM4c6HHxQ

Hope it helps

Below is an article I wrote for www.SalesResources.com (great site by the way). How would you coach your sales people not only to accept the ideas but to actually put them in action?

Everyone has experienced the sales blues, when everything seems perfect and you are confident the sale is going to close until you hear the words, "Sorry, we’re going ahead with someone else." It is important that we take the emotion out of the sales loss and learn something from it in order to learn from our mistakes and create more successful closes in the future. Always remember that you cannot always control what happened in losing that sale, but you can chose your response. The success of your sales future is made by these choices, it is important that you make the right ones.

When you’ve lost a sale, it is good to go through the following steps:

1) Be a hero- Try with lots of digging to save the sale if possible until you’ve determined that the deal is completely dead. Amazingly, studies indicate that 75% of deals lost can be resurrected if the salesperson will continue to be upbeat and persistent.

2) Find out why- This information is essential because it can help you get better and make the loss give you a return on investment for your future deals.

Be direct with the customer- Ask: "What could I have done differently to earn your business? You won’t hurt my feelings, it’ll help me to continue to improve." Then do something with the responses you receive.

3) Continue to stay in touch with the contact. Frequently, the customer or prospect will rethink their decision to go to another provider right after their purchase. Keep your name in front of them and in your mailing list. It pays to check back and see how they are being treated by the new organization, you never know when they may need to make a change.

4) Sincerely thank them for their time by sending a card. Guaranteed this will differentiate you from 99% of all salespeople out there.

If the current provider has not done this, it puts you and your organization at a much higher level in the event they should decide to make a change.

5) Ask for referrals- Don’t hesitate to ask for a referral, just because they didn’t buy from you doesn’t mean they aren’t aware of others who could benefit from your services or products. In addition, you also keep the lines of communication open with the customer you lost the sale with.

6) Move on to the next opportunity- View it as a learning opportunity and don’t take it personally. Know the law of numbers and the sale lost just puts you closer to your next sale.

Finally, keep in mind that you have no choice about what happens to you, but by choosing the best response you will enable yourself to experience success in future deals.

Free Whitepaper: 7 Ways to Start Sales Coaching: http://www.salesprogress.com/7-ways-to-start-sales-coaching/

To coach staff to better performance, some very basic activities need to take place. Finding out where their current performance level lies, what motivates them, and a performance plan to improve their achievements is critical to implementing a change.

First, find out where staff members are doing well and where they aren’t. Each individual has strengths and weaknesses in their sales skills and finding out what they are is critical. Frequently, organizations tend to lump all of the staff together and train them as a group. Unfortunately, one staff member may be struggling with a skill based issue and another may be struggling with a knowledge based issue. In order to effectively do this, determine some key attributes that you would like your staff to have and evaluate each member in those areas. Finding out how top performers achieve their results is also key to creating success in all your staff.

Secondly, find out what their hot buttons are, what motivates them. Based on that information put together an incentive plan. The plan may be a group goal and an individual goal for how you can get them to perform better by constantly fueling their motivation. Sometimes the easiest way to find this out is to do a simple survey, or just asking them.

Third, put a plan together. The plan should incorporate the attributes and tasks that you identified reps need to be competent in to be star performers. "How are they going to get to that star performer destination?" They should have a specific targeted plan that addresses their individual challenges and when they make achievements, recognize them. For one person a simple "Great job Bob on making that cold call," or providing a gift card for a coffee may go a long way to continue fueling their behavior. Management should have a good understanding of their role in the staff member’s development plan and should remain active throughout the process.

Fourth, constantly check their performance through role play, recorded calls, ride alongs etc. By creating deadlines for your goals it becomes easier to make people accountable for their actions. Keep in mind that staff members will acquire skills and knowledge at different rates, so be understanding and at times deadlines may need to be flexible.

Finally, REWARD and recognize appropriate behaviors and skills that team members have acquired- it will go a long way! Part of your job as a coach, is to continually be driving your team to want to get better. If they have fun getting better they will be more likely to do it. Come up with contests that reward those who come closest to reaching their goals etc. Always be prompt in telling people they are doing a good job. Coaching can take as little as 30 seconds and if done correctly, will impact performance everyday!

We need it. Plain and simple, we need to build performance EVERY DAY in our business and in our people. To be successful, sales coaching must be a dedicated effort across all departments and management levels.

There are so many fundamental reasons why organizations need to coach its amazing we do not have more organizations with formal coaching programs. Here is a brief list of reasons why organizations need to create a coaching culture:

- Increases employee retention.

- Allows a manager to get a close up look at employee’s work and solve real world challenges.

- Supports better succession planning due to talent growth.

- Creates an organizational energy.

- Builds coaches within all leadership circles. The more coaches an organization has the more "performance improving" employees they will have.

- A successful business requires employees to constantly be getting better. Organizations who are not coaching do not have this competitive edge.

- Employees who experience an increase in skills and overall work performance naturally become more open to change and challenges.

- All of these reasons will increase a business’s bottom line. Most, if not all companies can afford to miss out on these opportunities.

For More information on the importance of coaching check out our whitepaper:   http://www.salesprogress.com/creating-coaching-culture/

1. Have your team warm up: athletes do why shouldn’t they? Do one quick role-play with a fellow team member or have them call their own voicemail and do a practice run of their sales pitch.

2. 30 second rule: when coaching your employees you should never be talking for more than 30 seconds at a time. Longer than that and you are not listening enough.

3. Employees should NEVER just read a book or article. Have employees summarize important facts they learned and have them email you how they will incorporate what they learned into their day to day routine. Check back a month later and see if they stuck to it, if they did congratulate them, if they didn’t, get them back on track.

4. Turn off distractions. Our minds are over loaded everyday. Turn off your computer screen and cell phone for the duration of the coaching session, this will ensure you really hear everything that you need to.

5. Have a daily coaching check. Each day at noon you should have done at least one thing to improve your staff, from a simple good job Sue to a full blown coaching session. If by noon you haven’t completed this task make sure you build it in to your day. Text messages, emails, and voicemails can count, so no more excuses.

6. Get more out of them: ask "How so" "Can you tell me a little bit more about that," or "can you give me an example?"

7. LISTEN! A great quote by Stephen Covey: Most people do not listen with an intent to understand. Most people listen with an intent to reply." Make sure this isn’t you.

8. Have your employees help each other. In a group coaching session have them throw difficult objections or dismissal comments at each other. Reward the team member that comes up with the best rebuttals.

9. Have fun, coaching should create fun for your employees, not be a dismal task.

Free Whitepaper: Coaching to Motivate: http://www.salesprogress.com/motivate-your-staff/

You cannot tell sales people to "Overcome objections" if they do not know what to say or do (lacking knowledge) and you cannot ask them to it at a high level if they lack the skills (skill development through practice). The key is ask your sales people at the moment of getting a price objection what do you specifically do or say? Than listen, REALLY listen and you will hear the gaps your team has as it they relates to handling price objections.

"Your price is too high."

Every sales person has heard this line at least one time in his or her careers (if you have not then you are the Superman of selling), and what is the typical reaction?

"Oh, well maybe I can discount the price for you."

Red flag! While it may seem like the best option at the time, reducing the product’s price for the customer can have negative results. A customer may assume that what you’re selling does not have as high of a value as your competitor, or you may land the prospect but you will most likely never meet your bottom-line and your sales will not progress.

In his article "Does Volume Make Up for Low Price," Mark Hunter explained, "Your ability as a salesperson is not in how much you sell, but in how much you earn for your company. It’s the bottom-line profit that counts, and anytime you reduce your price, you’re slashing your profit." Handling price objections requires confidence and sales know-how. Instead of jumping immediately to reduction of price, sales reps should ask more questions. Ask, "Outside of price what are two or three factors that will go into your decision making?" When they answer this question, you will be more able to drive the value of your product.

Understanding your customer’s needs is the key. Once you figure out why they are in the market, then you need to explain to them how your product best fulfills their needs. If your price is higher then your competitors, explain why. Tell them the certain advantages and benefits that your product has. Justify the price.

If your sale truly does come down to a price reduction, then bargain and receive something in return. For example, tell your client you will give them the deduction, but in exchange, would it be possible for them to give you five qualified leads? This way, you are working together with your customer, but you also get something back Offer your employees sales training in the area of handling price objections so that when the situation occurs, they can handle it without reducing price. Once the training has been reinforced, sales and business opportunities will begin to grow.

Free Whitepaper: Sales Management versus Sales Coaching:

http://www.salesprogress.com/sales-management-versus-sales-coaching/

So, you want to have a high performing sales team, but you don’t know where to start. You could try reading hundreds of books and learning different methods, you could send your employees to a seminar or you could have turned on the TV and watched the NBA playoffs.

The Boston Celtics managed to transform from an average regular season team that was thought to be too old to compete into a stellar playoff team that was a force to be reckoned with. How did they do it though? Simple. Practice, determination and the non-stop coaching of Doc Rivers.

Every team has the same the same type of players: the Rajun Rondo’s, who are stars that everyone has to deal with, the Kevin Garnett’s, who may be older but still have something left to give, the Rasheed Wallace’s, who simply seem uncoachable, and the Paul Pierce’s, who are worn out, tired and injured. These types of personalities are also found in the office. So, how do you overcome daunting odds and make them into a championship playing team?

Just ask Doc Rivers, who over the span of his coaching career, has always preached two things: have confidence in yourself and play as a team. As a supervisor or manager of a sales team, really take those words to heart and apply them to your coaching style. Don’t mention what your players do "bad" or "wrong". That deteriorates confidence. By leveraging people’s strengths, you will open their minds to what they need to improve upon. Realize the areas that your team excels at as a whole and emphasize it. The Celtics are one of the top defensive teams in the league, and Doc Rivers knows this; so, he makes sure that no team member only specializes in offense.

Follow these tips, and you can think of yourself as coach of the year.

Free Whitepaper: Why sales Managers Fail:     http://www.salesprogress.com/why-sales-managers-fail?

Free Whitepaper : Invest in the good things: http://www.salesprogress.com/invest-in-the-good-things/