5 Reasons Salespeople Need Coaching

Even the best need a coach – And they do more with that coaching than most

A few quick notes before we jump into the list.  First, coaching should be defined for the purposes of coaching a sales team.  I am referring to the one to one interaction of working with a salesperson on improving their performance.  It is not leadership nor management, which are important to run a business.  Coaching is all about the individual.  That’s why the picture I chose is Tom Brady working with his offensive coordinator and not the head coach.  Head football coaches function more like a CEO than a sales or business coach.  An important role for sure, but not what we are talking about here.  Sales coaching is more like the one on one coaching that occurs with the offensive coordinator or better yet, the quarterback coach.

Secondly, you need to know that I sell coaching services.  So, you could form the opinion that I’m just promoting coaching to try and sell coaching service.  You would be right and wrong.  Those of you that know me well, know that I am very straightforward and open about motives.  So, you would be right in thinking I want to sell you coaching.  I do if I am a good fit.  However, the purpose of this article is to help you understand how important coaching is to your development program.  So, yes, reach out to me if interested in talking about how my coaching program works.  If not, seek coaching wherever you can find it.

5 Reasons to get coaching!

1. You’re not as good as you think you are:  I know you’ve been on territory for 20 years and you know all your customers and you’ve won president’s club or million-dollar club or million-acre club.  But, I also know that you are dropping the ball.  With a large territory comes more administration and follow up skills.  I also know you are getting lazy and relying on relationship skills to bail you out.  It’s a natural tendency in a sales career.  You worked hard and did all the dirty work to build a successful territory.  Then you stop doing what you did to become successful in the first place.  Why?  Maybe you have, “Jumped the shark” or worse, you begin to lie to yourself.  “I’m too busy to do those things”, “I have people do those things for me now”, “My customer knows me and I don’t have to do those things to get the sale”.  The reason I know this about you is I went through the exact same pattern myself, as did many of the salespeople I worked with over the years.
2. You can always learn something new:  Ask yourself, “Do I know everything about sales, my territory, my products and my company?”  If the answer is yes, reason #5 is specifically written for you.  If the answer is no, then coaching is a critical component for improving.  Become a continuous learner, which is also a critical skill in the sales process to uncover your customer’s needs.
3. If it makes you feel better, we can call it consulting:  Less of a reason and more of a twist of words to make you feel better about accepting help.  We could also call it “peer to peer” or heck, we could even not give it a name and just do it.  When our kids were little, I would tell them to “Go to Bed!”  Protesting, they would argue with me.  My wife would wisely tell them, “You don’t have to go to bed, just lay down and close your eyes for a few minutes.”  They gladly followed her advice.  This is an excellent example of reframing, which is another great example of what a coach can do for us.  So, we don’t have to call it coaching, we can call it “A couple of old salespeople chatting about sales.”
4. The Mirror & Accountability: One of the greatest values of coaching is accountability.  However, it is also one of the reasons people often don’t want coaching.  A coach does two very important activities for the salesperson. They first “hold up the mirror” and secondly, help establish accountability.  Holding up the mirror is the critical component of letting the salesperson see for themselves exactly what they are doing.  The old saying, “It’s tough to read the label from inside the jar,” fits here.  You’re in the game and it’s hard to see exactly what or how you are doing. The coach can provide that mirror to improve your self-awareness.   Accountability is the second critical factor.  However, it gets a little tricky.  Ultimate accountability rests on the shoulders of you- the salesperson.  You are the one going onto the field of play and applying your sales skills.  So, no one can make you do anything.  However, a coach can help you find your ability to hold yourself accountable.  Just the fact that you have designated dates to meet your coach is an excellent start to accountability.  You and your coach become accountable to meet on those dates and work on you.

5. Get over yourself– Get humble, Get coaching and Get More Sales: Ask yourself, “Can anyone help me sell better?”  If the answer is no, then it’s time to get humble and get over yourself, because even the greatest of the greatest in any sport or business will seek continuous improvement.  That’s how they became the greatest of the greatest.  And if you answered yes, great!  The next question is, “Who can be my coach?”

So, whether you like the Patriots and Tom Brady or not, they’ve won a lot of games and he will most likely be in the Hall of Fame.  The lesson to take away is the importance of a sales coach, even if you are the greatest salesperson in your company.  Especially if you are the greatest because you will do more with that coaching than most.

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