Ignoring this Management Task Will Cost You Dearly | Sales Strategies

A good sales organization centres around a good sales coach. In fact, coaching is what drives top performance in sales teams. More importantly, sales teams with coaches—who are being coached on average 3 hours per rep or month—see anywhere from 15 to 30 percent performance improvement compared to the organizations that don't have a coaching program.

A Coaching Culture is Critical

When I execute workshops and training programs for organizations, I make sure that there is a coaching component. This will ensure sales managers are ready to hold their teams accountable for the behavior change.

Don't Ignore the Importance of Self-Coaching

Every so often, I come across organizations that do not have a strong sales coach or sales manager in place. They have a dysfunctional culture where the manager is also a seller. Consequently, the sellers can't get the attention of the manager they need. In such cases, the sellers or top sellers in those organizations practice self-coaching. They know that there is no excuse for not being coached. Thus, they coach themselves with the help of their colleagues.

The Self-Coaching Methodology

Every week, those self-coached sellers sit down and analyze their success based on their goals. They ask themselves if they are ahead or behind of where they need to be. They also ask themselves if they can leverage their good success or if they need to rectify their sales strategy. This process takes them around 30 minutes.

Furthermore, they follow that same pattern at the end of the month. They once again analyze their sales goals and what improvements they can implement—whether it's how many more leads they have to generate, how many more customers they have to call, or how many more orders they have to bring in and at what dollar value they need to be. They create this monthly plan based on last month's results.

Moreover, at the end of the quarter, if they notice positive trends and results, they examine the strategy behind those results and immediately implement it again in the next quarter. Conversely, if they are noticing negative trends and results, they reach for help from a trusted colleague, someone in the organization who is a mentor, or someone outside the organization who is a mentor. They ask for help when it comes to skill development or to change their behavior.

The Key to Making Self-Coaching Work

Get intimate with your numbers. Don't be afraid to analyze whether you're ahead or behind your goals. Treat your business like a science project: examine and analyze your data objectively and unemotionally so you can determine which areas you need to improve and which areas are working.

There's no excuse. If you don't have a coach, self-coach. Good coaching drives the best sales performance across all organizations.