1. Sales Management Association Webcast
29 May 2014
Presented by
Five Sales Coaching Best Practices
© Copyright 2014 Sales Management Association.

2. The Sales Management Association
A global, cross-industry professional association for sales operations and
sales management.
Focused in providing research, case studies, training, peer networking,
and professional development to our membership.
Fostering a community of thought-leaders, service providers, academics,
and practitioners.
Learn More: www.salesmanagement.org
Slide 2© 2014 The Sales Management Association. All rights reserved.

3. Slide 3© 2014 The Sales Management Association. All rights reserved.
Today’s Presenter
#SalesCoaching

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5 Coaching Best Practices
The quest for the holy grail of sales team
development!

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5 Must haves for Effective Coaching
• History of Coaching
• What and Why Coach
• How to Coach
• Focusing your coaching on outcomes and behaviors.
• Tying coaching sales process and method.
• Creating consistent coaching plans, and standardizing the information gathered for effective
sales coaching.
• Coaching Types: Independent, Formal, Informal, Peer and Self-Coaching.
• Leveraging data and technology to enable your coaching plan and bring accuracy to your
efforts.

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What is Coaching?
Coaching is a development process via which an
individual is supported while achieving a specific
personal or professional competence result or goal

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What is Coaching?

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What is coaching? – Non Optimal
8
Manager: Frank,
I’m concerned
about your
forecast
Frank : Just submitted the final
proposal to XYZ, I’m
confident it will close this month

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More Non-optimal Coaching

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Why Coach My
Reps?

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Why coach your way of selling?
Day 1 Day 30
87% Loss
Training + Coaching
= 4X improvement in Retention
American Society of Training
& Development Study
Sales Executive Council Study

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Why Coach Deals
12
43%
47%
52%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Poor
Coaching
Average
Coaching
Good
Coaching
Win Rate
Loss Rate
No Decision
CSO Insights,
2014 Sales Management Optimization study

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Why have a Formal Coaching Model
CSO Insights, 2014 Sales Management Optimization study
Sales Performance Related to Coaching Model/Approach
Informal or NO
Coaching Model
Formal
Coaching Model
Percentage of
Reps Meeting or
Exceeding Quota
49.9% 62.3%
24.8%
improvement!

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Ok, So I’m a believer – What Next?
• Do I coach Skills?
• Do I coach Process?
• Who do I coach?
• When do I coach them?
• What does ‘Good’ coaching look like?
• How much is enough?

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Non-optimal Coaching Equation
If 10 times Equals
Then 30 times Equals

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Driven by non-Optimal Coaching Dashboard
Nbr of Calls
Pipeline Revenue
Nbr of Demo’s
• Where is Quality in this
Picture?
• Or Behaviors/Actions?
• Or Root Cause?
Close
Rate

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Deciding Who to Coach?
• Pro-active vs. Reactive
• Performance?
• Something Bad Happened?
CSO Insights,
2014 Sales Management Optimization study

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What is the path to Good Coaching?
Business
Outcomes
SMART
Objectives
Seller
Activities

19. The path to good coaching
Activities OutcomesObjectives
Win Rate
Deal Size
Quota Achievement
Skills/
Deals
Planning/
Process

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Tactical – What skills are most important?
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Product/Market/Company Knowledge
Story Telling/Case Studies
Discovery & Solution Alignment
Solution Value Prop/Competitive…
Pre-Call Planning
Customer Value & Handling Objections
Harvard Business Review, “Do you really know who your Best Salespeople Are?”
December 1, 2010, UK Cranfield School of Management

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RepSkill
Trust but Verify
CoachMonitor
Ignore
When selecting Deals to coach, consider….
Priority 1
Deal Size

24. The path to good coaching
Activities OutcomesObjectives
Grow Revenue
Skills/
Deals
Planning/
Process

25. The path to good coaching - Tactical
Activities OutcomesObjectives
Grow RevenueSkills/
Deals
Improve Win
Rate 10%
- Competitor/Industry
Research
- Create Call Strategy
Improve Win
Rate 10%
- Better Qualify
Prospects

26. The path to good coaching
Activities OutcomesObjectives
Grow Revenue
Skills/
Deals
Planning/
Process

27. The path to good coaching
Activities OutcomesObjectives
Grow Revenue
Planning/
Process
Better Penetrate
Top 3 Accounts
1. Prioritize Territory
Accounts
2. Create Account Plan

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Who and
When do I
Coach?

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Who to Coach – the 3 C’s
Cut Coach Cherish
Bottom 10% Middle 80% Top 10%
Sales Performance
NumberofReps
Minimal
Value in
Coaching
Corporate Executive Board,
Defining Coaching Excellence, 2010

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When to coach - Tactical
1. Needs
Exploration
2. Needs
Identified
3. Solution
Development
4. Solution
Accepted
5. Final Terms
& Conditions
6. Contract
Received
Sales Process
Highly Effective Coaches
Average Coaches
Corporate Executive Board,
Defining Coaching Excellence, 2010

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Don’t Chase the ‘Unwinnable Deal’

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When to coach - Strategic
Is the Rep
following the
Sales Process?

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Who to Coach?
How should I
Coach?

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Building the Coaching Plan
1. Hard Allocate time (3-5 hours/rep)
Corporate Executive Board,
Defining Coaching Excellence, 2010

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Building the Coaching Plan
1. Hard Allocate time (3-5 hours/rep)
2. Build a weekly cadence
Skills/Deals
Skills/Deals
Plans/Process
Plans/Process

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Building the Coaching Plan
1. Hard Allocate time (3-5 hours/rep)
2. Build a weekly cadence
with Quarterly Progress checks

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Building the Coaching Plan
1. Hard Allocate time (3-5 hours/rep)
2. Build a weekly cadence
with Quarterly Progress checks
3. Use a Coaching Plan/Model
for each interaction
GROW Model
- Goal
- Reality
- Options
- Way Forward
GUIDE Model
- Goal Set
- Uncover Gaps
- Identify Root Cause
- Define Correction
- Evaluate Performance

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Building the Coaching Plan
1. Hard Allocate time (3-5 hours/rep)
2. Build a weekly cadence
with Quarterly Progress checks
3. Use a Coaching Plan/Model
for each interaction
4. Build the Environment for Coaching
5. Drive it up the management chain
Coaching NOT Managing
Talk about Developmental
Environment
Establish Rapport
Get Reps Perceptions first
Focus on plan
Get buy-in
Execution, not Training
NOT A FORECAST CALL

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Building the Coaching Plan
1. Hard Allocate time (3-5 hours/rep)
2. Build a weekly cadence
with Quarterly Progress checks
3. Use a Coaching Plan/Model
for each interaction
4. Build the Environment for Coaching
5. Get your own Coach
0 0.5 1
Coaching
Performance…
Effective…
Fair Allocation…
Provide direction
Gather Resources
Sales Experience
Product/Solutio…
Rewarding…
Customer/Mark…
Sales Manager Skills

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Who to Coach?
Next
STEPs?

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A Last Thought – Independent Coaching
Performance Coached Non-Coached
Win Rate (Deals) 52.8% 37.4%
Win Rate (Dollars) 61.4% 40.4%
Source: Coaching Magazine Report
Sample Size:
400+ Coached opportunities over 3 years

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Things to remember
• Build relationships – good coaching needs good relationships
• Coach the middle 80% for results / Coach superstars for retention
• Set aside 3-5 hours/rep/month
• Use questions to help reps come to their own conclusions – stop telling them
• Plan for coaching – yeah, I know you’re good, but plan anyway
• You can’t fake honesty - showing your dedication to improving their results.
• One size does not fit all - Tailor coaching to the individual.
• Focus on a few things at a time

45. The best thing about not coaching ?
Failure comes as a complete surprise
Rather than being preceded by a long period of anxiety

46. Questions and Discussion
Slide 46© 2014 The Sales Management Association. All rights reserved.
Enter your questions in the
“Questions” box on the right
hand side of the webinar
application window.
Did we run out of time before we got to your
question? Presenters can follow-up with you via
email. Feel free to submit more questions if
you’d like an offline response.
#SalesCoaching

47. © Copyright 2014 The Sales Management Association
Thank You.