To be a successful sales manager and increase sales, you must learn to do curbside coaching effectively.
Every sales call presents “lessons to be learned.” Salespeople who learn these lessons better develop their skills and improve their performance. Those who do not or cannot learn the lessons are doomed to mediocrity or failure.
Your job as a manager is to make sure your salespeople benefit from every call they make. The best way to do this is during the post-call coaching session, sometimes called “curbside coaching.”
When to do it?
The best time to provide feedback is immediately after the call.. At this point, the details of the call are still fresh in your mind and in the mind of the salesperson.
However, there are times when you can’t immediately train on the sidewalk. If this is the case, be sure to write down your thoughts on paper so you can discuss it later.
What should a coaching session accomplish?
The obvious answers are for the seller to recognize what is right and understand ways to improve. However, there are several other goals that the session should achieve.
Have the seller:
• Evaluate to what extent the salesperson achieved the objectives of the call.
• Recognize what factors favorably influenced the outcome of the call.
• Recognize what factors negatively influenced the outcome of the call.
• Identify other actions that could have made the call more effective.
• Determine what follow-up actions are necessary
The coaching session should also allow you to:
• Assess the seller’s ability to plan, implement, and analyze a sales call.
• Reinforce the seller’s strengths
• Identify areas to work with the seller.
• Improve your relationship with the seller
• Learn about the types of problems your salesperson faces in the field.
The coaching process
Using the 12-step process outlined here will help you achieve the goals listed above and help your salesperson take full responsibility for their call performance.
After choosing the best time and place for the discussion, follow these steps:
- Establish a good relationship with the salesperson to ensure that they will be receptive to coaching.
- Ask the salesperson to evaluate the extent to which the objectives of the call were achieved.
- Reinforce or clarify the seller’s assessment (agree on the outcome).
- Ask the salesperson to identify what went well (identify strengths).
- Reinforce the seller’s strengths assessment by providing specific examples (reinforce strengths).
- Share your evaluation of the strengths you observed that the salesperson did not mention. (This reinforces those areas and increases the seller’s awareness of the factors that positively influence a sales call.)
- Ask the salesperson to identify areas that could be improved or done differently. (Identify opportunities for improvement).
- Listen to and support the seller’s evaluation (confirm opportunities for improvement).
- Share your evaluations of the opportunities for improvement that you observed but that the salesperson did not mention.
- Reinforce areas of agreement.
- Use the agreed upon improvement opportunities as a starting point for action planning.
- Identify ways you can support the salesperson plan to improve its effectiveness.
The amount of time you spend on each step will depend on several variables, including:
• The duration of the sales call
• The complexity of the sales call
• The number of calls that remain
• The importance of the call
• The hour of the day
• Total time available for the session
It is important that you cover all the steps and allow adequate time to cover each one. An effective coaching session can last a few minutes or more than an hour. Use your judgment to decide the right time based on the expected value of the discussion.
Salespeople need training to be on top of their game. Invest the time after each call to develop your salespeople and increase sales with curbside coaching.
For additional information on coaching to increase sales, profits and customer loyalty, visit: philfaris.com