You Don't Have to Tell Them How

I was facilitating a workshop this week which included a significant amount of sales coaching content and practice coaching within it. At one point, I broke the participants into small groups and sent them off to coach each other on the pursuit of one of their key opportunities. When they returned, I queried each of the teams on how their sessions had gone. Two of the teams reported sharply different outcomes of their coaching process. In one group, the participant who had received the sales coaching reported back strong success from the exercise. She and her coach had creatively explored the sales situation, and she reported some significant and real insights into the best approach to winning the opportunity. She was energized by the process and ready to go try the actions they had defined together. In the other group, the result was not so positive. After a little prodding, the person receiving the coaching painted a much different picture. He reported being discouraged by the lack of accomplishment and he reported no meaningful progress. Worse yet, he said he felt disrespected by the coach, and reported going along with the heavy handed solutions doled out just to get the exercise over with. All of these participants were successful sales reps and sales managers. What happened in these two sessions and why were the results so different?

In the successful session, the coach respected the front line knowledge of the rep, and listened with an attitude of curiosity as the rep laid out the story. They did not leap to a personal agenda of what the rep should do or how the deal should play out. They used their knowledge and experience to ask open ended and powerful questions that let the rep expand the level of detail of the story. Throughout, the rep was doing most of the talking. The coach fed back what they were hearing in a way that enabled the rep to see issues and gaps in their strategy that hadn’t to that point become evident. The discussion was producing clarity and awareness for the rep which enabled them to build on their own detailed situational knowledge to building a new and powerful plan that was theirs. Together they detailed out what the rep would do to take advantage of the new clarity. The rep’s personal ownership of the plan directly drove their commitment (and excitement) to play it out in their live sales situation.

The less successful coach made it about them. They listened just long enough to trigger a memory of how they had done it in the glory days. They went into telling mode - how they would attack the opportunity. They were teaching. The more successful coach made it about the rep. They let the rep explore the landscape and the options. They let them formulate their own strategy with the knowledge and skills they already largely possessed.

In that difference is the key to successful coaching. The successful coach believes (even if the rep doesn’t quite yet) that most if not all of the ingredients for success are there before the coaching begins. They understand that the coaching agenda starts with the rep and what they want to accomplish. They understand that effective coaching is all about helping the rep learn, and not about teaching them. The trick is for the coach and sales rep to work together to release the power that is already there and put it to work in the hands of the rep to create success.

Professional coaching - a new tool for the sales manager?

In my 20 plus years of sales management, the term “coaching” is commonly used to mean that in-the-moment performance feedback that sales managers give their team members after a sales call or some other significant event in a sales cycle. It also very often has a negative connotation, as it takes on a remedial tone.

As the business world is increasingly embracing the value of professional coaching to improve individual and organizational results, it might be time to expand the coaching lexicon to include the role that professional coaches can play in developing your sales team, and especially your high performers.

What is Professional Coaching?

The international Coach Federation defines Professional Coaching as “a professional partnership between a qualified coach and an individual or team that supports the achievement of extraordinary results, based on goals set by the individual or team. Through the process of coaching, individuals focus on the skills and actions needed to successfully produce their personally relevant results.”

How does it work?

The heart of the process is a dialogue between an individual or group and a professional coach. The discussion will focus on a topic chosen by the coachee. Topics often come from their professional life: an important near term challenge to be met; a need to increase their knowledge; a need to improve their ability to perform an important task; a need to increase their overall level of job performance. Personal or life goals usually relate strongly to our performance in the business setting. In that sense, the coaching might also address some of the following goals: identification and leverage of personal strengths; improving and work or communication styles; a need to make critical life or career choices; work-life balance; personal organization and life management.

The role of the coach is to help their client achieve clarity on their goals, a plan to achieve the goals, identification of barriers and inhibitors, and a specific plan of action. Regular dialogue with the coach facilitates the formulation of the plan and helps the client make steady progress and hold themselves accountable to the action plan.

In the coaching sessions, coaches apply a range of techniques drawn from professional management practices, the behavioral sciences, and best practices drawn from their personal experience and research and the support of organizations such as the International Coach Federation.

How does it differ from what I do in the course of supervising my team?

The manager and the coach share an important goal: That the coachee become successful and make significant contributions to their company and their individual careers.

The professional coach brings a different perspective to that goal. They approach the coaching engagement as a partner rather than a supervisor. That perspective enables them to afford the coachee a level of safety and confidentiality that they may not feel with their manager. The coach, as a third party, is able to achieve a level of objectivity that may be difficult for a manager within the organization to achieve.

The coachee recognizes that the manager and the company are making a visible investment in them and their future. That can pay benefits in their personal level of motivation, and their loyalty to the company.

How can I include it in the development program for my team?

Coaching can take a number of different forms.

It can occur individually or in groups. Coaching clients can be high potential employees where the company is wanting to accelerate their personal and professional growth. On the other hand, coaching clients can be employees with job performance issues where the company is seeking to go the extra mile in affording them the opportunity to improve their performance. While those two examples hit both ends of the performance spectrum, every sales professional can benefit from assistance in clarifying their goals, and building an actionable plan to reach them.

What are the signals that indicate that professional coaching might make a real difference?

Take some time to evaluate if there is something in your sales environment that might provide the “compelling event” for putting professional coaching to work with your team:

• Is there a critical challenge at stake that will make a material impact on the success of the company?
• Is there a compelling need to address it quickly?
• Is there a visible and critical gap in some aspect of your team’s ability to be successful?
• Has the organization missed a key objective and you are looking for a way to get them back on track?
• Has one of your successful team members experienced a step function decrease in their performance?

How would I get started in putting professional coaching to work with my team?

Drop me a line and I would be happy to discuss your situation with you. I’ll take you through a sample coaching session, using your performance improvement goals as the topic of our short discussion. You’ll get a sense for the coaching dynamic, and we’ll talk about the best way to put it this powerful process to work for you.