Sales Coaching: Missing from Your Sales Management Toolkit?

Great sales coaches don't do the sale for the sales person. Rather, they explain how (and why) to do the sale. Many sales managers don't expend any effort at all to coach their sales teams.

As a sales trainer, I learned long ago that there is a big difference between teaching someone to do something and just doing it in hopes it will rub off on the other person. One methodology is effective; the other isn't very effective (which is why training programs for new sales employees that are centered around pairing a new employee with an experienced one aren't very effective).

When I was a sales manager, I was once reprimanded by the owner of the business for not stepping in and closing. "Your whole reason for being here is to close business," he told me.

I explained to my boss that I could certainly work with prospects and close business, but since there was only one of me in the company, my impact would be limited. I explained that an alternative would be for me to focus on mentoring and coaching my 25 salespeople to become better at closing their sales opportunities, thereby expanding my reach within the organization.

He didn't buy it.

The problem was that he didn't understand sales coaching. He believed the sales manager should be the top salesperson in the company. He didn't understand that a sales manager could do a better job of increasing revenue if he gets others to do the heavy lifting. [Had I known this when I interviewed with the company, I wouldn't have taken the position. I could have earned a lot more money by being the top salesperson in the company than I did by being a sales manager who was expected to have the top sales performance in the company!]

Successful sales coaches:

- Observe

- Ask

- Comment

- Listen

- Suggest

- Explore

- Teach

- Challenge

- Inspire

- Support

- Nurture

- Let sales people fail so they can learn from it

- Think about the future, not just the present.

...all with the purpose of improving sales performance.

What's missing from my list? What do you think good coaches do? Let's talk about it...

Skip Anderson is a professional speaker, sales coach, and the Founder of Selling to Consumers, a B2C and retail sales training and consulting company. Subscribe to the free Sales Tips newsletter.