5 Coaching Tips to Become An Effective Manager of Salespeople

I recently attended a conference where consultants spoke about being hired to coach front line sales reps in companies with sales managers already in place. The claim was that the sales managers were too busy to coach their direct reports. I don’t buy it.If you’re a sales manager and your number one priority each and every day is something other than coaching the people on your sales team to become more successful, then what the heck are you doing instead? Whatever it is—stop.The fact is nothing is more important for sales managers to do than coach, which is just another word for disciplined sales management.What does it takes for a sales manager to become an effective coach? Here are five key responsibilities for a sales coach.

• First, a sales coach must make sure that each team member fully understands the playbook, by which I mean understands what he or she is selling and even more important, how he or she is supposed to sell.
• Second, a coach must work with each sales rep to help develop an individualized sales plan. This is a roadmap of objectives, strategies, and tactics that is tailored to the strengths, experience and expertise of each sales rep.
• Three – an effective coach must model successful selling techniques. Sales is a craft. Which means sales reps are apprentices to sales managers—the master craftspeople. Make joint calls with your sales reps and show them how it should be done.
• Four—coaches must get down to the nitty-gritty with regular, detailed reviews of every deal a rep is working. Coaches must provide frequent strategic and tactical advice on every qualified sales opportunity—and equally important—motivate reps to persevere when the going gets tough.
• Fifth, a sales coach must build trust with each rep on the team. I’ll never forget when I was in the midst of a month-long sales slump at my first sales job and moped into the office to have my manager, Ray, greet me at the door with his jacket on and car keys in hand, saying, “C’mon. Let’s go make some sales calls.” Ray had my back and earned my trust.

Studies show that Effective coaching results in a 19% improvement in sales productivity. If you are a manager, responsible for the sales productivity of a team of sales reps, what could you possibly do that is more important, or more rewarding, than coaching?