All sales managers must coach their salespeople. Many do so in a cursory manner, but that is typically not the most effective solution. I’m catching up on Selling Power articles today and kicked up this one – Coach Early and O.F.T.E.N. I’m typically not a fan of acrostics, but anything to remind sales managers of effective coaching has some value.
The author provides solid advice for effectively coaching salespeople:
F is for Focus
Coaching interactions should be focused, specifically on one or two tasks or activities. Too often, however, coaches allow themselves to be distracted and get off track. Give too much feedback that’s all over the board and employees may not know what you want from them. Typically they will only be able to take positive action on one or two suggestions, so avoid tangents while getting your key point or points across.
I couldn’t agree more with that approach. Unfortunately, the author does not explain how a sales manager is supposed to know what “one or two tasks” should be targeted. Understand, some salespeople are poor at rapport-building, but they will never be good at it. A sales manager could waste many hours trying to coach this ability into their salesperson who just doesn’t have the ability.
Apply a force multiplier – use our sales development plan to identify the top coaching areas for the sales manager to target.