SellingPower.com offers a terrific how-to article regarding the sales manager’s role in developing his or her team. How to Ace Your Most Important Responsibility is a must read for any sales manager.
The article categorizes the sales manager’s approach into 5 straight-forward stages:
1. Set the schedule
2. Pre-call planning
3. During the call
4. Post-call critique
5. End of the day
A perfect breakdown of what has to happen to coach your team:
To ensure the call remains in the rep€™s hands, sit further away from the buyer than your rep does. Lean back rather than forward in your chair. If the customer directs a question to you, turn it over to the rep. And never speak to the customer €œexecutive to executive€ or do anything else to make the salesperson feel less than equal in the customer€™s presence. If you feel the need to nudge a call in the right direction, you can do so gently by using a question to make a point indirectly. For instance, if the salesperson suggests the wrong model of product, ask if the customer might also be interested in X product (the right one). Finally, remember to tune into the specific skills you want to evaluate in your rep.
And there is this suggestion at the end of the article:
On a final note, you might consider creating a checklist to help you evaluate your reps in pre-determined areas. This not only helps you focus your coaching efforts, it helps your reps to see areas of strength and weakness and track improvement over time.
We offer this checklist today – customized to your sales rep’s needs.