For any coaching initiative to be effective and long-lasting within your organization, there are important obstacles that managers and internal sales coaches need to overcome. Here are five specific strategies to help ensure coaching success.
“I’ve tried coaching my team. It didn’t work.” Really? Was it the coaching that didn’t work, the coachee, the sales manager’s coaching that didn’t work or was it more about how the coaching was delivered that didn’t work? As a sales manager, there are many things to consider when rolling out a coaching program for your team that will lead to a successful initiative, or, if ignored, will lead to coaching failure.
Here are five specific strategies to help ensure coaching success. Use it as a checklist as you begin designing your coaching initiative.
Your Team IS Coachable!
1. Coach Your Salespeople as Individuals
A sales manager might easily say, “I’ve been doing this for 10 years. I already know the ‘right’ way to sell which has always worked for me. So if I were you, I would do it this way.” This is dangerous thinking – and a condition managers have which I refer to as, coaching in your own image. Each of your salespeople will have methods and solutions custom fit for themselves and those are the most powerful for each of them. Moreover, each person is motivated by different things (family, money, time off, recognition, security, travel, material possessions, etc.) and also likes to be managed and communicated to in a different way. Some like it ‘straight between the eyes’ while other may want a tough message ‘sugar coated’ a bit. Regardless of how you like to be managed or communicated to, become more sensitive to how your people like to be engaged. After all, there are a lot of different ways to get from New York to California, just like there are different ways to achieve an end result. Watch any professional athlete play and you’ll see that they each have a personal style that serves them best. While our history and experience can serve is, it can also become the greatest limitation to creating any new possibilities today. If you insist on forcing them into your own image, you are really “robot-building” and not tapping into people’s individuality.
Avoid coaching in your own image and tap into each person’s individuality to understand who they really are, their accurate developmental opportunities, what they want and what inspires them to achieve more. Otherwise, you may find yourself victim of additional toxic thinking that comes in the form revenue draining assumptions, “Hmm, looks like they’ve been selling in our industry for the past 20 years AND have a book of business to bring over. Sounds like a great candidate!” Or, “They’ve been working here for the last ten years, so of course in every conversation, they follow our sales process and questions to ask when qualifying a prospect.” And my personal favorite, “At the end of the day, all people want is to get a paycheck and make as much money as they can. Recognition and acknowledgment? What? Why would I acknowledge people just for doing their job?” (No I couldn’t make this stuff up if i tried. These are words I’ve heard managers speak.) Think about how many times this type of thinking gets us in trouble!
Regardless of the situation, when it comes to assessing prospective hires or your current sales team, direct your energy and focus on who they are as an individual (key word ‘individual’) contributor and seek to understand their unique opinion and point of view. Only then can you effectively assess their behavior and coach specifically to that behavior in order to get to root cause, rather than simply focusing on the activity and results that you measure in a spreadsheet.
2. Position Coaching as an Opportunity for Continued Improvement and Growth
It is important to position coaching as an opportunity for everyone to get better at their work – and not just a punishment for under-performing. If you are experiencing resistance to coaching, ask yourself what expectations have been set for coaching. If the expectation has been set as “All the underperformers, please stand up! Here’s your chance to redeem yourself!” Ouch. This “Broken Wing Mentality” (a focus on remedial coaching) doesn’t create an atmosphere where everyone would want to be coached. The message managers need to send is, “If you want to better your very best and stay on the top of your game, regardless of where you are as a salesperson, everyone gets coached because you are the priority and we want you to be as successful as possible.” Some unsuccessful coaches might say, “I only coach the underperformers and leave the top performers alone.” What a great strategy if you want to send the message that coaching is ONLY for the underperformers, while isolating and ignoring your top performers. Then this sales manager wonders why he’s losing his good people to his competitors and is the last to find out about it! Everyone wants the attention of their sales manager, often for different reasons, and the sales manager has to align coaching with where he or she can deliver the most value for their team, individually. Don’t let coaching fail because of poor positioning. Re-align expectations with each person on your team around what coaching is, why it’s a priority and most important – what’s in it for them.
3. Learn from Past Coaching Failures
You may be saying, “I’ve already tried to coach my people. It didn’t work.” Well, maybe it’s more about how you coached or tried to enroll them in coaching that didn’t work. Every day, more and more statistics and surveys are showing the R.O.I. that good coaching generates. It’s time to do some self analysis and ask yourself what role you are playing in this. Any one of these five opportunities listed here can also be the cause of lackluster coaching results. The fact is; coaching works. So, don’t let past experiences sink your current coaching efforts.
4. Provide Consistent Coaching and Support
Consistent efforts are worth far more than intermittent, starts and stops, or fits of coaching activity driven by need, urgency, events or problems – followed by long periods of coaching silence. You may have been excited to coach your team at the beginning, but if you let your efforts dwindle, or if coaching is no longer the priority because we, “need to focus on hitting our goals and bringing in more sales to hit our numbers,” (how ironic) what message are you sending them? When you cancel the coaching session you scheduled with them, regardless of how good a reason you had, your employee is thinking, “I guess I’m not important enough, or the coaching isn’t a priority.” If you believe (correctly) that coaching is worth it, do it well, and do it consistently, especially in the face of adversity. And keep something in mind, if you’re experiencing reactionary problems that need to be handled immediately, consider the root cause of this environment you work in is inconsistent and ineffective coaching! Don’t provide erratic coaching and support.
5. Train Your Sales Managers in Coaching
Successful coaching requires sales managers who know how to coach based on a proven coaching framework and methodology. Yes, sales managers need to be trained in how to coach, just like you would be trained on how to sell, cold call, present to a customer, any new skill or hobby or if you wanted to learn how to play a new sport or musical instrument. In my experience, after training and coaching thousands of managers worldwide, a large percentage of those managers who believe they are actually coaching effectively; simply are not. It’s only when the mirror is held up in front of them and the manager is open to self reflecting, parks their ego and owns their own gaps and blind spots, can they then begin their journey to become an exceptional coach and leader. Here’s where great training and coaching come in to play, as well as the importance of a world class trainer, experienced manager and subject matter expert, rather than a trainer reading from a facilitator guide!
When it comes to actually training your managers in a classroom setting, consider a new hire. When you hire a B player, you get B results. Well, when you adopt a B coaching program with a weak coaching methodology and a B-C trainer delivering the training to your managers, the same thing happens. B coaches yield B results. If you go for an external solution, there are other management coach training options. However, consider what’s at steak if it doesn’t work because the company made a decision based on price and timing. When it comes to truly investing in an initiative like this, you can’t afford to fail. And the two factors that were heavily weighed in choosing the vender; rapid execution and cost; are the very two things that companies wind up losing more of – time, sales and money. When you’re pulling your managers out of the office for a day or more, often paying for them to travel to the location where the training is being held, there better be a solid degree of confidence that the time invested outside of the office will produce a solid return on investment.
Just recently, I had a conversation with the stakeholder who was spearheading a coaching initiative. The company chose the vender based on a fast, one day program and price alone. The stakeholder and people from HR and T&D/Readiness were in attendance for the first delivery of this training. After the program was over, this stakeholder went directly to readiness and told them he will not endorse this program. Now this is the type of leader I admire! This stakeholder was not comfortable putting his name and reputation behind what he considered was the wrong solution for the organization. Now, it seems there’s more at stake than money and time when launching an ineffective or inferior coaching initiative. That is, your reputation.
Now, if you’ve already attempted to coach your people and have experienced varying degrees of success, do not give up! These strategies can be used for you to diagnose where breakdowns may be occurring in your coaching and opportunities for improvement that will lead to future success. Use it to calibrate your coaching efforts and overcome some of the obstacles that may be outside of your normal line of vision so that you can feel confident that you’re traveling down the right path to achieve coaching success.
Photo Credit: Simon Greig
I think #5 is super important. While I don’t come from sales, one of the best VP of Sales I know spent a good deal of her time coaching her lieutenants so when things got hectic, she knew she could trust her regional managers to hit the monthly or quarterly #s.
David, your observation is exactly where it all begins. Asking your managers to coach their direct reports without ever providing them the training needed to be a great coach is the same as hiring a new salesperson, putting them in the field, and assuming they know how to sell! And the VP of Sales you mention is a great testament to what is possible for any manager once they have developed a culture of coaching on their team which is based on openness, a passion for continued learning and development, 100% personal accountability and most important, trust.
Keith:
Really enjoyed the article and I agree with you that it is possible to train Sales leaders effectively to train their teams. Unfortunately though I don’t believe it’s a priority especially after “closing deals” gets in the way. I also believe that is harder when training your team internally to establish a level of trust where the coachee feels comfortable to fully open up and discuss their challenges with no fear of being judged by their boss. Coaching is time consuming and can be expensive. However investing in a coach that supports not only the team but leadership as well can be invaluable. It allows the Coach to be responsible and focus on what they do best while allowing the team to grow while focusing on their jobs as well.
Andrew, you really hit a nerve with your comment, in a good way! This is a major bone of contention for me. While trying to avoid a full rant on this subject, you’re spot on. I’m continually amazed after working with hundreds of global sales organizations how good they are about discussing the importance of work-life balance for their employees, putting their people first, supporting them and even coaching them! HOWEVER, as soon as there’s a problem or it’s at the end of the quarter and that manager is 20% off from hitting their sales targets, that’s when all the great management theory, best practices, methodology and coaching STOPS! When managers shift from continually being reactionary about driving results and realize that to achieve the results starts with ALWAYS coaching your people, that’s when these managers can finally see with their own eyes what is possible if they just stick to their values and what they know is best and right and never stop coaching their people, especially during challenging times. Hey, it’s easy to coach and support people when things are going great! But we don’t get tested on good days! We get tested on our challenging days to see what we are really made of and if we can stay in our integrity to do what is best and right, especially in the face of adversity or slipping sales numbers. And for this to occur consistently and effectively, as you mentioned, you need to set and manage NEW expectations in terms of how you’ll be engaging and supporting your team so they understand what you’re doing, why you’re doing it and what’s in it for them. Otherwise, you will never build the trust and openness needed to generate the ROI from coaching. Coaching is time consuming ONLY when these components are not in place or the manager doesn’t take the steps to align people’s personal goals with the business objectives. When they are aligned and the managers is following a proven coaching framework, that’s when the real magic happens; encouraging and supporting your team’s continued growth and evolution, while focusing on your business objectives and goals. Always thrilled to hear you enjoyed the article. Thanks again!
Keith I really like the piece and agree managers need the training and proven framework and methodology to coach. I’d argue they need
more than one framework or change model. But that is for another day!!
I was thinking as I read this piece yesterday at home, to be a good coach one needs to know what it is like to be coached and all too often
really experienced and successful managers have not had that opportunity to sit in the seat as a coachee. To coach one needs to be willing to be coached and as managers we need to consider we are part of the change required to support the performance of the individual and our team. Love to hear your thoughts on this.
Thanks John
Thanks for your spot on comment, John. I just returned from delivering my management coach training in Munich and again, it reconfirms that those managers who are reluctant to coach are the very same managers who have never been coached or coached effectively! So, how can you be a true advocate of coaching if you’ve never experienced what good coaching achieves and what it feels and sounds like?
I equate this to trying to describe what a piece of chocolate cake tastes like. You can describe it, the color, texture, it’s sweetness but until a person takes that first bite, they can never truly understand how delicious it is! :-)
Then, there’s the manager who was attempted to be coached by their boss but their boss doesn’t know how to coach effectively, even though they think they do! I’ve had managers describe their coaching experiences with their boss and how they were actually coached. Here’s what it sounds like. “Okay, I’m going to coach you. Here’s what you need to do…”
As you know, the above example is not authentic coaching but the all too common directive management style most managers fall victim of with the word ‘coaching’ slapped on top of it! And if this is the experience managers have, that’s when I hear, “Keith, coaching doesn’t work, I felt manipulated when I was coached, I didn’t find it valuable at all, I felt my needs weren’t met, my manager was driving their own agenda,” and so on.
Now, the manager leaves with a negative experience around coaching, which further reinforces their reluctance to coach their team, as well as being coached themselves, thus compounding this challenge and the resistance managers have to making coaching their priority! To compound this challenge, what if the manager then actually models the same toxic coaching they received from their boss!
This breeds the very skepticism I experience when delivering my management coach training programs on the first day, before they go through their own transformational experience by the second day. It’s always easy to identify those managers who were either never coached before or had a bad experience being coached because they are the same managers who are asking the questions that start with the word, “But.”
1. But what happens if my coaching isn’t well received by my team?
2. But what happens if the person is resistant to wanting to be coached.
3. But what happens if the manager has a hard time uncovering the right coaching opportunity?
4. But what happens if you have someone on your team who says, they’re open to being coached but you feel they are just telling you what they think you want to hear?
5. But what if you don’t have the foundation of trust needed to develop that coaching relationship?
6. But what do you do about your top performing A players who don’t want to be coached by you?
7. But Keith, you have to understand our culture. This may work where you’re from but here in our country……..”
8. And my absolute favorite, “But Keith, do we really have to label it coaching?” Said a different way, “Coaching has been positioned so poorly that it’s perceived as a negative or as a punishment!” (Why? Because these are the managers who only coach their underperformers or when there’s a problem! And then these managers can’t understand why their top producers don’t want to be coached!)
Yes, every manager needs to be open and willing to be coached and be coachable, if you want to create an authentic coaching culture on your team. We need to be the change we want to see on our team and that means modeling what is possible for others to achieve.
Now, as a consummate coach who never steps over anything, I would love to hear your thoughts as to why you feel a manager or an organization needs more than one framework.
When you have the right one, such as my L.E.A.D.S. coaching framework, regardless of your role as a sales leader or any people manager, you don’t need anything else. Moreover, when an organization adopts one framework, it creates the consistency and alignment that’s needed to sustain the coaching throughout the organization so that every manager is now speaking the same language.
Conversely, I’ve worked with many companies that had several coaching frameworks. All this achieved was creating redundancy, confusion and he inability to build a true coaching culture. Moreover, with several coaching frameworks floating around within one company, it’s difficult to then measure the true impact of coaching, especially when some frameworks are, quite frankly, not effective to coach all people.
Interestingly, the companies I work with, especially the global sales organizations who have historically had several coaching frameworks that their managers were using have realized the importance of choosing one universal framework for their entire organization.
Thanks Keith.
I can totally see how one consistent framework helps everyone in an organization get on the same page and language is really important for sure.
I have been reflecting a lot about the skills coaches need (particularlaly sales coaches) and have looked at various change models as part of a year-long
diploma in executive coaching I have been taking part in over here. Boy did we have to sit in the coachee sit over the past 12 months (it taught me a lot!!!).
Any way during this programme we worked with executives in a coaching capacity (not all sale people which was interesting for me). I found during the coaching sessions that several of my coaches were struggling with making some changes in their behaviours. I found it very useful when working with these people to have a number of change models and hence my comment re more than one framework or change model. Having thought about this a bit more, maybe one consistent framework can be underpinned by more than one change model? Some of the models and research I have been looking at include: The Three Key Factors Methodology from Executive Coaching with Backbone and Heart, The Gestalt Cycle of Experience and The Immunity to Change. All great reads.
When I was a kid my father used to quote a philosopher called Heraclitus, he would say “no one, can step into the same river twice”. So this quote has influenced my thinking that no one change model works perfectly every time.
Food for thought. Cheers John
Aha! I think we are actually saying the same thing just in two different ways. And I often find when training executives how to be effective coaches, there is a bit of initial confusion when I share that there is just one universal framework you need when coaching anyone around anything. You see, while the people, topics, situations, even the examples of the methodology you shared can change or vary, the framework is the constant. Said a different way, there is always information you need to uncover in every conversation. For example, first, any coach or leader needs to seek to understand the other person’s point of view; how they think, their beliefs, assumptions, perception of an idea, solution, concept or problem. From there, the coach asks the deeper, open ended questions that challenges the person’s thinking or empowers them to arrive at a new and better conclusion or solution. These are the questions that get mapped to my framework but like any question, the answers you receive are only as good as the questions you ask.
So, while you may, for example, talk about change management, or having executives change behaviors, the one constant are the right questions to ask to facilitate an open dialogue and get the person thinking on their own and those are the questions I map to a framework to provide leaders with the structure and a path to travel down, regardless of the situation, which then creates new and better possibilities.
With the thousands of salespeople and leaders I’ve coached, there’s never really two conversations that are exactly alike. However, I certainly rely on my coaching framework to ask the right questions at the right time in order to have that person self-discover; which leads to positive change in both thinking and behavior.