Coaching Sales Teams as opposed to coaching salespeople requires a different approach but can be extremely rewarding when you get it right.
II believe building a strong resilient sales team was one of my greatest achievements and that this was instrumental in the team consistently achieving and, in many instances, exceeding the sales forecast.
The cornerstone of this achievement was the trust I was able to create between myself and the salespeople in the team.
Getting team members to share with me their personal goals and aspirations presented challenges but paved the way for me to help each salesperson maintain their focus.
Building a strong working relationship with each salesperson based on their knowledge that my motivation and aim was to do whatever I could to assist them in becoming Sales Champions and help them to realize their personal goals and aspirations.
Mentoring was and always will be a dominant consideration in Sales Team Coaching and raising the skill levels of any salesperson.
Raising the Skill Levels
Sales teams the world over are comprised of a mixture of highly skilled individuals, engine room workers (the backbone), along a small number of newbies.
So building rapport and camaraderie between these different groups is vital to developing the team culture it should always be the secondary objective of raising the skill levels of each salesperson in the sales team.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Start by identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each person in the sales team and then developing a skills coaching plan for each team member.
The Micro Selling Skills worksheet outlined in my book is an effective tool or you can develop one of your own. Just make sure that it reflects the current assessment and projected improvement, and make provision for reviews.
Match people by their skill levels strengths against and the weaknesses of the other and where possible, pair these two people together on any team building or training exercises.
Assistant Coaches
Developing assistant coaches to share skill levels, and teaching others is a smart way of pulling the team together rather than you as the sales manager being the only coach available to help them become sales champions.
The cornerstone of any relationship is Trust. Never take it for granted and it’s hard to win and easy to lose.
Share your personal development plan you have created with the salesperson. Promise them nothing other than total commitment to helping them improve their skill levels and achieve their goals and aspirations.
Only when a salesperson believes your interest is in helping them achieve their goals and aspirations will they share this with you and only then will you have what you need.
A Committed Individual.
You will never see a coach looking at the scoreboard, concentration is always on the players.
Focus on the team members and they will respect and follow you. As a Team.
