Sales Coaching Blog

EcSell Institute research shows that more than 50% of sales managers knowingly execute less than 48% of the high performance coaching activities that will drive the most sales. The result of this statistic is obvious; sales revenue is left on the table due to the sales manager’s lack of willingness to execute. 

For perspective, how would a President, CSO, EVP Sales, etc. respond to the above stats if they were applied to sales people?  What if they learned half of their sales reps were doing only half of the activities that led to the best outcome? It would be unacceptable, heads would roll, yet in the sales leadership profession this double standard is unknowingly accepted because coaching performance is not measured. How much more would be sold if sales leaders fully committed and behaved like high performance coaches?

Let this sink in . . . If a demotivating sales manager has a sales goal of $10,000,000, he or she is potentially leaving $900,000 in sales revenue on the table. Are you okay with that? 

Let's start here: In the business world we have bosses. They are also called managers, directors, executives, regionals, assistant VPs, VPs, and many more titles; however, whenever someone outside of work is hired to help us develop we refer to them as a “coach”. Why is it in athletics they are ALWAYS referred to as a coach?

According to EcSell Institute research, one-to-one meetings with your reps may be one of the most critical factors in helping them perform. In our Through the Eyes of the Rep survey, we see strong relationships between reps that rate their one-to-one meetings with their managers as effective and reps that rate their managers as excellent leaders, coaches and effective at motivating them to greater sales importance. 

Previous research by the EcSell Institute has established that top performing sales managers hold team meeting with their sales team on a consistent basis. In addition to suggesting that consistency is important, this research also indicates that the optimal frequency for holding team meetings is monthly.

In this extended white paper we further explore this research by adding an examination of the impact of sales coaching performance on sales rep perception of team meeting value. This deeper look into team meetings adds critical clarity to the impact of team meetings on sales reps and what current sales managers can be doing to increase the effectiveness of their role.

Growing sales begins with the sales leadership team, not the sales producers.  So, if there is a desire to grow or continue growing, place more thought, programs and continuing education against the sales leadership team. 

So in that spirit, here are five coaching activities and behaviors our research supports that will help you consistently grow sales: 

1) Treat everyone uniquely:

There used to be a school of thought that everyone on a team has to be treated the same way, which has now proven to be a bogus approach to sales team motivation.  If you have eight people on your team you have eight unique individuals, at least eight different motivators, eight different goals, and as a result, eight different ways to coach.

It’s no secret. Often times the best sales people do not make for the best sales coaches, yet sales departments continue to promote their top performers into coaching roles.

Personally, I believe this happens for 3 reasons. (1) It is how it has always been done. (2) It's easy and convenient. (3) Sales departments have yet to define what characteristics make a good sales coach and how to identify those characteristics in the candidates.

At our most recent Sales Coaching Summit, we announced our 2018 Sales Coaching Award winners. Two award recipients were recognized for not only leading their teams to excellent sales results, but doing so through the implementation of coaching best practices that allow their sales team members to grow and flourish. The highest individual honor was bestowed upon 2018 Coach of the Year, Curt Reekers of Orthopedic Solutions Inc.

One of the most valuable things about our work at EcSell is that we use data as the guiding force for our work. We don’t just guess, use our own personal experiences, or philosophize about the impact of sales coaching. Instead, who we are and what we do is based on empirical evidence.

One of our main sources of data is the EcSell Institute Through the Eyes of the Rep (TTEOTR) survey. Part of this survey asks reps to tell us what they believe their manager does best as a sales manager, or coach as we like to call this role. By analyzing what a rep perceives their manager does best, we have a window into understanding what manager behaviors reps feel benefit them the most. In other words, when we know what behaviors our reps value in their manager, we know which manager behaviors make the biggest impact.