Train as a Coach, Not a Manager
June 12, 2008
By Karl Goldfield
In today's sales environment, the sales manager is a relic usually found next to the dinosaur exhibit at your local museum. Sure the title still exists, but the methodologies of old are poison. In today's corporate environment it is no longer about metrics for metrics sake, or casting a wide net and hoping something sticks. Companies basing their strategies on the reverse funnel lose too much time hunting, while their competitors gain an advantage utilizing target account selling and high probability lead cultivation.
Today the sales environment requires alignment between the salesperson and the potential buyer. And that alignment must start at home. If you're not playing the role of mentor, educator and coach, you are serving no purpose as the leader of your team.
So how do you change your training style from a manager's to that of a coach?
It is a new year, and you have the plan from your executive team. They have given you numbers to hit and the tools to hit them. After much work and thorough analysis, you have an idea of what you want to accomplish. Are you ready to go? No, because even though you know your plan, no one else does. It is time to really prove you are a coach and not a manager.
One of the more challenging roles you will plan is that of the educator. You have to educate your team in several areas:
1. Your goals and expectations, for the team and individually
2. The company's expectations of the department
3. The plan for succeeding as a sales rep
4. Old and new ideas on how to sell
5. Systems
6. And, if you are really a coach, how to be a better person
So again, you should lay out your schedule for training and know when you intend to train to what. Lay out months or even an entire year's agenda. Share it with the people you intend to train, thus preparing them to share insight and experience. By sharing your plan with your team have already prepared you for the ideas you will present, thus enabling them to think back on what they have already learned.
As a coach, you want an open forum, where people share ideas and get involved in the training. If you are doing all of the talking, or your team is only speaking up when you pull info from them, it is near impossible to get across a viable message. Role play early and often, and mix up the groups. Make some of the exercises fun or silly, and less about learning. The goal is to get people engaged. Make the lessons your suggestions for success, and by no means dictate or deliver mandates. These are the tools of the manager, the coach shows you the way, but never drags you down it. If someone needs to be dragged, they should get cut from your roster.
Be sure to note who is having trouble with the lesson material. You have two options here, you can build mini-coaches by asking you stars to check back in with these reps on a regular basis, or you can undertake the work yourself. Both have benefits as they build different sorts of trust within your team. The key is: do not train a subject and move on. Watch it flourish in a few reps then sing their praises. This is how coaches build support for theory, fact and activity.
If you have the resources, take your trainings offsite. Not all of them, but at least once a month. Also, record them! If you can, video tape them, but at the very least record the audio. Use the recording to train yourself, as a good teacher is always looking at how to improve the lesson. Even if you have done the training a dozen times, someone is going to have fresh input, and at some point you will not have delivered data as well as you could have.
A final suggestion: Training should be for at least two hours, but never more than a day every other week. Multi-day trainings are not as effective as two hour blocks twice a month. Also, most great salespeople get their best understanding when they apply what they have learned. A coach wants to get everyone on the same page, more so than throwing so much stuff out there that some of it sticks on everyone (sound familiar?)
Karl Goldfield is a start-up sales mentor. HE can be contacted at karl@karlgoldfield.com or at http://karlgoldfield.com.
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
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