What are some of the common sales coaching challenges and how do you overcome them?

Finding time for sales coaching can be challenging, but it's crucial for the growth and success of your team. Schedule Regular Coaching Sessions: Make coaching a priority by setting aside specific times for one-on-one coaching sessions with your sales team members. Treat these sessions as non-negotiable appointments to ensure they happen consistently. Use Micro-Coaching Moments: Coaching doesn't always have to be a lengthy formal session. Look for opportunities in daily interactions to provide quick feedback and insights. Encourage Self-Reflection: Ask your sales reps to reflect on their own performance regularly. Tailor Coaching to Individual Needs: Every salesperson is unique, with different strengths and weaknesses.

There needs to be accountability all the way from the top down to create and foster a coaching culture. Managers will always say they don't have enough time, so they need to be held accountable by senior leadership to actually coaching their reps. When I was leading sales teams at the VP level, it was always a part of 1 on 1s with my Directors and Managers to confirm that they were actually coaching. We would discuss the quality of the coaching, not just the quantity. This allowed me to hold them accountable to focus on coaching in the specific areas that we needed to work on based on what was going on in the business.

As sales leaders, we often need help finding enough time for coaching. However, the key lies in reframing our perspective: coaching should be a top priority. Experts suggest dedicating 50% of our time to coaching. Doing so can positively impact your team's growth and development, ultimately leading to tremendous success for everyone.

The best way to get past this is to coach the coaches and lead by example. One of my favorite ways to do this is conduct a coaching with a rep but invite their manager into the session to shadow. Then you can shadow the manager conducting a coaching session with a rep. Managers need as much coaching as the reps do. It's dangerous to just assume that managers know how to coach just because they are in the role.

I love leading by example and showing reps that I know what I am talking about. Walk the walk. Reps need to see that you are legit and not just a talking head. As a leader, get on the phones. Don't ask your team to do what you aren't willing to. Not only will you gain their trust, you will learn a ton about your customers, your process, and even about yourself. #pickupthephone

Building trust during sales coaching is essential to create a safe and open environment for salespeople to learn, grow, and accept feedback. Active Listening and Empathy: When coaching, actively listen to your sales reps without interruption. Non-Judgmental Approach: Emphasize the confidentiality of coaching sessions. Assure your sales reps that anything discussed during coaching will remain private and won't be used against them. Focus on the behaviors and actions that need improvement, not on personal traits or character. Co-create Development Plans: Involve your sales reps in the coaching process by collaboratively creating development plans. Set realistic and achievable goals together.

One of my favorite tactics to ensure alignment is to be able to clearly outline the skills that a successful rep must possess. Once you have that list of skills, assess each rep based on those skills. Focus your coaching on the areas that reps score low. As long as those skills make sense for the role they are in and will help them win more deals, the reps will appreciate the customized approach to coaching.

Another great way to show impact of your coaching is to compare qualitative results, not just the quantitative piece. Example: Susie was struggling with her discovery calls. We spent several coaching sessions laser-focused on improving her discovery calls. Not only has she increased her pipeline by $X by better qualifying her prospects, listen to this call she just had with ABC Company. Compare that call to her discovery call with XYZ Company just 2 weeks ago. Night and day.

Here are 12 Common Coaching Killers: 1. Coaching People (their agenda) or Closing Them (your agenda, manipulation) 2. Interrogative Coaching-Leading the Witness 3. Coaching in Your Image-Honor Individuality 4. Living Everywhere but Now-Be Present 5. Coach One Gap at a Time-or get lost in the coaching maze 6. Double Dipping on Questions-One Question at a Time 7. Coaching is for Losers-Everyone gets coached vs. only coaching the underperformer, which sends the message "coaching is for the 8. There’s No Such Thing as The Perfect Coaching Question 9. Wanting More for Others that They Want for Themselves 10. The Coachee Answers the Question-Not You 11. Losing Patience 12. Honoring the A.B.C.’s of Leadership. Always Be Coaching!