As a sales coach, you want to help your reps achieve their goals and grow their skills. But you also have to consider the expectations and best practices of your industry and market. How can you balance sales rep needs with industry standards? Here are some tips to help you navigate this challenge.
Different industries have different sales cycles, customer profiles, regulations, and trends. You need to understand the specific context of your industry and how it affects your sales process and strategy. For example, if you sell software to healthcare providers, you have to comply with HIPAA and other privacy laws, and you have to deal with long and complex decision-making processes. You can't use the same tactics and techniques as if you sell clothing to online shoppers. You need to coach your reps on how to adapt to your industry's nuances and challenges.
Coaching should be about sharing information and experiences that work. And more is better. Weekly team catch-up meetings are a powerful tool. Meeting each week to review opportunities and challenges and discuss/debate how they are being managed helps everyone learn from each other's experiences while they are happening. Discussing how changing industry standards are affecting clients and the ability to meet their needs is far more beneficial than sending out information. In many cases, it's about overperforming on standards. If our competitors are overperforming and we don't know it, we will not be able to meet the customers' expectations. It's about building understanding and competency with real shared experiences as they happen.
You want to set ambitious and realistic sales goals for your reps and your team. But how do you know what's achievable and what's not? You can use industry benchmarks to help you gauge your performance and identify areas of improvement. Industry benchmarks are average or median values of key sales metrics, such as conversion rates, deal sizes, win rates, and revenue per rep. You can find industry benchmarks from research reports, surveys, or online tools. You can use them to compare your results with your peers and competitors, and to adjust your goals and strategies accordingly.
At the end of the day, good continuous conversation is key to understand what obstacles, what strengths / weaknesses, and assess what leverage you can have. A benchmark is great to know where we could possibly be headed, but an agreed course of baby steps between the sales rep and the manager will pave a motivation ground for improvements - bit by bit, step by step.
Even within the same industry, not all reps are the same. They have different strengths, weaknesses, personalities, and preferences. You need to customize your sales coaching for each rep, based on their individual needs and goals. You can use a sales coaching framework, such as GROW or SMART, to help you structure your coaching sessions and conversations. You can also use data and feedback to assess each rep's performance and progress, and to tailor your coaching interventions and action plans. You can also leverage your reps' learning styles and motivations to make your coaching more engaging and effective.
You can't be the only source of knowledge and guidance for your reps. You also need to encourage them to learn from other industry experts and thought leaders. You can do this by sharing relevant content, such as articles, podcasts, videos, or webinars, that showcase industry insights, trends, best practices, or case studies. You can also facilitate peer learning, by creating opportunities for your reps to exchange ideas, tips, and feedback with each other or with other sales professionals in your industry. You can also connect your reps with mentors, coaches, or advisors, who can offer them additional support and advice.
Extremely hard to do with proud and already experienced sales reps. Social events and informal gatherings might facilitate peer to peer learning!
While it's important to follow industry standards and best practices, you don't want to limit your reps' potential and growth. You also want to foster a culture of innovation and creativity, where your reps can experiment with new ideas, approaches, or solutions. You can do this by creating a safe and supportive environment, where your reps can share their challenges, failures, and successes, without fear of judgment or criticism. You can also challenge your reps to think outside the box, by asking them open-ended and provocative questions, or by giving them scenarios or exercises that require them to apply their skills and knowledge in new ways.