Sales Call Coaching: Selling together - we learn more!

For the Spanish version of our Newsletter - REGISTER HERE https://www.dhirubhai.net/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7295051965816856576

Free Template: We start with the oldest management tool in the book - but also the most powerful - doing things together!

Sales Call Coaching consists of visiting customers together with salespeople to help, but most of all to evaluate, coach and improve their sales skills. Each interaction with the customer is a great tool for on-the-job training, and a fundamental pillar of continuous development in any sales organization.

But it's not easy - the sales manager, you are the team coach - and as such you need to perfect your own coaching skills to implement this methodology effectively.

When done well, Sales Call Coaching becomes an invaluable resource for both immediate team development and quarterly and annual performance evaluations.

Keys to coaching with an impact:

• Carry out coaching in real time, immediately after the visit or call.
• Base your observations on what you have witnessed and seen, not on interviews with the salesperson.
• Real improvement only occurs when behaviors are observed and analyzed in real situations.
• Describe the situation as it happened and ask the student to do the analysis, not you.
• The best way to give feedback is with so called "I"-messages, focusing on how a behavior makes you feel so as not to judge or express unfounded opinions

A resource for the entire sales team

In fact, coaching on calls/interactions shouldn't be limited to salespeople. Listening and observing is a key tool for all leaders who manage teams that work with clients: inside sales, customer success team, product specialists, support teams, and why not our admin people who handle customers everyday.

Think of it as training athletes and sportspeople: we all need feedback to improve, and we can all benefit from developing our self-awareness and understanding how our actions impact our relationships with clients.

Why should all managers do call coaching?

A high-performance sales organization aims to provide the highest possible value to the customer. To achieve this, salespeople must act in line with this objective, and managers must lead change and provide adequate support. Call coaching is an essential tool for this.

Benefits of sales call coaching:

• Continuous improvement: Develop a high-level sales team.
• Benchmarking: Make successful behaviors the new standard.
• Increased product knowledge: Ensure high levels of expertise in all teams that interact with customers.
• Sales skills development: Not just for salespeople, but for all customer-facing staff.
• Time optimization: Identify how salespeople spend their working day.
• Best practices: Get innovative ideas and opportunities for improvement.
• Application of sales methodologies: Guarantee the correct implementation of value selling, solution selling, challenging selling, etc.
• Market intelligence: Collect key information about customers and competitors.
• Negotiation training: Improve performance in complex meetings and negotiations with key accounts.
• Team training: encourages collaboration and connection between salespeople and their managers.

Here you will find the instructions for the template, you will find the template itself later in the text.

Evaluating and giving feedback in different business interactions requires managers to develop observation and effective communication skills. In complex situations, it may even be necessary to play several roles at the same time, selling as a team.

Senior and top-level managers should also look for opportunities to accompany salespeople and their managers on customer visits. For them, this represents a dual training: they help both salespeople and at the same time improve their own and their managers performance.

Key recommendations:

• Spend time in the field: Spend at least two working days a week with your team on visits or calls.
• Variety in interactions: Combine face-to-face and virtual visits and different types of meetings. Do prospecting visits/calls as well as explorations and closting visits, and to different customer types.
• Structured evaluation: Use an evaluation template to guide analysis and feedback. You keep insights in, and opinatics out of teh conversation, and gain trust.

To analyze salespeople's performance at different stages of the sales process, it is essential to have a clear evaluation structure. You can download our Sales Call Evaluation Template for inspiration and adapt it according to the type of interaction.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

You should pay attention to basic sales process situations and how different tools and sales situations and parts of the meeting (see example below) are applied.

?

Each sales situation requires different skills. That's why it's important to train each skill strategically, according to the needs of the moment.

Use the evaluation template for inspiration. Adapt the template depending on what type of meeting it is that you coach. How is the sales rep performing in different situations? Notice when they are doing the following:

• Opening new opportunities: How do you approach key or growing customers?
• Cross-selling: Are you managing to expand the relationship with high-level contacts?
• Value selling techniques: Are you maximizing the share of wallet in already consolidated accounts?
• Negotiation skills: How do you handle objections and close deals?

… etc. etc.?The examples are infinite. Select the situations to train and coach according to your tactical needs, and go for it!?

Download the template now and start transforming each interaction into an opportunity for improvement.