Sales coaching helps salespeople improve their selling skills and close more deals. We discovered that managers at high-impact sales organizations (defined as organizations where more than 75 percent of sales reps achieve quota) are more proficient at sales coaching and spend more time coaching their teams than managers at average 25 percent – 75 percent of reps achieve quota and low performing less than 25 percent or reselling.

Here are a few features that distinguish coaching from training:

• Ongoing – While a training event gives a foundation or baseline education, coaching expands on that basis with ongoing sessions. Coaching is a weekly practice for many successful sales firms, and some even have daily coaching practices.
• Individualized – Unlike a group training session, each coaching session is tailored to the needs of a single sales representative. The coach is familiar with the rep’s strengths, issues, and opportunities for growth.
• Focused on behavior – Coaching is behavior-based, whereas training is aimed to convey new information about products, consumers, strategies, competitors, and so on. It corrects a rep’s negative habits and actions while reinforcing the positive ones.

The Objectives of Sales Coaching program

According to CSO Insights, good coaching can boost win rates by as much as 27%. As a result, coaching is the single most significant strategy to improve the performance of your sales force. It promotes profitability by improving sales rep effectiveness, standardizing processes, and standardizing processes. Here’s how:

1. Make certain that reps are honing and strengthening their skills.

While most of what sales reps learn in training is quickly forgotten, coaching reinforces the training principles and applies them to each rep’s individual strengths and weaknesses.

Analytics are used to identify each rep’s strengths and flaws, which are then used to coach them. The sales coach may focus on core skills and best practices for new hires, such as sympathetic listening and managing objections. The coach’s attention may shift over time to negotiation skills and how to effectively offer value.

As the rep’s career advances, they develop into a knowledgeable advisor who buyers trust.

2. Build confidence

Many sales leaders make the mistake of thinking that coaching leads to discouragement and lack of confidence. Such leaders are frequently recruited from companies that only coach their salespeople after they’ve lost a deal. Coaching is perceived as a negative in this situation, and it becomes a form of punishment.

Coaching, on the other hand, should be a part of every sales rep’s daily or weekly routine. Effective coaches instill confidence in their reps by recognizing their everyday victories while also assisting them in overcoming their weaknesses. Effectively-coached reps are self-assured in their abilities and extremely satisfied as employees over the course of their employment.

3. Ensure that the sales team follows the same procedures and has the same objectives.

It’s common for sales firms to lack a set of conventional best practices to which their teams can refer. It’s nearly impossible to assist reps in correcting their actions without a standard set of standards and repeatable methods to follow.

Onboarding meetings are used by successful sales companies to train reps about the company’s best practices, and coaching is used to reinforce these standards. These one-on-one meetings are a great way to spot and correct behavior that doesn’t align with the company’s vision or standard operating procedure.

Effective sales coaching program leads to a 16.7% increase in annual revenue growth compared to those who don’t.

4. Increase Revenue

Effective sales coaching leads to a 16.7% increase in annual revenue growth compared to those who do not. That’s why sales leaders must resist the urge to “be the hero” and “take over” a lagging deal in order to score the big win—by doing so, sales leaders deprive their team of the opportunity to fine-tune and enhance their talents.

Sales firms that create “coaches” rather than “heroes” are able to transform their entire sales staff into capable deal closers. Having 100 highly talented closers is more profitable than having a few champions.

The Challenges of Sales Coaching

Several sales leaders recognize the value of coaching, but often struggle to find the time and resources necessary to put one in place. The work appears formidable, given the time and effort required, as well as some of the sales team’s resistance. Here are a few frequent sales coaching challenges:

Some salespeople do not believe they require sales training.

Many salespeople prefer training and coaching because they know it will help them advance in their careers. Others, on the other hand, are apprehensive. This could be especially prevalent among high-performing salesmen who constantly meet their targets.

This version can be overcome by establishing a coaching culture in which everyone, including the coaches, is mentored and coached. By continuing to accept coaching and working on strengthening their own talents, sales coaches and managers can set an example for others to follow. To foster a culture of continual development, establish a mix between formal and informal coaching, especially early in the sales coaching process when reps are apprehensive.

Lack of knowledge about what constitutes a successful sales coaching program .What makes a good sales rep differs from what makes a good sales coach in many cases. Coaches’ training must be implemented in your organization in order to establish a successful coaching strategy. Before beginning to instruct salespeople, coaches should have the opportunity to complete their training. To guarantee that your coaches are well-equipped to build sales abilities in other reps, use one-on-one mentorship, virtual training, and other resources.

The aforementioned difficulties are just transient, and they are usually remedied as the coaching system evolves. You may urge the entire department to embrace continuous growth if all reps realize the career benefits of coaching and senior leadership recognizes the competitive advantages.

How a Sales Coaching Platform Can Help?

You’re not alone if you find the prospect of adopting a sales coaching program intimidating. It’s a difficult undertaking, but your sales staff will reap the rewards for many years.

For your team to build on, a sales enablement software like Mindtickle delivers extensive sales coaching options. Mindtickle provides competency maps to highlight coaching areas, micro-learning modules to follow up on coaching needs, and much more.

To explore how Mindtickle can assist you in developing and implementing successful sales coaching, schedule a demo soon.