Part 2 of 2 Part Series
Oh I hear the groans again. First she wants me to get out of the office and conduct field ride-withs. Now she wants me to take time in the office and have one-on-one coaching sessions.
So do you or don’t you want to meet sales quotas consistently?
These two tips alone will guarantee you of that. It may be quite different than what you are currently doing.
But as Dr. Phil says, “How’s that working for you?”
If you’ve been reading the series, you want to meet quotas consistently or exceed them and you’re looking for the best practices to do that.
You are no longer the sales rep, totally accountable for making your sales quota.
You have a team of people and you need to meet your quota and your commission through others.
The 3 actions I implemented several times in different leadership roles helped my team out-perform others and I’m not the only one having success.
An organization that I’m consulting with and implementing our sales and leadership training workshops has adopted the field ride and telephone call monitoring by their 16 sales managers.
One sales manager had recently joined the team.
The sales manager position she filled had 4 sales managers before her in the last 18 months.
Her sales team was ranked in last place. She immediately put everything else aside and began with ride-withs, one-on-one coaching and mini sales training.
Within 8 weeks her team moved to the #1 position.
It may take you out of your comfort zone, yet it’s worth it if you want that same outcome.
Tips for One-on-One Coaching
1. Preparation: Prepare for the conversation the same as you require your sellers to prepare for a sales conversation. Carefully plan:
- The objective of the conversation and it’s not to find out what they sold for you today. It’s to find out what’s going on in relation to their goals, what’s working, what’s not, what barriers do they foresee and collaborate on how to remove them.
- What are you going to say to launch the conversation after you say hello? Draft your ‘explain why having this one-on-one session’ to include a ‘what’s in it for them’.
- What have your observed that can be complimented or recognized?
- Prepare the questions you are going to ask. This coaching session models a sales conversation.
- How will you know it was successful? What’s the end-game look like to you?
2. Leave the Monkey’s Where they Belong
- Don’t take their monkey – meaning – don’t allow the seller to hand you the problem to fix. It’s a common mistake managers do. When the seller says they have a problem, the sales manager says they will fix it. Imagine you have 10 sellers and each one gives you a problem during one week. You now have 10 problems on top of your day job. No wonder you are staying at the office after 5 and you sales team has all gone home. Instead of you taking and owning the problem, collaborate on a solution with them taking the responsibility to solve the issue.
3. Recap, Praise and Next Steps
- Clearly recap the meeting. Get confirmation the seller heard the same information.
- Establish everyone’s next steps with deadlines.
- Calendar the next one-on-one.
- Conclude with praise and/or belief they can accomplish what was discussed.
It is tough to meet those quotas when you aren’t totally in control. Not meeting quotas causes a lot of angst and some sleepless nights. Sales coaching is your answer. Now, get your calendar open and schedule your first one-on-one coaching conversation to continue to build a team of top producers.
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There are 3 actions sales managers can take to guarantee their sellers will meet sales quotas consistently. (1) Field Ride Alongs (2) One-on-One Coaching and (3) Sales meetings that build skills. Alice is unable to do your field ride alongs or one-on-one coaching (although she really could, yet that’s more important for the manager to do). What Alice can do for you to guarantee you’re meeting sales quotas is provide you with 33 high-impact, results-producing weekly sales training meetings – all under 32 minutes – complete with leader outlines and worksheets.
