An old prospector was digging for gold without success, so he decided to head into town and have a few shots of whiskey. He tied his mule to the hitching post and headed inside.
At the same time a drunken cowboy staggered out of the bar and said, “Old timer, can you dance?” The prospector said “no.”
The cowboy started firing bullets near the prospector’s feet and he naturally started to dance. Every time he stopped, the cowboy began to fire again. When the cowboy’s pistol had been emptied, the prospector quickly went to his mule, grabbed his shotgun, held it under the cowboy’s chin and said, “Hot shot, have you ever kissed a mule?” The cowboy said, “No, but I’ve always wanted to.”
The moral of the story is that you can force people to do things, but when they are doing things under protest, their attitude usually sucks pretty badly.
Fast forward 150 years and watch most managers spend the majority of their time running around at Mach 2 with their hair on fire performing activities they think are critical while neglecting the development and fine tuning of their sales teams. When you ask them why they don’t provide some form of sales coaching for their folks, they typically mumble one of several inane responses (excuses) that I will get to in a minute.
Without boring you with lots of statistics, suffice it to say that the case for sales coaching is pretty compelling, and bottom line, helps sales reps close more business. Isn’t that why you hired them?
Now back to the excuses. The first one that usually pops out is that managers think they are too busy. There is no doubt that sales manager’s work lots of hours, but much of this time is spent putting out fires and solving problems. They think they are providing adequate sales management because they find themselves handling reps requests for help on prospect and customer issues. Needless to say help of this nature provides a bump to sales results, but its short term in nature. What managers really should be doing is helping their sales reps learn to solve most dilemmas on their own. This type of help provides much longer lasting results for the sales team.
As an example, while managers may be able to “tell” a sales rep what they should do to advance a stuck opportunity they are sacrificing another opportunity. They won’t be able to get the sales rep to share their feelings on the best options, other options, or position their feelings on how to move forward under those circumstances. Of course, coaching will require more up front but it will produce a more motivated and empowered sales team.
Secondly, although some sales managers certainly have a nose for helping others succeed and maybe even a desire to teach, there is no reason to think or expect them to possess a bundle of coaching skills. Lowest common denominator means they simply don’t know how to coach.
For managers to become great sales coaches takes a lot of time and some serious dedication. It is just not a skill set arrow that most managers have in their quiver. Fortunately for salespeople, there are many 
good coaches and sales coaching programs available for these sales managers to employ. Yours truly is a blue collar sales coach, currently providing sales coaching for commercial and residential HVAC sales consultants, termite & pest salespeople, and security system/fire protection equipment sales reps. It’s amazing what 30 minutes a week via video chat with a good sales coach can do for your sales budget!
Thirdly, if managers really knew how much of a bump in sales results that sales coaching provided, they would all be providing it. I saw the results of a five-year study published by the Aberdeen Group in 2012 that showed that among sales reps with at least a 20% increase in finding new business (prospecting and closing), 82% were receiving ongoing sales coaching. On top of that eye popping stat turnover among sales reps was 10% less among those being coached. What’s not to like?
The fourth excuse managers’ use for not providing sales coaching is that they mistakenly think that the confidence of their sellers will be diminished. The only time this is a valid reason is if coaching is only to be used as punitive action to inflict pain on lousy performers. Truth be told, coaching rarely works with reps in the bottom third of the pack. It tends to work best when directed toward the mid performers and above; the group that has and exhibits a desire to get better. So as opposed to hurting confidence levels, the real result of sales coaching is enhanced selling skills, which will bolster the confidence levels of this group of employees.
Would you be pleased if one of your sales reps felt like this one does in Mobile, AL. who emailed me this shout out…?
Doug thanks for all you do to continue sharpening the skills we need to be consistent in this sales arena! Dude you Rock!
Or what if one of your managers felt like this one from Missouri who stated…
It’s not often that kudos go out to the man whose coaching improves our sales success, but Doug I want to say congratulations and THANK YOU!
There are some cool video testimonials on my website here.
©2015 Robinson Training Solutions, LLC
