Institutionalizing Change with Sales Coaching Culture

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B2B selling is now, more than ever, “hand-to-hand combat.”

Current economic pressures, coupled with shifts in demand, commoditization, procurement-led buying processes, and heightened competition, all require your sales team to be more agile, capable, and resourceful if they are going to get more than their fair share of the market.

We work with hundreds of sales leaders across many industries and most recognize that they need to spend more time coaching their salespeople to build a strong and resilient sales organization.

We’ve observed that sales leaders often refer to their coaching activities, but more often than not, what they refer to as coaching isn’t coaching at all – it’s inspecting.

For example, cross-examining the salesperson’s status of their pipeline and forecasts is not coaching – it’s inspecting.  Inspection is, however, a component of sales governance and includes a cadence of inspection for the pipeline, forecast, and the other essential metrics that drive results.

But inspection without coaching can foster conditions for fear and malfeasance. Rather than face potential tongue lashing for not having enough pipeline or forecast, salespeople will fill the pipeline with opportunities with low chances of winning, along with aggressive forecasts that will end up being missed. In the end, salespeople would rather hide opportunities from the forecast until they are sure they will close. 

Institutionalizing change with a sales coaching culture can take time, but without it, you’ll find it difficult for the sales team to “suit up” for the hand-to-hand combat they face in the marketplace.

If implemented effectively, salespeople will be more willing to seek help when an opportunity has stalled, take risks, and experiment with new solutions, approaches, and tactics.  This should lead to more wins and deeper account penetration. They’ll also be more willing to embrace collaboration, innovation, and risk.

Creating a sales coaching culture has a flywheel effect that leads to improved customer account penetration, larger and more strategic deals, higher win rates, consistent and reliable forecasts, and lower turnover.

The first step to establishing a sales coaching culture is to recognize that most sales leaders have never been coached themselves, nor have they been trained on how to coach their salespeople.

You can’t instill a coaching culture with off-the-shelf e-learning, just as you can’t change company culture by sending out a mass email and conducting a webinar.

The second step to establishing a sales coaching culture is to identify an execution and thinking partner that can help you develop a customized plan to mobilize significant and durable cultural change.

Doing it yourself is possible, but it typically takes 3-4 times as long.

The marketplace will continue to be rough and tumble for the foreseeable future. Help your sales team better compete by establishing and institutionalizing change with a sales coaching culture.

 
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