Top Sales Manager Blog

Both amateur and top sales managers agree that sales coaching can make a big difference between a good and a bad sales quarter. Spending time coaching your sales people is worthwhile, it is time well-spent, and if you ain’t doing it – it must be a priority.

What most sales manager don’t agree about, however—and this is true even among top sales managers—is how best to go about it. It seems everyone has their own opinion of sales coaching.

This difference in opinion and coaching styles led to a number of useless tips floating around the industry – what top sales managers like to call “sales coaching myths”. Over the next couple of articles we’ll be discussing the different sales coaching myths and learn more about them, so you could avoid falling for sales principles that simply don’t work.

So without further ado, let’s get on with the show.

Myth #1 – Sales coaching is teaching people skills to improve their performance.

There’s some truth in this statement. The long-term goal behind sales coaching is to improve the performance of your sales people. The above statement says to “teach” your sales people skills. For average sales managers, there’s nothing that could go wrong with that logic. But for top sales managers, they are aware that effective and efficient coaching is not so much about teaching sales people as it is about helping them to learn. There is a big difference.

The average sales manager sees it from this perspective: “I’m the sales manager. I’ll figure out what’s wrong and then I’ll tell you what to do to improve your performance. Your job is to practice. A lot. My job is to provide feedback.”

Why is this flawed? Because this way of doing things is teaching something to someone, instead of helping someone learn something.

A top sales manager isn’t afraid to take on responsibilities. He or she sees it this way: “Your job is to learn. As a sales manager, it is my job to know your strengths and weaknesses and help you find alternative ways to accomplish your – or our – goals by exploiting those strengths and downplaying your weaknesses.”

This sales coaching model succeeds because it assumes that both the coach (the sales manager) and coachee (the sales person) are ready to take on the challenges and responsibilities of their respective positions. It should also explain the reasoning behind why top sales managers often ask more than tell, and listen more than talk.

That’s one busted myth. In the next article, we’ll discuss the myths surrounding the assessment of one’s strengths and weaknesses.

To learn more about sales motivation, get our free video on the sidebar of this post or by clicking here.

Share more sales coaching myths by leaving a message after this post.

Filed under: Coaching by ralphburns