Training Industry Magazine - March/April 2017 - 41

ability to accomplish his goals. Given
the proper information, most managers
are relatively effective at uncovering
performance gaps and sharing their
observations. Unfortunately, this is often
the extent of their coaching conversation.
Great sales coaches, like great coaches in
other fields, then observe, ask questions
and even role-play with players to identify
the root cause of their performance or
behavior gaps. These managers know
that telling someone to behave differently
won't help if they don't have the skills or
knowledge to do it.
Next, when a skill or knowledge gap
is uncovered, effective coaches define
corrective actions. Think of this as a short
learning activity designed to address the
specific skill or knowledge gap. Generally,
these activities take an hour or less and will
help the person learn or refresh learning.
Finally, effective coaches evaluate the
impact of their previous interaction.
This may involve role-playing, a joint
call or merely a follow-up conversation
to determine whether a learning
assignment was completed and the
desired impact achieved.

If we want to transform the manager-seller
interaction from feedback to coaching,
we must begin by introducing a complete
coaching model and securing 100 percent
buy-in from managers. If your managers
aren't committed to the model, there
is little chance your coaching initiative
will work.

2|Inadequate Performance and Behavioral Targets
Most modern sales teams have some CRM
solution and more sales performance data
than they could ever digest. Oftentimes,
this data is cumbersome to access and
won't support a productive coaching
conversation. The typical CRM doesn't
allow managers and sellers to create
individual sales success plans, which
causes companies to revert to more
generic "funnel standards." However,
missing or exceeding these standards
is not necessarily a clear indicator of
success. Missing a target like "keep 3X your
quota in your funnel" may not provide
enough insight to allow the coach to
really understand a performance issue. In
this environment, sellers and managers
often spend more time debating the
merits of the funnel standards rather
than understanding the root cause of
legitimate performance gaps.

FIGURE 1.

MANAGER-SELLER COACHING
CONVERSATION MODEL
G

Goal Setting

U

Uncover Performance Gaps

I

Identify Root Cause of Gaps

D

Define Corrective Actions

E

Evaluate the Impact

A similar challenge exists with respect to
selling behaviors. Many companies don't
have a commonly understood model
for key selling behaviors. Without this
shared understanding of the ideal models,
managers and sellers talk past one another
as they consider and debate the merits of
specific activities instead of focusing on
maximizing proficiency with them.
Want to enable exceptional coaching
that drives consistent results? First,
create individual sales success plans and
track progress against these predictive
metrics (see sidebar on page 42). Actionable
performance gaps will be easily
identifiable. Next, implement a shared
model for your key selling behaviors,
preferably a comprehensive model
supported by online learning that would
facilitate ongoing development.

US
CA
YZ

IN

G

COMMITMENT

N

CAPACITY

O
TI
AC

AN

E

AL

SKILL & KNOWLEDGE

IV
CT

RE

RO

BEHAVIORS

R
CO

OT

G

IN

RESULTS

Y
PL

AP

E

3 | Lacking Diagnostic Questions
This is arguably the most difficult obstacle
to address. Despite training managers
on the GUIDE coaching model, (i.e.,
developing personalized sales success
plans with every person on the sales
team, reporting against these metrics,
and establishing a comprehensive selling
model that the entire organization
agrees represents the optimum selling
behaviors), most managers still won't
coach. Why? Simply because they cannot
remember all the questions to ask to
diagnose performance issues, which
shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.

T R A I N I N G I N DUSTR Y MA GAZ INE - COACHING AND CULTURE 20 1 7 I WWW. TRA I NI NGI ND US TRY . C OM/ MA GAZ I NE

| 41


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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Training Industry Magazine - March/April 2017

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