Training Industry Magazine - July/August 2018 - 23

KEY TAKEAWAYS
* To become a better coach, you must
understand what stands in the way.
* Short-term fixes treat the symptoms,
not the problem.
* The urge to simply tell someone what
to do is ineffective and diminishes
buy-in and responsibility.
* Natural defensiveness puts leaders
and sales professionals on edge.
* Effective coaching offers detailed
feedback with specific direction.
* Great coaches ask questions, listen,
learn and offer perspective that leads
to insights.
* Coaching is personal and emotional
and therefore trust must come first.
* The goal should be to help sales
professionals become stronger
problem-solvers and independent.

clarity and specificity of exactly what the
receiver should do differently the next
time. Missing the opportunity to give
precise feedback is like dropping the
ball right before the goal.

A DIFFERENT APPROACH
Making the transition to more effective
coaching typically involves changing the
conversation. It's not about having more
conversations. It's about changing the
dynamics of the conversation from telling
and directing to collaborative problemsolving, where you help team members selfassess and self-discover ways to leverage
strengths and improve performance.

* Salespeople should be involved and
responsible for their own performance
and development.
* Every person has blind spots that
cannot be seen clearly or completely.
To see a full, sharp picture, everyone
needs an outside perspective.
* A successful coaching interaction
opens perspective for both the
salesperson and the sales manager.
* The sales manager's role as coach is to
be a thought partner and resource, to
ask questions, listen and learn. They
also offer perspectives with the goal
of helping the team member gain
insight and inspiration to grow and
strengthen performance.
* Trust is essential. While the focus of
the conversation is on the business
issues, the essence of a coaching
interaction can be deeply personal
and emotional. The salesperson must
trust that the sales manager's intent
is to help and support, not criticize,
judge, or control.

Excellence in
Developmental Sales
Coaching: Guiding Principles
The goal of developmental sales coaching
is to create an environment where team
members feel self- motivated to grow,
excel and take greater responsibility for
what they do.
Ensure that the seller talks first, last and
the most. Developmental sales coaching
helps sellers move toward more selfmotivated behavior because it meets
our inherent psychological needs for:

Excellence in Developmental
Sales Coaching: Core Tenets

Autonomy: Asking questions to help
sellers self-assess and self-discover
ways to improve performance gives
team members a better sense of control
versus telling them what to do.

Let's begin with the core tenets
that underpin Richardson's sales
coaching methodology:

Relatedness: Creating a safe, nonjudgmental environment to learn and grow
builds trust and strengthens relationships.

It is tough to
do something when
you have never seen
it done well.
Competence: Focusing on addressing
performance needs helps the seller to
feel mastery over their work environment
and increases their confidence.
Ask more than tell: The heart of the
coaching conversation lies in the
manager's ability to engage in a
collaborative process to help sellers selfassess and self-discover ways to leverage
strengths and improve performance
through effective problem-solving.
Coaching by asking shows respect for
the team member, opens conversations
that reveal more and better information
for both the manager and seller to
accurately diagnose needs, increases
seller ownership of and buy-in to the
solution, and helps sellers become
stronger problem-solvers and more
independent by using the process itself
to self-coach.
Ensure the right issue gets solved.
Diagnose before prescribing; behind
every performance gap lies an underlying
root issue that is the true blocker to
improved performance. Identifying and
agreeing on the performance gap or
opportunity is only the starting point.
A manager must take the next step to
identify the root issue that is preventing
the desired behavior before identifying
a solution.
Andrea Grodnitzky is the chief marketing
officer at Richardson where she is
responsible for demand generation and
value creation through strategic marketing,
brand awareness, digital optimization and
market-facing thought leadership to drive
growth. Email Andrea.

T R A I N I N G I N DUSTR Y MA GAZ INE - TRAINING TOOLBOX 20 18 I WWW. T RAI NINGINDU S T RY . C OM/ MAGAZ I NE

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Training Industry Magazine - July/August 2018