Dear Todd Cohen.com Sales Community,
Coaching. It is continuous and ongoing. Right? Of course you know this. As we continually evolve our sales culture, coaching is the center point for you as a sales leader to do correctly. Coaching happens in both a planned and serendipitous manner. It happens all of the time, and as a sales leader you are accountable to coach when you see the opportunity.
Here is a fact for you to think about: It takes between 6 and 15 times for someone to hear a coaching message before it takes root and grows into actual behavior change. It takes multiple times and venues for you to coach to the same topic before you will see some change. This means that you have to be consistent in your message to your sales staff.
How can you make sure that you are coaching the behavior that we need to see? Here is simple suggestion that has always worked for me. Make a short list for each rep with 3-5 mutually agreeable points that need to change. Put those on a sticky note or a pad or whatever you choose to so that it is close by and front and center when you have your plan and review with the reps. Refer to that and make sure that you coach to those objectives in the course of your conversations and check for the desired behavior. Ask the questions that reflect whether there is actual comprehension. This simple suggestion ensures that you are consistent and that the rep hears the same message. Make it obvious that you take it seriously and your reps will respect and get that.
As always, let me know what you think and…
Good Selling!
-Todd
It’s amazing but repetition sometimes is the key – finding creative ways to do that is the summation of my interaction with my 2 year old!