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7
Metrics-Driven Sales Coaching

In many ways, a sales manager's title should be “sales coach.” Maximizing sales
managers' time spent on coaching is one of the most effective levers to drive
sales productivity. In scaling HubSpot's sales organization, I was constantly
challenged to find new ways to reinforce a culture of sales coaching, knowing it
needed to be central to our process. This chapter outlines the approach I used, a
methodology I call “metrics-driven sales coaching.”

“Effective sales coaching by sales managers is the most important lever to
drive sales productivity.”

What does effective coaching look like? What does ineffective coaching look
like? Let's start with an example. For context, I've been trying to learn the game
of golf for the past 15 years, and I've taken many coaching lessons along the
way. Some of these lessons have been better than others.

Here's what one of the weaker coaches once told me: “Mark, take a swing.…
Okay. Now try this grip and lean back a bit. Put more weight in your back foot.
Think one o'clock, not two o'clock, on your backswing, and turn your wrists over
sooner as you strike the ball.”

Whoa, partner! You lost me. Come again?

Another golf pro, who was far more helpful, took a different approach. “Mark,
take a swing…Okay. Now try this grip. Take 100 swings like that.” Twenty
minutes later he asked, “How does that feel?”

“Great,” I said.

“Okay,” he replied. “Now try putting more weight on your back foot. Take
another 100 swings like that.” Twenty minutes later he asked, “How does that
feel?”

“Fantastic,” I said.

That is effective sales coaching.