Page 71 - The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million - PDFDrive.com
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When the sales manager sits down one-on-one with each salesperson to create a
coaching plan on the first day of each month, it's a highly interactive meeting.
The manager doesn't say, “John, I reviewed your performance last month. Here's
what I saw. Here's what we're going to work on, and here's how we're going to
do it.” That approach simply does not empower salespeople or create buy-in.
That approach squanders the opportunity to use the meeting as a great learning
opportunity in which the salesperson can constructively think about his personal
development.
By developing plans together with the salesperson, the sales manager empowers
her team members to analyze their own results and diagnose their own skill
deficiencies through a sequence of questions. Such a sequence of questions,
stated from the sales manager's perspective, is listed here.
“Good to see you, John. How do you think you did last month?”
“Qualitatively speaking, what do you think you did well and what do you
think you can improve on?”
“Let's review the numbers. Here are the call activity metrics for the entire
team. What are your observations about your performance on this chart?”
“Let's move on to the next chart on connect rates. What do you see here?”
A sales manager should continue through all the key metrics. When interesting
observations arise, she should dive in a bit, asking, “Why do you think your
performance here was so strong (or so weak) relative to your peers in this area of
the funnel?”
After running through the metrics, the sales manager should ask the most
important (two-part) question:
“So, reflecting on your qualitative observations and the metrics that we ran
through, which skill do you think we should work on this month, and what's
the best way that I can help you with that skill?”
More often than not, the sales manager will already have a pretty good idea of
which skill she wants to work on with the salesperson. However, the sales
manager should be willing to adjust her plan based on the salesperson's
insightful contributions to the discussion. This flexible approach maximizes the
buy-in and empowerment of the salesperson. It teaches salespeople to be their
own independent coach, to reflect on their deficiencies, and to customize
coaching plans so they can improve on their own.
