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HOME » Success stories » Sales Coaching for Managers and Salespeople (all Industries)
One-on-One Coaching for Salespeople and Individuals
1. Sales Coaching for a Teleseller: A family-owned business was in the process of transitioning their business to the second generation of family members, which included transferring sales responsibilities from the founder to one of his sons. This change in sales responsibility coincided with the need to also change the way that their products and services were sold. The founder had originally sold to local clients, and had relied almost exclusively on face-to-face sales calls and cold calling. As the business grew to become more national, it became more necessary to sell over the phone and to use webinars to demonstrate the usage and benefits of their products and services.
The son who was selected as the primary salesperson was chosen because of his product knowledge and computer savvy, which they felt would help him in the webinar portion of the sales cycle. STAR was brought in to work with the new seller to develop his interpersonal and selling skills. In simple terms, he was selling too much based on his technical expertise and was not doing a good job on building rapport, getting the first appointment, or asking for the order. The net result was that he was spending his time doing a lot of webinar presentations but was not closing enough sales. STAR developed the sales coaching sessions around modules from our Selling Skills: Consultative Selling Skills, Sales Negotiation Skills, and Value Selling workshops to broaden his ability to use other selling styles and to win more sales.
2. Negotiation Coaching: STAR worked with an experienced business owner who was in the middle of a real-life negotiation that unexpectedly had become quite adversarial. STAR assisted the client by coaching in two ways. First, we provided some information and consultation on how to respond effectively to adversarial negotiation tactics. Secondly, we helped him plan thoroughly for the negotiation, with emphasis on acceptable alternatives in the event that the negotiation remained adversarial. A STAR consultant acted as a sounding board to debrief after each of the subsequent negotiation sessions, and helped to make necessary adjustments to the plan going forward.
3. Coaching and Sales Quotas: A salesperson had missed quota for a few months, and wanted to get back on track as quickly as possible. STAR began by consulting with the salesperson to identify the underlying reasons for missing quota, and to learn as much as possible about the organization's products and services. STAR also had the salesperson complete a Selling Skills Inventory (see details in box below) to assess the salesperson's natural strengths and areas for improvement. The results of this coaching interview and analysis of the inventory confirmed that the seller was quite skillful, but needed some fine-tuning and focus to win the best new sales opportunities. Sales quotas were met or exceeded for the next several months, starting with the month immediately following the coaching engagement.
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The Sales Coaching Process
As you can see from the above examples, each sales coaching and consultation session is customized to fit the salesperson’s relevant business situation. However, listed below are the general steps and process that we often use when coaching individual salespeople. There is no charge for the first two assessment steps.
The First Step
The first step would be for the salesperson to complete and return STAR’s Selling SKills Inventory (SSI). The SSI will identify strengths as well as areas for improvement to perform certain selling skills and tasks such as:
1. Your opening sales statements (building rapport with customers, setting a clear agenda)
2. Questioning and listening skills (to identify the customer's needs, to assess any underlyling objections)
3. Presenting information (to use benefits rather than features, to be concise and clear)
4. Handling sales objections (to respond creatively and appropriately)
5. Closing the sale (to ask for the order when appropriate and to not push too soon)
6. Your selling style (varying your style to fit different customers and situations)
FREE SELLING STYLE INVENTORY: Please contact us by phone or email if you are interested in receiving the Selling Style Inventory. The inventory is free and once you’ve completed and returned the inventory, we can discuss the results with you by phone.
The Second Step
The second step would be for the STAR consultant and the salesperson to speak by phone to discuss two topics. First, we will explain the results of the salesperson's SSI. Second, we will interview the salesperson to find out more details about how specifically he or she needs help. The phone interview will also give the salesperson a firsthand way to assess if our approach is a good fit for you and your organization.
The Third Step
We schedule a series of coaching sessions, to be done in person or over the phone. Clients typically need 3 to 5 coaching sessions and we agree in advance how many sessions to schedule. Pricing is based on the number of coaching sessions. The coaching sessions will address the salesperson's specific areas for improvement and the sales topics/skills that are most relevant for that individual. For example: Do you want to focus on bringing in new business? Or are you more interested in retaining and growing current accounts? What is most challenging to you as a salesperson?
Follow-up
STAR believes in results and reinforcement! When the sales coaching is completed, STAR periodically checks in with the salesperson by phone to check on progress, and there is no charge for this follow-up service.
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