Why sales coaching matters: The untold truth behind sales struggles

Coaching: three important dimensions

Coaching. An overused term. Or even overused.

But in sales, there are three dimensions of coaching that are important to understand:

1. Why is it important after all? There's no such thing as a marketing coach, a finance coach, etc... So why coaching in sales?

2. What kind of coaching are we talking about after all? Coaching can mean many things. What exactly are we talking about?

3. And finally, how often should we do it? A little? A great deal? Passionately? And what's the return on investment? A bit of psychology, a touch of data and a few facts about this often misunderstood and mismanaged activity.

   
   

   

We'll focus on the first one in this article:

Why is coaching important in sales?

If there is ONE area of expertise that goes against a huge number of habits and mindsets that are learned throughout life, it is sales. Salespeople are expected to have a whole set of attitudes and approaches that run counter to what is expected of someone in everyday life. And they encounter and have to manage dynamics that are extremely difficult and that no other professional has to deal with:

• Education: All too often there is this perception that we have to educate our prospects about what we do. How many times have I heard "what we do is not known/understood. We need to educate our market". While education is important in marketing, it is counterproductive in sales. All too often, sales people go to meetings, make a nice presentation and hear "that's interesting, we'll discuss it internally". The reality is that the value of a sales person comes from the information he or she is able to retrieve, not the volume he or she is able to deliver.

• Hostility: by default, prospects treat salespeople with hostility. They are seen as someone who is only in it for the money, to make a profit, etc... So it's common practice to handle an interaction with a sales person with hostility. It's a defence mechanism and is seen by prospects as a way of keeping control of the conversation.

• Lying: It may be blunt, but prospects lie to salespeople. Once again, a salesperson is seen as someone who is there to extract money from the prospect. So we have the right to lie to them. That's why the various methodologies such as MEDDIC and others are not complete. Just as a prospect has the right to lie to the sales rep, asking him to go and look for this or that metric is totally pointless if he hasn't been taught the communication and psychological mechanisms that will help him to develop a relationship of trusting advisor. Which will ensure that their prospect no longer lies to them.

• Personality or role. Another key aspect of sales is that throughout our lives, our parents and "the system" have made us believe that our value as a human being is directly linked to our performance. Congratulations for getting good grades, tidying your room, scoring a goal, etc, etc.... We are taught to confuse our role with our individuality. In a complex role like sales, where rejection is constant, this is a mistake that has a strong impact.

• Respect or relationship: Another challenge that sales people face is the fact that we humans are hard-wired to develop a relationship with the people we meet. Although this varies from one individual to another, some personalities are more geared towards developing this relationship than others, as described by the DISC model and other models based on the work of Carl Jung (white paper available to download here if you are interested in these subjects). However, in sales, developing a relationship with prospects should not be the priority. What should be the priority is developing respect. The relationship follows. This means, among other things, that it's key to learn how to ask our prospects difficult questions that may confront them with their lack of logic. Not an easy task.

There are many other dynamics that make selling complex and developing a relationship with a trusted advisor complicated. So coaching is essential in sales. The next question, if you're still here dear reader, is what type of coaching is needed and, of course, how often. These are two questions I'll be answering later.