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Next Level Sales Coaching. How to Build a Sales Team That Stays, Sells, and Succeeds. Edition No. 1

  • Book

  • 224 Pages
  • August 2020
  • John Wiley and Sons Ltd
  • ID: 5837063

Do you remember being "in the trenches" as a salesperson? What did you think of your sales manager? If you're like many front-line sellers, you probably didn't think she or he was a wonderful example of leadership who could inspire you to do your best in life and in work. The unfortunate truth is that many sales managers - well-meaning though they usually are - lack the skills and know-how to help their sales teams grow and achieve greater success.

Over a combined 50 years of experience as salespeople, managers, coaches, and executives, authors Steve Johnson and Matthew Hawk have witnessed the do's and don'ts of top performing sales teams. Next Level Sales Coaching is the culmination of their experience. In this book, they distill what they have learned working with organizations like Google, Bank of America, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and many more. The result is a compendium of best sales coaching practices with the power to make any sales manager into an inspirational and transformational leader.

At its heart, this book is about how to integrate a person-centered development mindset into sales environments. Readers will work through practical examples, including a self-assessment, to identify the best way to implement strong coaching programs within their organizations. Each chapter concludes with takeaway questions and tips that sales leaders can use right away. From goal setting to daily sales huddles, and sales development training to analytics, Next Level Sales Coaching covers the best practices that readers will want to implement to take sales management to the next level.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Why We Wrote This Book 1

Who This Book is For 2

Who We Are 3

Chapter 1 The Case for Sales Coaching 7

Dynamic Sales Coaching is Better than Random Sales Coaching 8

The Benefits of Reading (and Using!) This Book 11

What’s in This Book 14

What’s NOT in This Book 14

Are You Ready? 15

The Road Ahead 17

Chapter 2 Why Coaching Fails or Fails to Happen 19

Personal Background 20

Company Culture 22

Quantity: Why Managers Don’t Coach Enough 23

Quality: Why Sales Managers Coach Ineffectively 23

Chapter 3 Sales Coaching Model and Self-Assessment 25

Sales Coaching Model 25

Sales Manager Attitudes 27

Sales Manager Self-Assessment: Attitudes and Activities 28

Impact of Coaching 29

Chapter 4 Review and Plan Meetings 31

Planning Varies by Type of Sales Organization 32

Benefits of Review and Plan Conversations 34

Review and Plan Conversation 36

Review and Plan Meeting Tips 38

Chapter 5 Goal-Setting Meetings 41

Why Salespeople Miss Expectations 42

Guidelines for Conducting Goal-Setting Meetings 43

Goal-Setting Meeting Overview 44

Goal-Setting Meeting Process 46

Addressing Attitude Issues on Your Team: The Classic Types 66

Goal-Setting Meeting Best Practices 72

Chapter 6 Skill Development Training 75

Talent is Overrated 76

Skill Development Training Challenges 78

Benefits of Skill Development Training 79

Opportunities for Skill Development Training 79

Skill Development Training Steps 82

Types of Feedback in Skill Development Training 95

Skill Development Training Tips 97

Chapter 7 Check-Ins 99

How Check-Ins Impact Your Sales Team in a Positive Way 100

How to Check In 102

Chapter 8 Performance Feedback 115

The Practice Coach, the Game Coach, Then the Practice Coach 116

Define Roles and Responsibilities 117

Performance Feedback Process 122

Performance Feedback Form 124

Insights on Performance Feedback 136

Chapter 9 Sales Meetings 139

Top Ten Reasons Why Salespeople Hate Sales Meetings 141

Sales Meeting Agenda 142

The End Game 143

Preparation 145

Welcome/Overview Agenda 146

Opening Inspiration 148

Success Stories 150

Skills Development Training 154

Goal Reporting and Goal Setting 160

Summary and Action Steps 163

Next-Meeting Logistics 164

Closing Inspiration 164

Other Activities 164

Chapter 10 Sales Huddles 167

Benefits of Sales Huddles 168

How to Recognize Effective Sales Huddles 171

Sales Huddle Example Scripting 174

Chapter 11 Sales and Service Coaching in the Contact Center 177

A Tale of Two Coaches 177

Make Time 179

Use Non-Scored Feedback 179

Coach Proactively 181

Focus on One Behavior at a Time 182

Use “MAPs” - Micro Action Plans 183

Use Questions to Coach 186

Recognize People 188

Calibrate 190

Chapter 12 Sales Enablement Best Practices 193

Micro Learning 193

Video 193

Web Conferencing and Video Chat 195

Competency Assessment Tools 196

Field Coaching Tools 197

Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence 197

Analytics 198

Appendix: Sales Coaching Cadences 199

References/Further Reading 203

Acknowledgments 205

About the Authors 209

Index 211

Authors

Steve Johnson Matthew Hawk