Diagnosis
Your coaching efforts are not improving your reps
Prescription
Asking the right questions can steer your team to success
If you have ever wanted to do the following – correct present performance problems and assure that they stay corrected, develop
an integrated and motivated work team, improve present performance levels or cope with rapid change – then coaching is for
you.
Managers today must be more than planners and leaders. They must be concerned with developing their people – tapping their
strengths and building potential – so that there is recognizable growth in their reps from month to month. Such growth is
essential to increased productivity and a company's continued well-being. In other words, managers must be coaches. Having
written and researched extensively on the art of management and coaching, I strongly advocate becoming a questioner and building
a questioning culture throughout your sales organization. Upon completing a leadership coaching project with AT&T, the vice
president of sales and marketing shared with me his belief in our coaching questioning process. "I have observed from this
project, if you increase your questions only 10% you can increase your sales and productivity over 20%." Unfortunately, not all managers are good at coaching. Nor do they follow a questioning approach. There are several reasons
why:
- The long-established belief and practice of autocratic management – "Do it my way or else" – which, fortunately, is becoming
obsolete
- Managers tell rather than ask — missing a very important principle of changing and improving behavior
- Many sales managers are promoted primarily because they are good at selling
- The disposable-culture syndrome – it's easier to throw out and rehire. But is it? With the cost of orientation, training,
etc., it can cost a company up to $50,000 or more to bring a new rep on line. (This figure rises in proportion to the complexity
of the job. Reps need to know a lot before you send them out into the field on their own to deal with those difficult doctors.)
- Although there is a lot of product training going on in most firms, there is not a great emphasis on coaching. They give lip
service but not time and money.
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Coaching in business is a lot more than a "let's get going group" or a quick pat on the back. Coaching is a day-to-day development
and training process in which managers help their reps acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to do a job well
and to contribute to the team effort. Coaching is building rapport and should be a growth relationship.
Coaching can be used productively across the board to solve a variety of managerial problems. Athletic coaches, for example,
do more than just train – they offer support, provide frequent advice and keep people going. The best way for managers to
improve their overall performance is to improve each of their rep's performance. Coaching, like any skill, is not difficult
to learn. It does take patience, practice and persistence. I work with many varied sales organizations. The most successful
follow these steps:
