As a sales trainer I believe that every salesperson, including myself, benefits from sales training. I believe most salespeople generally know training is helpful, but, like exercise, not at this moment.
However, even those sellers appreciate the advantage of coaching, especially 1-on-1 time focused on their unique needs. Today’s sellers aren’t getting enough training to support their ever-changing and increasingly competitive world.
So, without a coach how can today’s sellers improve these vital activities?
#1 - Emails
Today, most sellers prospect by email. But has a coach critiqued what you’ve written in order to improve your response rate? When I coach sellers, we look at the emails they send. What we learn together is their opportunity to be less frustrated and more successful. Most of the “first” emails are not personalized, the word choice too rambling, the benefits too one-sided toward the seller when they should be focused on explaining what’s in it for the prospect or customer. However, it is the 2nd and 3rd follow-up emails that benefit most from an analysis and rewriting. My coaching uncovers opportunities to redefine customer profiles, customize new email templates, and re-strategize timing and testing while strategically layering in phone calls. During coaching sessions, I help sellers leverage personal marketing via networking and social media adapted for their unique sales role and territory. The result is that sellers can measure improvement immediately, especially an improved number of first conversations with prospects.
#2 - Presentations
Most everyone has created and delivered a presentation in a variety of live and virtual settings, but have you ever had a coach who helped you analyze how to handle each situation or how to improve your closing ratio? When I coach sellers, we look at both their delivery skills and their presentation. This exercise helps to uncover how most sellers deliver a one-size-fits-all approach to presenting their offering whether it's a live demonstration to a committee of people or a 1-on-1 through video conference. Oftentimes, PowerPoint can make it difficult to illustrate your point because you may have too many pages with too many words, which doesn't help direct the sales conversation. Coaching shows sellers how to adjust both the content of the presentation and how they lead the conversation in order to advance the sale beyond the presentation.
#3 - Prospecting and Selling with Confidence
Every seller gets stuck when they encounter certain objections or issues. Have you ever worked with a coach to give you new strategies or ideas to solve these challenges? When I coach sellers, we dissect each stubborn obstacle that blocks that salesperson from building a path to their goal. I find the best way to increase energy levels and confidence is to help them overcome objections by inventing new ways of addressing customer issues and concerns. As a coach, I work with each salesperson to understand what they are really trying to say and together we find a better way to say it.
#4 - Getting Back on Track
We are all assigned goals to hit, but have you ever had a coach help you get focused on achieving big goals or refocused after missing goals? In my role as a coach, I have observed countless occasions where salespeople are uncommitted to their goals or unclear about what they are really trying to accomplish. In other cases, they are simply too beat-up from past failures to have the strength or courage to dream big. Some sellers stop themselves from stretching to reach big goals because of personal fears, while others are boldly going off without a solid plan. When I take a salesperson through my coaching process, we begin by getting very specific about both short term and long term goals. I help them create a plan with benchmarks that enables them to track the little wins needed in order to be properly motivated to take each next step of their journey toward success.
