How to Coach Your Sales Team Member to Achieve Better Results in 15 Minutes or Less

According to research by Gartner, salespeople will forget 87% of the sales training they had attended within 1 month. If this is the case, coaching could be a better alternative to develop the essential skills and attitudes to enable sales teams to achieve better performances.

However, many sales managers are not coaching their sales teams, despite knowing the benefits. Some of the reasons for this reluctance are:

1. Not enough time. It takes time to coach, and it may take a longer time to see results from coaching
2. Don’t know how to coach. Sales managers are not promoted because they have great coaching skills. Besides, it could take many learning hours to master coaching skills
3. The lack of a workable coaching process. Many sales managers thought " coaching " was conversing with their sales team. However, if sales managers want to achieve specific outcomes from the coaching, they would have to implement a workable coaching process.

In other words, sales managers need a coaching process that is:

• Quick;
• Easy to learn; and
• Reliably delivering positive outcomes

So here's a coaching guideline that is adapted from the International Coaching Federation (ICF) coaching competencies and the International Association of Coaching (IAC) coaching masteries. While professional coaching is way more profound than this guideline, it is something that is quick to implement, easier to learn the basics, and can deliver positive outcomes within 10-15 minutes.

1.  Establishing and Maintaining Psychological Safety

• “What I'd like to discuss with you is to seek ways to see if you can meet next year's targets more effectively.  Is it OK that I talk to you for 30 minutes?”
• “Please be assured that whatever we discuss today is just to help you get better.  This is not a performance review, and I won't be picking on you”

While the coachee is likelier to initiate the coaching in a professional coaching scenario, it is more probable that the manager would initiate the coaching in a manager-subordinate situation. The important thing here is to put the coachee at ease and ensure sufficient trust and psychological safety for coachees to speak their minds.

2.  Given affirmation of past achievements or strengths

• “I see that you have done [fact 1], [fact 2], and [fact 3] consistently.  These are good habits to generate sales”

Managers tend to correct our team members' mistakes rather than affirm them for taking the right actions. As sales managers, we may sometimes be overly fixated on sales figures and should focus more on the steps and activities that will deliver the numbers.

When sales managers encourage, not only do coachees get encouragement, they get to leverage on previously successful strategies too.`

3.  Processing in the Present

• “How do you feel about next year's targets?”
• “What are the key challenges and concerns?”
• “What resources can you leverage now?”

Sales managers hate when their team members give excuses on how they cannot meet targets or how they would want to get resources or give their customers additional concessions. As a result, sales managers may need to be more judgemental when their team members voice their concerns.

When coaching their team members, sales managers could ask them to focus on what is within the team members' spheres of influence and control. Ask the coachees to focus on what they can or will do rather than what their companies or customers can do for them.

4.  Engaged Listening

• “Sounds like you have concerns about achieving next year's targets.  What is bothering you?”
• “I'm hearing a lot of uncertainty. What's the real challenge here?”
• “Tell me more”
• “And what else?”

The other aspect of coaching is to suspend judgment and advice and listen intently on the coachee. Seek to understand the coachee's world before making conclusions or discussing advice.

5.  Clarify with curiosity

• "Given your concerns, what is one outcome you'd like to achieve today?"
• “You say {statement 1} and {statement 2}. How are they related?"
• "How do you mean by….?"
• "Which course of action will be within your control?"

Team members could be uncomfortable articulating what they are thinking. There could also be times when they need clarification about their thinking or how to respond to a particular challenge. Hence, sales managers must be curious about what their coachees say and seek clarification. 

6.  Expressing

• “Can I share an observation with you?”
• “Can I share a story with you?”

Coaching does not have to be all asking questions. Sales managers can share what they have observed from their coachees, especially when the coachees give excuses, lack confidence, or are caught in a dilemma.

7.  Helping the Coachee Set and Keep Clear Intentions

• “What's important for you here?”
• “What made you choose that course of action?”
• “What could being fully committed look like?” 

Ultimately, coaching is about having the coachees be accountable for their decisions and have ownership of the outcomes of their choices. The coach makes sure that their coachees are clear about the coachees' intentions and goals and facilitates how they can achieve those goals.

8.  Inviting Possibilities

• “What could you do?”
• “What would happen if…?”
• “And what else could you do?”

The sales manager, as a coach, can explore the various possibilities and options with coachees to take a suitable course of action. What is important here is that the sales manager challenges coachees to develop those options and possibilities.

9.  Facilitates Action, Growth and Support

• “What actions will you be taking? ”
• “What will be your first steps?  When?“
• “What kinds of support or resources would you need?”
• “Who could give you the support?”

Coaching usually works when coachees are committed to following through with their intentions, goals, and actions. Coachees are likelier to follow through if they can find and obtain the support systems to help them. As sales managers, the key is to hold coachees accountable while giving them the encouragement and autonomy to take those necessary actions.

Before the sales manager embarks to coach team members, it is essential to understand that team members may need the training to learn skills before they can be coached on how best to apply the right skills to the respective challenges.

c.j. is a bilingual facilitator and coach in English and Mandarin and has rolled out coaching projects throughout the Asia Pacific region. He is the IAC Singapore Chapter Leader and an ICF Professional Certified Coach. c.j. is accredited in various assessment tools such as the Cultural Navigator, TTI DISC, OD-Tools Trait Map and Motivation Questionnaire, Belbin Team Roles, etc..  He is the co-creator of Sales Map sales proficiency assessment and author of the book "Winning the B2B Sale in China"