Unleashing Your Inner Sales Coach: How to Inspire, Motivate and "Coach" Your Sales Team to Success

Table of Contents

Introduction

Engaging

Sales

Professionals

Chapter 1:

Controlling the Controllables

Chapter 2:

Building, Cultivating and Maintaining a Healthy Attitude

Chapter 3:

Using Praise and Recognition as a Strategic Force

Chapter 4:

Engaging People One at a Time

Chapter 5:

Creating an Honest and Ethical Company

Chapter 6:

Admitting your Mistakes

Chapter 7:

Making the Right Moves as a Sales Manager

Chapter 8:

Yielding Great Influence

Building a More Accountable Environment

Chapter 9:

Setting Clear Expectations

Chapter 10:

Maintaining Accountability Over Time

Handling the core management skills

Chapter 11:

Delegating Effectively

Chapter 12:

Handling and Communicating Price Changes

Chapter 13:

Organizing Your Time

Chapter 14:

Leading Business Reviews

Coaching for better sales practices

Chapter 15:

Coaching Through

One –to – One Meetings

Chapter 16:

Training the Newbies

Chapter 17:

Helping the Technology Resistant

Chapter 18:

Fostering Creativity

Chapter 19:

Riding Together to Success

Chapter 20:

Handling Objections and Closing Sales

Chapter 21:

Running Effective Meetings

Sharing Difficult Feedback

Chapter 22:

Having Difficult Conversations

Chapter 23:

Beginning Difficult Conversations the Right Way

Chapter 24:

Responding Vs Reacting

Chapter 25:

Maintaining a Non-Threatening Environment

Chapter 26:

Avoiding Bad Conversational Choices

Appendix 1: 26.2 Traits of High-Performing Sales Companies

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Introduction

I’m so pleased that you’ve made it this far in my third book – Unleashing your Inner Sales Coach - How to Inspire, Motivate and Coach Your Sales Team to Success. My first 2 books – Surviving the Middle Miles and Winning the Customer Loyalty Marathon speak more to retailers and sales professionals.

This book takes a different approach.

In Unleashing Your Inner Sales Coach, I address the role of the middle manager (and up) and how these individuals can strengthen their team’s sales and management practices and become effective sales coaches. My hope is that by reading this book, and adding to your skill set, you will improve your interactions, both with your sales professionals and your customers.

Is that your goal? As a middle manager (team leader, sales supervisor, etc.) do you actively try to build your sales professionals’ skills? Are you tired of doing your sales professional’s work? Work that they should be doing! Do you feel a lack of accountability on your team? Is this an important topic for you?

I’ll help with the hard questions.

The answers to all these questions are YES.

You should be building your sales professional’s skills. You should stop doing your sales professional’s work for them. You should demand more accountability (in a compassionate manner.) And – yes, this should be an important topic to you.

Through my involvement with sales organizations, I have developed the following five premises…

1.   That managers in many sales organizations are more comfortable moving cases (either with a hand truck, or discounts) than they are motivating (or moving) their salespeople to be able to do it themselves

2.   That managers in sales organizations are often promoted because they are the best at sales, not because they are the best at management or coaching.

3.   That managers allow a lack of accountability to thrive where victims (sales professionals who blame others) run rampant in sales organizations.

4.   That managers are much better at setting goals than they are helping their salespeople reach those goals.

5.   That managers spend a lot of time putting out fires, instead of coaching and mentoring salespeople.

My research, my prior management experience and my interaction with thousands of talented sales professionals and managers tells me that the point of entry for continuous improvement in any sales organization is the middle management level. These are the individuals who interact with sales professionals on a daily basis. These are the individuals who help sales professionals achieve success, instead of failure. Sure, sales professionals have to want it, but the manager has to also want success for that individual and must be willing to help the sales professional get there. Often, it just takes some concentrated coaching.

Maybe you’ve heard that people quit their bosses before they quit their jobs. I couldn’t agree more. I believe – that’s just the way it works.

Oh yeah, I should explain one of my favorite expressions – that’s just the way it works. I used this phrase in a presentation some time ago, and it really resonated with the audience. Now I use it all the time – including at the end of every chapter of this book. Here is what that phrase implies in my view: There are certain principles that have force in manager/sales professional interaction no matter the situation. For example, if you insult your sales professional’s intelligence, he or she will rightly take offense. Your relationship will suffer and that’s just the way it works.

One of my other favorite expressions is – Better than Before.

Put simply, I believe that every time a sales professional interacts with his or her sales manager, he or she should leave the conversation feeling better than before. That is, he or she should feel better about his or her ability to sell after the interaction than before. Better after the meeting than before. Better after the ride-with day than before. Better after being given difficult feedback than before.

That’s the role of the sales coach. Helping sales professionals feel better than before.

Unfortunately, in many sales organizations, the opposite is true. Worse than before. Sales professionals come into the office (or meet with their managers) and leave demeaned and deflated.

That’s not what you want – is it?

Again, I’ll handle the hard questions.

Trust me – you want better than before.

This book will help turn middle managers into sales coaches. You wouldn’t send an Olympic athlete onto the track or speed skating oval without the proper coaching. Don’t do the same with your sales professionals.

I have broken this book into five sections.

1.   Engaging sales professionals

2.   Building a more accountable environment

3.   Handling the core management skills

4.   Coaching for better sales practices

5.   Sharing difficult feedback

Our final short chapter is Creating a High-Performing Sales Company. In many ways, this chapter will tie everything up for you – and give you some marching orders.

One last point before we hit the ground running. You might notice that I use the term sales professional throughout this book. In fact, I don’t use the phrase salesperson or sales rep or salesman or saleswoman. That’s the type of individual that were trying to develop here – a professional. I know it’s just semantics, but my experience tells me that if you call someone a professional, he or she will be more likely to stretch to fulfill that notion in your head.

He or she will act like a professional.

I am delighted to share my lessons from a lifetime of wine, beer and spirit retailing and my recent interactions with so many intelligent, thought-provoking, hard working sales professionals. In the following pages, you will find literally hundreds of ways to build, cultivate and maintain better relationships with your sales professionals. To become a better sales coach. To leave your sales professionals better than before. If you have the courage to change a few habits – then you will be well on your way towards strengthening your company’s sales and management practices.

Sales execution will improve and you (and your people) will be more successful.

Why?

That’s just the way it works!

Engaging

Sales

Professionals

Chapter 1:

Controlling the Controllables

What day comes after Tuesday?

If you said Wednesday, you’re right!

Every week has a Tuesday morning and a Wednesday morning.

No matter what happens… Tuesdays are always followed by Wednesdays.

How’s that for logic?

But really, every week, no matter what happens on Tuesday, the third day of the week is always followed by Wednesday – the fourth day.

For me, Tuesday mornings used to always start with a track workout.

I remember a certain Tuesday morning in particular. On this Tuesday, I dragged myself out of bed at 4:30 a.m. I drove downtown to the health club, changed, and ran over to the track with my friends. It was a beautiful morning. I can remember the sun rising over Lake Michigan. Indian summer at its finest.

Back when I was training for marathons, most workouts were pretty intense, but this one took the cake.

Are you familiar with track workouts? You run around the track really hard (like a horse)… then you do it again and again.

It’s great fun, really.

Maybe some of you are thinking I only run when the police are giving chase, but this was how I spent my Tuesday mornings.

This workout was a total of 14 miles, much of which was run at fast pace. Around and around I ran. My best workout ever! Even and balanced, the mark of a great workout. I was running faster at the end than the beginning.

My high school coach would’ve been so proud (if he could remember my name).

All Tuesday mornings should be like this, I thought to myself.

Of course, we ran back to the club a little slower, and clutching our nearly empty Gatorade bottles was always a chore on Tuesday mornings.

After my shower, I noticed people crowding around the TV. As I drove to the store, I thought that seemed odd for a Tuesday morning. Later in the day, perhaps, to catch another riveting Cubs debacle, but not in the morning.

My dad met me at the door of our family business.

A plane flew into the World Trade Center, he said, grimly. I think the country is under attack.

We were just beginning to realize, and at the same time, we had no way to realize what was happening. We did know that this was to be no ordinary Tuesday morning.

We turned on the little TV in my office. The TV that existed solely for the purpose of watching ballgames. Games that the Cubs usually found a way to lose.

But this was no game, and this Tuesday morning, we were all the losers.

On that Tuesday morning, the world changed forever.

We sat in my office in stunned silence. Someone, I can’t remember who, was crying. Most were in a state of shock. Many felt like vomiting. Nobody felt like working. After a while, I started sending people home. Then we closed the store.

There would be no business this Tuesday morning.

On Wednesday morning, we returned to work, but things were different.

There were questions.

Could our government protect us? Was our country going to be attacked again? Was air travel — one of the foundations of commerce in our country — safe? How long would customers take before they felt like shopping again?

We all had sinking feelings in the pits of our stomachs.

Fast forward to recent times.

The last few years have been a bit of an economic 9/11.

Buildings aren’t being toppled, but institutions are.

At the beginning of The Great Recession, long-standing institutions like Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, and Wachovia went by the wayside.

The financial markets have been on a roller coaster for years. What a mess!

The auto industry? They sell a lot of cars, but usually when they’re giving them away! Consumer sentiment is still pretty low, foreclosures are running rampant, and the beverage industry is always under siege by local and state governments looking for some extra revenue.

People are scared about paying their bills.

There is a feeling that the government might not be able to protect us.

The treasury secretary (in 2009) said of the stimulus package: We’re going to try it, and if it doesn’t work, we’ll try something else. Huh?

Is that what our government is supposed to say to us?

Don’t answer that!

Back to 9/11 for a moment, a day that taught many lessons. On 9/12, (Wednesday morning), we did exactly what you all should do today, tomorrow, and every other day. We took care of customers. We took care of our associates. We took care of each other.

We controlled what we could control.

What can’t we control? The economy, housing, stimulus packages, the weather, traffic, and, certainly, whether or not the Cubs will ever win the World Series.

But there are many parts of the sales equation that you can control.

The following variables and many, many more.

•   You can control the experience each and every customer has with you.

•   You can control the way you interact with your sales professionals and others.

•   You can control your efforts to engage your sales professionals.

•   You can control your efforts to communicate with your teams honestly and frequently.

•   You can control the way you hold others accountable.

•   You can control how you handle difficult conversations.

You can make people better than before.

That’s really what this book is about — controlling the controllables and helping sales professionals improve. Making people better than before.

That’s what you can control, and the more you concentrate on what is within your grasp, the better you will thrive, not just survive, during these tough economic times.

That’s just the way it works — on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and every other day.

Recently, I advised a sales team to conduct the following exercise. The goal was to have the sales professionals and their managers come up with as many controllable items as they could as a way of shifting focus from the uncontrollables to the controllables. The results highlight areas where sales professionals, those in the trenches, feel that they should concentrate their time and efforts.

Should you want to do a similar exercise with your team, follow these instructions:

Have your team leaders meet with their teams at the local coffee house with only a pad of paper. First, the team leaders should encourage the team members to mention as many out of control factors/situations/occurrences/issues as possible. The team leader should write everything down. Everything. The team leader can keep the conversation going by saying, And what else? And he or she should keep saying that phrase until the conversation runs dry.

If your team is like many of the teams I work with, your sales professionals will quickly realize that they spend much of their thinking time concentrating on the aspects of their job that they can’t control.

Once the team is out of ideas, the team leader should rip the paper, crumple it up, and ceremoniously discard it as quickly as possible. To shift the focus, the team leader should say something akin to the following:

"I asked you all here today so that we can develop a renewed focus on ‘what we can control.’ Let’s start again sharing ideas, but this time, let’s share specific thoughts on what we can do - day in and day out - to move ourselves, our brands, and our company forward."

The team leader should open the legal pad to a fresh page and start the process again. Try for as many specific suggestions as possible. Again, keep the conversation going by saying, And what else? To stimulate conversation, say, Tell me more, especially if a suggestion is vague or unclear. Remember, no suggestion is too silly and you should take every sales professional’s ideas seriously.

After completing the exercise, assemble the data and have the team rank the controllables in order of importance. For ease, I suggest using one of the many online survey tools to collect this data. The following list represents a sample of controllable items. As you review the list below, consider whether or not your company concentrates on similar variables.

•   Communication

•   Customer relationships

•   Attitude/outlook/emotions

•   Having a pre-plan for every day

•   Accurate inventory control

•   Professionalism

•   Follow-up and follow-through

•   Asking questions

Once this list is complete, have your sales team complete the exercise in the following manner. Assign each of your teams a controllable and have them dig deeper. One of the distributors I did this exercise with has five distinct sales teams, and each was given one of the top five controllables to work on. The assignment was to come up with five actions (or best practices) for each word. For example, one of the teams was asked to come up with five best practices for better communication. Simply pose the question, How can we communicate more effectively? Your team will have plenty to talk about.

Are you ready for the fun part?

The kicker is that each group has to share their findings with the entire sales team at a sales meeting. The benefits are (1) that the teams will have ownership over the best practices and (2) at least one member of each team will develop a bit more experience addressing a group of people, a skill all sales professionals need to be successful. Finally, everyone will have a great reminder of what’s important.

I wholeheartedly recommend this exercise for your sales team. It spurs great dialogue and reminds sales professionals of the processes necessary for success.

In summary, the critical role of the sales manager is to continually reinforce the roles of the controllables. With that emphasis, the bad days will always be followed by better days. Tuesdays will always be followed by Wednesdays.

That’s just the way it works!

Chapter 2:

Building, Cultivating and Maintaining a Healthy Attitude

I’m partial to the banana smoothie. Lately, I’ve found that a quick trip to my local smoothie spot can teach me so much about attitude, management and leadership. I’d like to share these lessons with you.

Although the smoothies are great, the service leaves a bad taste in my mouth. They constantly miss opportunities to provide great service and if they’re happy that I choose their shop, over others, that’s certainly news to me.

Now I understand the problem.

The other day I ventured over as I usually do when the weather’s nice.

As I entered with my son, I noticed that there were 3 people sitting in the very corner of the shop. They seemed like customers to me.

There was nobody behind the counter.

Three or four minutes passed by. Hello? I offered to nobody in particular.

After a few more minutes a middle-aged woman got up from the table in the corner, went behind the counter and said, Can I help you?

I had never seen the woman before and, after I placed my order, I turned to my son and said, She’s the owner. There’s no doubt in my mind. She’s the owner.

My son, who, most likely couldn’t have cared less, surprisingly wanted to know how I knew. In the car! I told him.

I asked and sure enough she was the owner of the smoothie place.

I love your place! OK, my reply was a bit disingenuous but what was I supposed to say? (Truth be told, I could have told her how I felt but I resisted because my son was with me. I haven’t gone back there since).

Now, how did I know this? How did I know she was the owner?

When I tell this story, I ask the members of my group or audience to guess how I knew. The prevailing sentiment is because she actually got up and did something. That’s a good point but not the reason.

I knew because if the owner of the business cares so little about attentive service, why should the employees. As soon as I saw the woman rise from the table (after five minutes), I knew the reason for the indifferent service. They were just following her lead.

What kind of example are you setting?

The moral of this story is a great analogy for your role as a team leader or manager.

If the owner of the neighborhood smoothie shop takes care of her customers, so will her employees. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. If she reacts with indifference, soon her customers will be shopping in a different place.

You know it and I know it.

Here’s something else I know. If you have a pleasant, upbeat attitude so will your sales professionals. If you regulate your self-talk, so will your sales professionals. If you see the bright side, so will your team. If, on the other hand, you spend your time on the negative side of the attitude spectrum, so will your sales professionals.

It’s just that easy. They will take their cues from you.

This is a chapter about attitude. Not only your attitude, but also the attitudes of your sales professionals. As you know by now, they’re both related. Joined at the hip if you will. As you consider my suggestions, please remember that I am talking about you and your sales professionals. For example, if I make a comment about regulating your sales professional’s self-talk; I’m talking to you as well.

Consider the following suggestions for building, cultivating and maintaining a winning attitude:

•   Regulate your self-talk

It all starts with your self-talk. For both you and your sales professionals. The most important words said are the words you say to yourself. Those words are more important than the words your sales professionals say – and your superiors for that matter.

It’s a choice. That is, pushing negativity out of your mind is a choice that you and your sales professionals make each and every day. It’s up to you to see the positive and doubt never helps. I remember back in my early marathon running days when I was having trouble surviving the middle miles. I kept getting stuck at the 14-mile mark; the part of the race where the excitement of the start has faded and you can’t yet imagine the taste of the finish line. No man’s land! The reason is that I doubted myself. My self-talk sabotaged months of training and caused me to fold like a lawn chair in the middle miles.

Nothing good happens when your sales professionals doubt themselves.

Your sales professionals are perpetually stuck in the middle miles. Anything worth having or doing or accomplishing will include your professionals spending time in this difficult area. That’s just the way it works.

I advise sales professionals to see the finish line. To ask – what can I do to take steps forward and to solve problems. To always live in the present and consider what they can do to make their customers want to do business with them.

If your sales professionals take that accountability and marshal their efforts towards positive pursuits, then their self-talk will improve. They will feel more in control of their destiny and their chances for success. It also helps to do the following:

•   Remove the fake barriers

Help your sales professionals remove (or reduce) their imaginary barriers. Your people limit themselves all the time. They put up false barriers and struggle with imaginary problems. Your job as their leader is to show them they can accomplish more than they think they can. As a result,