Teams, individual athletes, dancers, musicians, actors, and public speakers who excel all engage in regular practice and coaching routines.

In previous posts, we have discussed the link between these professions and those of us who interact with prospects and customers. In case it isn’t self-evident yet, here’s some more data:

• CSO Insights: Over five years, sales coaching dramatically improves win rates and quota achievements.
• Aberdeen Research: Real-time, deal-specific sales coaching leads to an 8.4% year-over-year revenue increase, a 95% improvement compared to non-coaching firms.
• Harvard Business Review: Top companies have significantly increased their investment in developing sales coaches over the last five years.

Developing sustainable coaching and learning tools poses challenges, particularly as many organizations cut back on these investments. Complications arise from the demanding schedules of frontline managers who juggle multiple, sometimes conflicting priorities without adequate coaching and leadership training. 

So, what can be done?

Make Coaching an Ongoing Practice, Not a One-Off

• Managers regularly devote one of their one-on-one sessions strictly to coaching. 
• Activities can include reviewing call recordings or follow-up emails together to identify how the rep did on meeting prep, discovery, did they shared a good success story or did they product pitch, or did they get commitments for the next steps and multi-thread with intentionality. 
• Do micro role plays align to different personas or use cases, focused on a specific skill area, like discovery, story-telling, or question and objection handling? 

Use Feedback Loops:

• Share with everyone examples of what ‘good’ looks like. 

• Share examples of excellent sales interactions, whether through call snippets, emails, or short videos, employing a keep-start-stop format for structured feedback.
• Promote peer involvement in coaching; reps should prepare and debrief together, sharing lessons learned regularly.
• Facilitate these practices using tools like sales enablement platforms or simply through cost-effective means like Google Drive, Slack channels, or email.

Enable The Manager:

• Create playbooks that compile team best practices and set clear expectations, fostering alignment between managers and their teams.
• Develop a straightforward coaching rubric detailing what to inspect, examples of dos and don’ts, and how to structure feedback.
• Provide opportunities for managers to practice their coaching skills and receive feedback, using tools that support these activities and emphasizing the importance of routine.

“In the ever-evolving world of sales, a steadfast commitment to a coaching culture and ongoing learning, supported by solid processes, consistently leads to exceptional performance. As a former CEO eloquently stated, ‘revenue is the air we breathe’—naturally resulting from prioritizing the development of people and culture.”