The sales team of a B2B company has the most important contact with potential customers in all departments. Therefore, to succeed in difficult B2B sales environments, it is essential to provide sales training to all B2B salespeople.
Good sales coaching has a number of benefits that improve results, revenue and staff retention. Sales coaching is an ongoing effort that is essential today as many businesses have transitioned to remote selling and many sales professionals may struggle to adapt to the new paradigm.
In this blog, we will discuss sales coaching, its main benefits, and the methods and strategies you can use to improve your sales coaching skills.
What is business coaching?
The process of evaluating and mentoring an individual salesperson to improve sales performance and ensure consistent sales success is known as sales coaching. A successful sales training program run by sales reps and managers helps sales reps self-diagnose their weaknesses, enabling them to take more responsibility in their jobs and achieve better results.
Coaching sits between sales integration and sales training in the hierarchy of sales training and sales readiness. Sales coaching should be an ongoing activity that takes place at the start of a career or in times of transition. Coaches need to listen more than they talk, unlike coaching situations, where a manager often steers the conversation around general initiatives and tactical skills, to help reps identify issues on their own.
The positive impact of excellent coaching
According to research from Forbes Insights and Brainshark, 74% of large organizations rank coaching and mentoring as the most critical responsibilities for sales managers. And, according to CSO Insights, organizations with coaching programs that exceed expectations see over 94% of their sales agents meet their quotas, which is 10% more than organizations with coaching programs that underperform. .
Here are some positive impacts sales managers can anticipate when making the most of sales coaching:
Ramp time is the time it takes for a salesperson to complete their training and reach their highest level of production. A new salesperson usually needs 2 months to graduate. Thus, the more this time can be reduced, the more effective your sales force will be. Sales training software can help organizations achieve this goal by integrating with B2B sales organizations efforts in sales rep tracking and sales training. The software enables sales managers to assess sales calls, help new sales reps improve their skills, and increase close rates.
Standard sales training software features include listening to calls made, conversation intelligence, and feedback/feedback from peers and sales managers. The program can help you better understand your top sellers and identify the calling behaviors that contribute to their success. You can instruct additional reps using the knowledge gained.
When salespeople believe they’re getting the training they need to succeed, they’re much more likely to stay in their current job. According to a survey, two-thirds of salespeople consider quitting their job when they work for a manager who is not a good coach.
Giving your reps the skills they need to succeed definitely means giving them full team training or targeted training for your entire sales force. Its effectiveness is limited when the training of the whole team is not complemented by the more individualized and one-on-one training that sales coaching provides.
Best B2B Sales Training Methods
In addition to failing individual salespeople, leaving them essentially alone, the paradigm of aggressive sales teams competing in silos has a greater effect on the organization by rewarding selfishness and discouraging teamwork.
A more effective strategy encourages sales reps to be openly critical and talk about their challenges, and fosters a culture where there’s always room for improvement, where consultation is welcome, and where cooperation is valued over rivalry.
While target numbers are always crucial for every sales organization, the best training environment is dedicated to fostering the growth of sales skills through the setting of group goals.
Throughout coaching sessions, coaches should foster a pleasant and encouraging atmosphere. Organizations can be confident that sales reps are learning new skills and setting the stage for better results with a greater focus on process improvement.
This allows for a holistic view of performance, while recognizing other aspects of the representative’s experience, such as professional development, personal growth, contributions to a collaborative environment, and openness to learning, as essential components of the long-term success of the business organization. . .
No one knows your industry better than you as a team leader or B2B sales manager, and your sales team needs to be up to date with everything that’s going on in it. This information should serve as the basis for your sales team’s posture. Product, market and customer knowledge should be covered in your industry training.
How can your reps sell you if they have no idea what they’re selling? They must know the product perfectly and be able to answer any questions about it. Provide your sales team with specific information about competitors, including who sells the same products as you, the fees they charge, where they have an advantage over you, and where you excel.
Equipping reps with tools that make their jobs easier is another important aspect of creating the ideal coaching environment. Coaching should cover how sales reps can combine intuition and insights with data and technology to meet buyers’ ever-changing expectations and desire for self-service and omnichannel communications. Nothing can (or should) replace years of deep experience in the vertical selling industry, but adding tools to that talent combines the best of both worlds.
To create data-driven insights that complement soft skills, sales enablement tools can collect historical data, trends, resource efficiency, preferred communication methods, and more. Organizations must, however, commit to including these technologies in the coaching process and ensure that representatives are trained in the effective use of the new technology.
What could be more efficient: sending your sales force on a full-time seven-day training program or breaking the training down into manageable daily chunks? Absolutely the last if you want people to remember.
Microlearning increases knowledge retention by 80%, according to an RPS study. On the other hand, full-time education has a detrimental effect on retention, with students forgetting 50% of the material in less than five weeks. However, training tends to be considerably more effective if broken down into short, engaging sessions.
Whether these sessions include a question and answer period where sales agents can ask questions during their daily work and receive professional answers, you can further increase trainee engagement and information retention.
Conclusion
According to recent research, professional sales coaching programs far outperform more casual or random coaching methods in terms of performance. Sales organizations have been deeply impacted by changes in the industry.
By pursuing an intentional, team-based, holistic strategy designed to maximize growth and performance, sales coaching programs can respond and position sales reps to succeed. This is very important for morale and it will also help promote greater engagement from your sales team so that they are more motivated to sell and close deals, knowing that you are working for a company willing to invest the time and money to help you develop your professional skills.
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