Coaching or Training?
As I stated in my first edition, a trainer shows you how to do something you've never done or tried before in a consistent manner. As in sports, the trainer provides you with a foundation, a process, or a benchmark of best practices all players learn first, to give you a starting point in relation to where you would begin on your path of development.
Then, over time as each player develops their own style, skills, and individuality, the coach shifts from training to coaching and observation to further refine what each player can do to excel in a unique and individualized way.
A coach shows you how to do what you are doing even better and helps break through limited thinking or challenges. First, the coach needs to assess how you perform now. The coach would observe you to uncover the things you cannot and gently advise on how you can refine your approach to the point where you can do it on your own.
Scenario One
Situation: Tim, a rookie salesperson, has been hired to generate appointments on the phone for the outside sales team.
Gap: Since this is Tim's first sales job, he's never cold-called before nor has he ever been trained in how to cold-call effectively. Therefore, the gap is the training, skills, knowledge as well as a step-by-step tactical selling approach and talk tracks he needs to perform his job effectively.
Training solution: This is a training issue, because Tim first needs to develop some strong habits to solidify a healthy foundation on which he can build. Learning how to do something for the first time, such as selling or cold calling, is not coaching but training, consulting, or advising. Tim needs to be shown best practices, the how-tos, and the mechanics of selling and cold calling as well as the philosophy behind them.
Scenario Two
Situation: Nine months into her training, Samantha's boss was questioning whether she would make it for the long haul. Out of the initial ten new recruits that completed the weeklong training practically nine months ago, Samantha was one of the only two who had made it this far.
She had been told that if she could make it a year and build up her book of business, chances are she could start developing a successful career as an executive recruiter.
Eight months ago, she had secured three top accounts. But she had been relying too heavily on them to make her numbers each month, and her promising start was now coming to a slow and painful halt.
One of the three large clients left her, and the other two were slowing down their recruiting efforts. However, Samantha was on the phone practically every day making the calls she knew she needed to make to survive her first year.
Gap: Samantha proved early on she could be successful at cold-calling for new clients. Her initial four-month book of business provided her with the volume to make her monthly sales quota. Although she was still making her daily number of cold calls, she was no longer getting strong results from her new business development efforts. Moreover, her boss noticed how worried and stressed out Samantha was as a result of this. For these reasons, the gap is actually a combination of training and coaching.
Training and coaching solution: In a case like Samantha's, the solution may be a one that would approach her situation from a few different angles. Here are four different ways you could coach and support Sam.
If Sam's approach was working when she started nine months ago but it's no longer working today, then something changed. Her boss noticed Samantha wasn’t following a templated process and made up her approach on the fly. Thus, having Samantha work off a proven template so she could create a level of consistency in her selling efforts is one part of this solution.
This fine-tuning of her approach and putting it in an actionable, step-by-step process would eliminate any inconsistencies and allow Samantha to best manage what approach works best.
Samantha appears to be driven by fear and consequence, that is, the loss of her job. Being driven by consequence and scarcity (i.e., what you don't want to happen) is a negative source of energy that dilutes not only the impact of your selling efforts but also the quality of your life.
Here, Samantha needs to be coached on developing a new way of thinking: one that empowers her, lifts her spirits and confidence, and focuses on her goals and dreams.
Is Samantha in need of some new resources? That is, where is he mining for new business? Has she changed her sales approach to align how buyers are changing their buying habits practically daily? Does she need to look at alternative ways to prospect? Does she need to upgrade her prospect list, pipeline, and forecast?
These are just a few of the components of Samantha’s sales engine that need to be explored to further diagnose exactly what is going on, where the gaps are, and where the greatest impact can occur.
Scenario Three
Situation: Bob, a successful, established, and well-seasoned advertising salesperson, had been a longtime top producer for his company. Since the company merger, restructuring, policy changes, and compensation plan revisions, Bob needed to start generating new clients to fill up his sales funnel again.
Even though Bob used to spend half of his days cold-calling, he hasn't done it in a while, relying more on referrals and the income he generated from renewal business. Bob was great on the phone and generated a significant amount of new prospects as a result of his recent cold-calling efforts. However, Bob was not able to close these prospects the way he would a referral or an existing client. He was used to people saying “Yes” without him even asking for the sale.
Objections? The only one Bob was used to hearing among his clientele was whether they should write him a check, finance it, or hand him their credit card.
Now it seems that every time Bob met with one of the new prospects, he was walking out with a note to follow up rather than a sale. Bob wasn't used to hearing “Thanks, let us think about it,” or “You're the first person we've spoken with regarding a policy.” And he was certainly not used to hearing “Wow, that sounds awfully expensive.”
Even though Bob did his best to try to convince these people to buy from him, he felt his rebuttals were falling on deaf ears. To make matters worse, Bob forgot how to actually ask for the sale.
Gap: Have you noticed the gap here? The gap in this situation is in Bob's closing technique and in his attitude toward closing. Bob is holding onto some limiting beliefs. Moreover, his tactical selling approach and natural selling acumen need to be polished to address the new selling landscape and situations that he has not had to face in a while.
Training and coaching solution: This is a coaching and training issue. Some limiting beliefs are getting in the way of taking action.
For example, to ignite a change in behavior, Bob needs to start with changing his definition, mindset, and approach to handling objections.
The old model to handling objections is that salespeople overcome them. No. Most of the time, doing so creates an adversarial conversation.
Think about it. Who's objection is it? The prospects. So then why would you take it on[DM3] ? If it's theirs, then the prospects are the only people who can defuse the objection.
And the only way you can create this is through well-crafted questions. That's why salespeople don't overcome objections, prospects do.
The next time Bob hears these concerns, he needs some tactical questions that honor his new belief.
This is where the training comes in, providing Bob with the dialogue, springboard questions, and steps to having prospects and customers defuse their own objections that will change behavior and move the performance needle forward.
If salespeople aren't willing to change their behavior, it's because they've developed a belief barrier that's preventing any forward movement, they’ve had a bad prior experience, or they have a fear that's preventing action.
It's up to you, the coach, to ask, challenge, and uncover these barriers so that you and the coachee can work through them together to create a positive outcome.
