What are best practices for providing career development coaching to salespeople?
Expert Answer This is one of the topics covered in the October 28 webcast "Online Experts' Exchange: Salesperson Career Development".
This webcast will be available in our Resource Library.
Expert Answer It is important to have conversations with your salespeople and understand their goals and aspirations. Too often when a salesperson expresses desire to move beyond their current position, their manager will ignore their request. Make sure that they know that you have heard them. A good way to do this is to talk with them so that you understand what they really want. Evaluate options with them that fit with their desires. Assess where they are at and what gaps exist between what they want and where their skills are. From there you can provide coaching and guidance to help close those gaps and prepare them for a new position. You should provide consistent and honest feedback to them as they attempt to close the gaps and set realistic expectations about when they might be ready to move into a new role and when the company might have a need for them in that role.
