That sales managers ought to “coach” their salespeople is a powerful – and popular – notion. Research, including SMA’s, shows that real performance benefits accrue to organizations that coach salespeople, and pundits and professional services firms endlessly promote sales coaching’s important contribution to sales effectiveness. The problem is, most sales coaching programs don’t work.
Coaching programs are often doomed from the beginning because their champions make one or more of the following fatal mistakes: they miscalculate what kind of support is required; they secure buy-in from the wrong stakeholders; they tie coaching outcomes to intangible outcomes instead of quantifiable results; or they fail to create organizational accountability for adopting effective coaching standards.
Making (or remaking) the case for sales coaching must involve defining how each of these potential pitfalls will be avoided. In this keynote presentation, AXIOM Sales Force Development’s Bob Sanders explains how to construct a compelling business case for coaching investment and a framework for coaching program implementation excellence.
