• Building and implementing a strategic sales plan
• Injecting accountability into all areas of the sales operation
• Implementing a balanced scorecard approach to sales and marketing management
• Maximizing sales and marketing operations
• Proven sales management strategies that produce profit increases
• And more . . .

In This Issue:

• The Coaching Troika - Monitoring, Analysis and Feedback by Jim Domanski
• Archived Articles

• Sales Mistakes Managers Make and How to Avoid Them

Last Week's Seminars Now On CD:

• Negotiating Win/Win Business Deals
• Are Your Sales Meetings Boring?

"Manager's Minute" Tip

(Article Archive)

The Coaching Troika - Monitoring, Analysis and Feedback
by Jim Domanski

If you want to become a results oriented coach who helps sales reps meet and exceed their revenue goals, then you need to understand that coaching is more than a comment or two after a sales call or visit.

And that’s the major problem with coaching: far too often coaching is seen only from one perspective, the “feedback” perspective i.e., that precise moment when the sales manager provides his or her off the cuff comments after a sales visit or call.

Lombardi vs. the Critic

This feedback tends to take one of two forms. One form is the “Vince Lombardi”. You know what I mean: the “rah, rah”, “win this one for the Gipper” motivational speech that is meant to inspire and motivate an individual to great and new heights.

The other form is the “Critic” who provides the “here’s-what-you-did-wrong” type of feedback. By pointing deficiencies and maybe tossing in a little fear or intimidation, the Critic feels the sales rep will ‘see the light’’ and pull up his socks and suddenly sell more.

The reason why managers have the Lombardi or Critic alter egos is that they have not understood that coaching is a process of three specific steps. I call this the Troika of Coaching. The Troika is made up of monitoring, analyzing and feedback. It’s as simple and as complex as that.

In this article, we will look at these three fundamentals. By understanding the process of coaching you can modify and change the selling behavior of your sales reps. In turn, this means more sales for your rep and your company.

Monitoring

The first step in the coaching troika is monitoring. Defined, monitoring:

is the process of assessing a sales rep’s level of performance relative to a given standard.

The Power of the Standard

Let me translate monitoring into the simplest of terms: you shut up, watch and listen. This is so painfully obvious that it seems hardly worth mentioning. Naturally, you cannot provide feedback unless you have observed or heard something that needs coaching.
But here’s where the word “standard” plays a significant role. It is perhaps the most important concept to the entire coaching process.

A standard is:

• a set of communicated expectations
• an acknowledged measure of comparison
• something established for use as a rule or the basis of comparison for measuring or judging

What this means is that before you can provide any sort of objective and meaningful feedback to a rep, you have to have a standard by which your feedback is based. The standard must be something that both you and your rep fully understand ahead of time.

Many sales organizations have an “assumed” standard. They assume the sales rep should intuitively know how effectively handle an objection, or how to identify a valid need, or

AGAIN: You cannot effectively coach without having set the standard. Period.

Typically, standards are set in formal training sessions. For example, you can set a standard for an opening statement for cold calls when using the telephone. You can establish a standard for objections handling, for presentations, for closing, for virtually anything and everything if you wish. Call them rules, call them guidelines, call them principals but the standard is the objective cornerstone of coaching. Once they have been set and communicated, your feedback will relate only to those standards. And what this really means is that your feedback is based on objective, quantifiable material. It also means your reps will be far more receptive to the feedback, and that, of course, if the whole point.

Analyzing

Analyzing is the second step in the Troika of coaching and it is defined as:

the process of determining if the rep is performing to the established standard and the actions required based on the analysis.

I call analyzing the ‘court of sober thought.’ It means thinking about what you have heard or seen and determining if the behavior was to standard, below standard or above standard. Essentially, you are comparing the behavior of your rep to that which has been taught and established as a standard for any part of the call.

The beauty of analyzing is that it will help you avoid the typical landmines associated with feedback. It forces you to pause and reflect on a number of things. For example, was the behavior you witnessed an aberration or does it reflect a trend? Maybe you need to hold off on the feedback to determine this. What about the sales rep: is this a rookie or a veteran? Based on their skill, knowledge and personality, how do you want to approach the matter? Do they need participative feedback or do they need a kick in the butt?

Analyzing makes feedback and the whole process of coaching, more meaningful and useful. Too often, sales managers play the Critic and “shoot from the hip” which can make the coaching process a negative, rather than a positive event.

Feedback

Finally, we get to the juicy part of the Troika of coaching, feedback. Formally defined, feedback is:

the process used to recognize above standard and below standard performance and the steps taken to encourage, modify or improve behavior.

Feedback is where you verbally provide your commentary, your questions, your statement, or your thoughts.

Feedback is NOT criticism. Criticism is evaluative in nature. Criticism is when you evaluate their performance and tell them what was WRONG with the call. Most sales reps find “calling-the-pitch-once-it-is-across-the-plate” feedback extremely de-motivating. Who can blame them?

Feedback is where you provide commentary relative to the standard that was established. Feedback is less about “what” was incorrect and more about “how” the rep can improve and succeed. This is constructive feedback. It is constructive because it builds and supports skills and techniques that have been taught and established as a standard. The actual feedback you provide should not really come as a surprise to a rep. They should know it.

Now here is another key element of feedback. Feedback should not take more that a few minutes. Why? Because coaching is meant to support that which has been trained and that which has been set as a standard. Any feedback beyond this constitutes new training and needs to be delivered in a formal setting. Coaching is often mixed up with training. Feedback is often in the form of brand new tips or suggestions

There are several different ways to provide feedback which we will look at in future articles. One method is the Socratic or participative method which uses questioning to get the rep to identify the area that needs improvement. On the other end of the spectrum there is more directive method of coaching and there are various techniques in between. Which one you use will be based on your analysis.

Summary

Effective and positive coaching is a sequential, step by step process consisting of monitoring, analyzing and feedback. These three elements represent the Troika of coaching. It is not a complex process but it is a process that requires a degree of thought and understanding. If you implement this process, coaching will become a positive and welcomed event. Your sales reps WILL get better, their sales will improve. Remember the Troika.

Ask yourself if you monitor your sales reps visits or calls relative to a defined standard? If you don’t have a standard you need to, build one. If you do, do you analyze (think) about the call or the visit before you provide your feedback? When you provide your feedback does it relate to the standard?

If not, you need to revamp your approach to coaching.

About Jim Domanski:
Cited by Canadian Business Magazine as "...Canada's reigning telemanagement guru..." Jim Domanski is regarded as one of North America's foremost experts on outbound business tele-sales and tele-support programs.

President of Teleconcepts Consulting, Jim helps businesses achieve their sales and marketing objectives by using the telephone to help generate leads and sell directly on both a strategic and tactical level.

A highly dynamic speaker and trainer with over 15 years of direct tele-sales experience, Jim has spoken to audiences around the world on telephone selling applications, skills and techniques. His "no bull" training style blends humor with "real life, real drama" situations which he has begged or borrowed from his clients.

Contact Information:
Jim Domanski
Teleconcepts Consulting
35 Vanstone Drive, Ste. 200
Kanata, Ontario K2L 1W4
1-888-353-0948
jdomanski@igs.net
www.teleconceptsconsulting.com

(Article Archive)

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