3 Steps to Driving World-Class Coaching Practices

3 Steps to Driving World-Class Coaching Practices:from The Sales Challenger™ by Scott Collins
The NCAA March Madness has come to an end and a champion has been crowned.  Often called the “greatest” playoff by sports enthusiasts and now it’s over.  It’s over for us, it’s over for your pools, and it’s over for the teams, players, and coaches.  But it really isn’t over for the teams.
A new season for them begins, the off season.  And this is where coaches really work to earn their keep.  They poured time and effort into the current season, taking each game one at a time.  Now, they have to look at new rosters and upcoming schedules.  They need to plan their off season workouts.
For us in Sales, it’s no different.  Just because sales professionals have their quarterly goal, monthly goal, or are on pace to hit our yearly marks – as managers, we still need to be thinking long-term.  We still need to be coaching, building plans, being innovative, and empowering our teams.
With that said, we still have choices to make.  Where do we spend our time?  What do we focus our efforts on?  Where can we great the greatest benefit to the overall team?  How do we help sales reps met or exceed their goals and long-term career goals?  It’s a lot to consider.
At CEB Sales, we’ve spent extensive time and effort in answering those questions and more.  And in fact, we’ve worked to package it in an easy to use, self-guided, and updated Coaching Topic Center.  Here are a few items to think about as you come out of March Madness:

• Maintain Coaching Discipline:  You can do this by having a common, agreed-upon definition of coaching
• Refine Managers’ Coaching Approach:  As customer buying has become more complex, managers must address the different, emerging needs of their sales force
• Assess and Certify Coaching Capabilities:  Leading sales organizations create a culture of coaching and ensure that managers are continually assessed and certified in coaching.

While college basketball teams have an off season to prepare and get ready for next fall, sales doesn’t have an offseason.  We need to address coaching gaps immediately and drive for long-term success and behavior change in sales teams.  For those that are putting effort and rigor around coaching, are the ones I’m picking in my tournament bracket!
CEB Sales Members, review the updated Anatomy of World-Class Sales Coaching Practices, a diagnostic tool that evaluates current coaching practices and outlines a model for effective sales coaching.