Unlocking Sales Success: The Subtle Art of Coaching
The secret sauce for unleashing your team's potential.
Picture this: A leader, a manager, a mentor, and a coach stroll into a bar – and only one of them gets bounced back at the door. Surprisingly, it's not the charismatic leader, the efficiency maestro, or the wise sage; it's our often-overlooked friend, the coach! In the workplace, everyone's vying to be the ship's captain (leader), the strategic planner (manager), or the fountain of wisdom (mentor). But coaching? Nope. However, in the fast-paced world of B2B sales, if you've got a team reporting to you, being a coach might just be the secret weapon in your arsenal. This could be the best way to unleash your team's potential and achieve unprecedented success.
Sure, we're familiar with these roles, but let's break it down:
Leading is about showing the way.
Managing is about doing what you were doing yesterday but more efficiently.
Mentoring is about sharing what you know so someone can progress quickly.
Now, coaching is a whole different ball game. It's about unlocking people's potential to maximize their own performance. It demands a unique set of skills – active listening, powerful questioning, and heightened awareness. Interestingly, these three skills are golden nuggets for anyone in sales.
But it's not black and white. The missing ingredient in many sales teams' recipe for success? Without a doubt, it's the lack of coaching. While the managing part is on autopilot with the help of CRM tools, leadership isn't about claiming the title; it's about your team and others bestowing it upon you based on your actions. As for mentoring, what worked five years ago might not cut it today. Market dynamics evolve swiftly.
Sales is all about performance, easily measurable against your objectives. According to Sir John Whitmore's 'Coaching for Performance,' the equation for performance is simple: Performance = potential – interference. The best tool to reduce, induce, or eliminate interference – especially those internal roadblocks – is coaching.
Now, a word of caution: In the professional sports arena, having a coach to enhance performance is common practice. At work, not so much. If you suggest coaching to someone, the first thought might be, 'Am I not performing well? Am I about to be fired?' So, if you plan to bring your coaching prowess to your team, be subtle – 'walk the walk but don’t talk the walk.'
And here's a question to ponder for another day: Should you be 'coaching' your customer instead of just selling a solution? A topic worth exploring.
In the intricate dance of B2B sales, coaching emerges as the partner who leads, guides, and unlocks potential. Sure, you can wear several hats. But for sure, the one that usually stays on the shelves is the coaching one. Be wise, grab it, and see the transformation happening around you but also within you.