Coaching Archives | Page 2 of 2 | Factor 8

Lauren Bailey Sales Manager Life Savers, Coaching

Only Bad-Ass Inside Sales Managers Will Coach

Did you know that one of the reasons your Inside Sales Managers aren’t coaching their Reps is that they, too lack confidence? Let’s peer inside the under-confident Manager’s brain for a minute:

“What can I teach him? He’s a top rep!” or, “I’ve been at the company half as long as she has.” How about, “Last time we tried to coach he pushed back so much. I’m not up for this today…”

Yes, even great Managers find it easier to answer the email, fix the report, and respond to the customer issue. So let’s promote some bad-assery with our front line Manager coaches. How? Just a few simple words:

“Your team is so lucky that they get your input on their calls.” Or “Your reps really benefit from your insights. I love seeing you coach.”

Done. Bad-assery managed. Well done boss.

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Lauren Bailey Sales Manager Life Savers, Coaching

6 Ways to Make Call Coaching More Effective

There’s lots of buzz in the Inside Sales industry about the wonders of call coaching, but the harsh reality is that it just isn’t easy to do well. Here are six tips to help you and your team get the most of this valuable time.

Prioritize Coaching By Blocking Time For It

Leaders, help managers prioritize coaching by blocking time on the entire team’s calendars for coaching. Let’s say T / Th from 10-12. Have managers rotate coaching time so ½ the team is coaching and the other half covers the floor (limiting interruptions). Be sure you’re not asking for reports or scheduling meetings just before or after. Walk the floor during this time and catch managers doing the right thing.

Be Strategic With Who Gets Coaching Time

Managers, “A and D” players actually shouldn’t be your first priorities. Focus on the B, C, and N (newbie) guys and gals. You’ll get faster buy-in and ROI. Want to learn how to segment your team and how much to coach? Check out this short video: Get More Out Of Call Coaching Time.

Get Aspiring Managers On The Field

Are you an aspiring Manager? Then ask the coach to put you in! If you’d like to manage the team someday, coaching is a critical skill. You’re a perfect fit to coach other A players (call it sharing best practices and trade roles as coach!) as well as the D players on the team. You can even grab 2-3 newbies to listen to their calls together. Huge help to the team and awesome job training for you!

Recognize Your Pitfalls

Managers, Recognize and The Pitfalls! Get real with yourself and figure out where your pitfalls are. Here are the 5 most common we see: “No Time, Be Like Me, Listen To Me, The Laundry List, Debbie Downer, And The Hamster Wheel.” Yeah, we’ve all done them at one time (mine is “Listen to Me”). Watch the webinar, “Good Coaching Gone Bad” pick your most probable pitfall and set some goals to try something new. Hint: you’ll also get access to some killer tools there like call coaching forms, manager coaching sheets, a coaching model, and more articles and videos. This isn’t a natural skill guys and that’s ok.

Get Training

Leaders & Managers should get call coaching training. The Sales Executive Council reported in 2016 that coaching was Manager’s lowest rated skill. We don’t fix it with a pep talk and a good book. The American Association of Inside Sales Professionals has a good online course here, and of course I hear Factor 8 has some killer training on this too! 😉

Lean In!

Reps, if you want more face time and coaching, ask for it! Take note of a great call and a not-so-great call and send the details to your manager so they can pull the recording for coaching. Now take ownership. Are you taking notes in each session? Are you taking action after the meeting doing things like shadowing others, making lists, scheduling more coaching? Don’t wait for you manager to initiate – you’re a go getter! Go get coaching!

Happy Coaching!