Sales Manager Life Savers

inside sales call coaching

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3 Easy Tips To Master Call Coaching


The best coaches don’t ever tell. They ask. They ask the right questions to help a rep to self-discover big breakthroughs. And, this is the most effective way for a rep to take ownership of their activity and results. 

Here is a 3-step process to know which questions to ask reps during coaching sessions:

Learn to Speak ‘Coach’

Divide a blank page of notes into two columns. In the left column, while listening to a sales rep on a call, make a laundry list of everything you wish you could tell the rep. Don’t show it to them.

This is the “list of suck,” my friends. Every time you cringe, take notes on the left. 

During call downtime, pick your top three potential focus areas and use the right column to translate these into questions.

For example:

  • “OMG, he went RIGHT through the Gatekeeper. Painful.”  

Becomes:

  • “Hey, can you tell me your strategy with the gatekeeper?” or “Hey, what made you decide to skip over getting information from the gatekeeper?” 

This gives the rep an opportunity to analyze the call themselves and then self-identify what skills may need improvement. 

Tip: Ask questions that are specific and helpful. Asking, “How do you think that went?” is too broad for the rep to pinpoint areas for improvement. And asking, “Don’t you agree that you should have asked about an alternate contact and his direct dial information?” is not helpful either.

The sweet spot is somewhere in the middle of these two. While you’re practicing, try writing three questions for each target area. One is broad and high-level, one is extremely specific, and the third is your Goldilocks. 

READ: How to Be a Good Virtual Sales Coach

Ask The Right Questions

If you get to the end of the call with a laundry list miles long, it’s decision time. How to narrow it down? One of the best ways to know where to coach is to let the rep pinpoint what they want to work on.

Let the rep choose anything as long as it’s on your list (even if it isn’t in the top three!). If your rep decides what to work on, your chances of it actually getting focused on are more than double than if YOU pick the improvement area. I know. It’s really hard to let go of this. But trust me, your rep engagement will skyrocket if you’re coaching in areas they want to improve in.

Help Reps Self-Identify Areas Of Improvement

If you have a tricky rep who isn’t able to self-identify areas of improvement, you can help them identify it using these criteria:

  • What would most likely advance or lose the deal
  • What impacted the customer’s impression of us
  • What had the biggest effect on the call achieving its goal

But please, promise me one thing …

Your rep’s TONE is probably not something that impacts any of the above. If the only thing left to coach a rep on is the tone of their voice, this rep clearly doesn’t need coaching! 

Pat them on the back and tell them they’re an all-star! Seriously, you wouldn’t believe how many managers choose to talk about tone. It’s their secret code for “I clearly have no idea how to help you.”

Ask Questions, Get Results

Now that you know how to speak coach, what will you ask your reps today?

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inside sales lessons

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Three Inside Sales Lessons From A Six-Year-Old

Last week my son made his first sales call. For an inside sales thought leader, you have got to believe this was big in my house! My brave six-year-old D.J. read the school script to relatives & friends and got pledges for his APEX fundraiser.

READ: Sales Is A Confidence Sport

Watching a little human do this for the first time made ME nervous – and OH. SO. PROUD. It reminded me of a few truths we could all keep in mind when preparing new hires to take to the phones for the first time:

Don’t assume anyone can do this

ANY human will get nervous asking people for money over the phone. Let’s all keep this in mind when we ask for more dials and results. His brother BAILED after one call (and he’s the extrovert in the family!!).

Set up small wins early and celebrate BIG

The small wins he got (and we celebrated big time) energized him to make more calls. He was pulling aunties out of the woodwork! When we set up small wins early and celebrate BIG, they’ll be hooked.

Do a better job teaching rejection in new-hire training

When he got his first “no” he totally rolled with it and still wanted to make another call. Why? Because we set it up ahead of time that it would likely happen, why, and what to say. Special shout out to Uncle Shawn who agreed up front to say no to a six-year-old so we could teach this lesson (THAT wasn’t easy!). More “NO” in role plays and more help in why they happen and how to handle them.

Remember that just like a first grader, our new hires watch us to determine how to act. It’s good to show some nerves, to celebrate small wins, and to get right back up like a “no” doesn’t sting a little. I know that the next time I’m in class I’ll be a little less tough on the 23-year-old making their first calls.

By the way, my proudest moment was when he DITCHED THE SCRIPT and felt confident enough to use his own words. I can’t believe I didn’t record it! 

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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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Does Inside Sales Training STILL Have a Problem?

This Hubspot article, Why Inside Sales Has A Training Problem, was published 3 years ago…and still holds true. Why?

Reps Need Inside Sales Training, Not Field Sales Training

Inside Sales reps need training that’s focused on the job you’ve hired them to do (i.e. sell over the phone). Too many companies try to force their field sales training material into the Inside Selling world, or go out and buy generic training on “sales skills.” All this does is make the rep’s job twice as difficult. Now they need to not only learn the new skill, but they also need to figure out how (or if) it translates into selling over the phone.

After training reps around the world over the course of the last 15+ years, I can assure you that the first time they start to think “that doesn’t work here” or “that won’t work with my customers” you’ve lost them. It is the responsibility of the trainer to make the training as close to the real world as possible to minimize the gap between learning and application. Most people will agree with the logic of doing this, but so few companies do it.

Get On The Phones

Reps need training that simulates real world experience. Get them on the phones! There’s no better way to get past the “that won’t work here” argument than to get reps using the skills before the training is even over. Start with some practice in the classroom to let them work the kinks out and make revisions with their peers, but then go out and do it with your customers and get some feedback.

We have a huge advantage in Inside Sales when it comes to speed and ability to execute…why don’t we use it more often? Everyone is in the office together, their customers are right on the other side of the phone, make the dials! If you were doing this in the field it would be impossible to get this kind of customer feedback during training, but not for Inside Sales. We also have the luxury of adjusting on the fly. You can make 15-20 calls in an hour, learn from those calls, make revisions, and make another 20 calls after lunch. Trying moving that fast in the field!

So, let’s get our reps on the phones practicing the skills they need to be successful at their job.

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6 ways to make call coaching more effective

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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!

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5 Things I Learned During My First Year in Sales Management

In 1998 I moved to Phoenix to take my first Inside Sales Management job at Insight (NYSE: NSIT). We resold technology to the Fortune 500. Mine was a new team with a new leader building new books of business. Read: It suuuuuucked.

There aren’t a lot of “un-tried” leads in the Fortune 500, and my brand new team and I were all struggling. The memory of it is still pretty vivid for me – feeling completely overwhelmed. The frustration at constantly saying “I don’t know,” twenty seven times a day, and the very late nights trying to figure out what I should be doing and then just doing email instead. . .

Today I remember these times to help me guide the Factor 8 team in developing and delivering Management and Leadership training for Inside Sales Managers. As most of you know, we don’t go for BS theory classes at Factor 8, we try very hard to solve real-life problems and impart immediately-applicable skills in class.

Man I wish I’d had that training back then. Scary that some of you out there were BORN when I was doing this. Sometimes I still feel like that 23 year old trying to pretend I knew what I was doing (But I digress).

So what do you remember? I’ll get the ball rolling with the top five things I didn’t know, should have known, wish I’d known. Please share one of yours. What’s a key skill for sales managers that someone should teach them in year one? (Or, if you’re living this right now, what is something you wish they would teach you??) Can’t wait to see the list!!

  1. The management screens and responsibilities in CRM (seriously, tell me I had to release orders, that might have helped)
  2. Meeting prep. I spent 8 hours preparing for my first team meeting. Ridiculous.
  3. Motivation tactics. Month one I sent out emails to rally the troops behind our first quota . Awful. Really? Email?
  4. Cadence. What meetings should I be having? When? 1:1 or group?
  5. Who’s who in the zoo? Who do I call to get a credit line extended? A product ordered? An account moved?

PS: My old boss from 1998 interviewed me for his Management / Leadership Blog last year. We talked about my first year in leadership and how to be successful. Here’s the link: https://managermojo.com/make-people-successful/.

PSS: And if you want to see what Factor 8 does with live training for managers and leaders, contact us at info@factor8.com.

LB

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Thanks for the Promotion…Now What?

Once the excitement wears off, there’s a good chance that your new manager is nervous and even a little scared about their ability to succeed.

Here are 10 things running through their head that they’re afraid to tell you (from the point of view of a typical newly-promoted Inside Sales Manager):

  • It’s impossibly hard to be the boss of my old team. Who do I go to lunch with?
  • Half the skills that made me an awesome rep (competitive? High maintenance?) make me a pretty awful manager
  • Um, how DO you run a pipeline meeting?
  • I’m not actually sure how to coach, so I just take over the call or give my team scripts of how I did it
  • Truth is, I’m actually hanging on to a few accounts (cuz if you’ll let me, I’ll try to keep doing my old job)
  • If it doesn’t work out, you’re down a manager AND a top performer (because I’m not going back on the phones – humiliating!)
  • If an unengaged rep can ruin 200 customer relationships, I can ultimately ruin over 2000!
  • What AM I supposed to cover in a 1:1??
  • When I run out of candidates that look just like me, I’m not sure how to hire.
  • I don’t know how to explain how I did it. It’s an ART not a science! How do I teach that?

I’m sure I missed a few. What was running through your head once you got settled into your first Inside Sales Management position?

Folks, training your managers is critical. Jump out to our YouTube page to learn more about what training to provide, why train managers first, and the online job training we recommend when face-to-face training isn’t feasible. You can also follow Factor 8 here on LinkedIn or at Factor8.com

Lauren Bailey (LB) is the President of Factor 8, and has been recognized by the AA-ISP as one of the “Top 25 Most Influential Leaders in Inside Sales” for 4 years running. You can connect with LB on LinkedIn, Twitter (@Factor8Sales), or the newly launched website – www.Factor8.com.

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