Next Level Sales Coaching: How to Build a Sales Team That Stays, Sells, and Succeeds

Do you remember being "in the trenches" as a salesperson? What did you think of your sales manager? If you're like many front-line sellers, you probably didn't think she or he was a wonderful example of leadership who could inspire you to do your best in life and in work. The unfortunate truth is that many sales managers—well-meaning though they usually are—lack the skills and know-how to help their sales teams grow and achieve greater success. Over a combined 50 years of experience as salespeople, managers, coaches, and executives, authors Steve Johnson and Matthew Hawk have witnessed the do's and don'ts of top performing sales teams. Next Level Sales Coaching is the culmination of their experience. In this book, they distill what they have learned working with organizations like Google, Bank of America, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and many more. The result is a compendium of best sales coaching practices with the power to make any sales manager into an inspirational and transformational leader. At its heart, this book is about how to integrate a person-centered development mindset into sales environments. Readers will work through practical examples, including a self-assessment, to identify the best way to implement strong coaching programs within their organizations. Each chapter concludes with takeaway questions and tips that sales leaders can use right away. From goal setting to daily sales huddles, and sales development training to analytics, Next Level Sales Coaching covers the best practices that readers will want to implement to take sales management to the next level.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1 Why We Wrote This Book 1 Who This Book is For 2 Who We Are 3 Chapter 1 The Case for Sales Coaching 7 Dynamic Sales Coaching is Better than Random Sales Coaching 8 The Benefits of Reading (and Using!) This Book 11 What’s in This Book 14 What’s NOT in This Book 14 Are You Ready? 15 The Road Ahead 17 Chapter 2 Why Coaching Fails or Fails to Happen 19 Personal Background 20 Company Culture 22 Quantity: Why Managers Don’t Coach Enough 23 Quality: Why Sales Managers Coach Ineffectively 23 Chapter 3 Sales Coaching Model and Self-Assessment 25 Sales Coaching Model 25 Sales Manager Attitudes 27 Sales Manager Self-Assessment: Attitudes and Activities 28 Impact of Coaching 29 Chapter 4 Review and Plan Meetings 31 Planning Varies by Type of Sales Organization 32 Benefits of Review and Plan Conversations 34 Review and Plan Conversation 36 Review and Plan Meeting Tips 38 Chapter 5 Goal-Setting Meetings 41 Why Salespeople Miss Expectations 42 Guidelines for Conducting Goal-Setting Meetings 43 Goal-Setting Meeting Overview 44 Goal-Setting Meeting Process 46 Addressing Attitude Issues on Your Team: The Classic Types 66 Goal-Setting Meeting Best Practices 72 Chapter 6 Skill Development Training 75 Talent is Overrated 76 Skill Development Training Challenges 78 Benefits of Skill Development Training 79 Opportunities for Skill Development Training 79 Skill Development Training Steps 82 Types of Feedback in Skill Development Training 95 Skill Development Training Tips 97 Chapter 7 Check-Ins 99 How Check-Ins Impact Your Sales Team in a Positive Way 100 How to Check In 102 Chapter 8 Performance Feedback 115 The Practice Coach, the Game Coach, Then the Practice Coach 116 Define Roles and Responsibilities 117 Performance Feedback Process 122 Performance Feedback Form 124 Insights on Performance Feedback 136 Chapter 9 Sales Meetings 139 Top Ten Reasons Why Salespeople Hate Sales Meetings 141 Sales Meeting Agenda 142 The End Game 143 Preparation 145 Welcome/Overview Agenda 146 Opening Inspiration 148 Success Stories 150 Skills Development Training 154 Goal Reporting and Goal Setting 160 Summary and Action Steps 163 Next-Meeting Logistics 164 Closing Inspiration 164 Other Activities 164 Chapter 10 Sales Huddles 167 Benefits of Sales Huddles 168 How to Recognize Effective Sales Huddles 171 Sales Huddle Example Scripting 174 Chapter 11 Sales and Service Coaching in the Contact Center 177 A Tale of Two Coaches 177 Make Time 179 Use Non-Scored Feedback 179 Coach Proactively 181 Focus on One Behavior at a Time 182 Use “MAPs” – Micro Action Plans 183 Use Questions to Coach 186 Recognize People 188 Calibrate 190 Chapter 12 Sales Enablement Best Practices 193 Micro Learning 193 Video 193 Web Conferencing and Video Chat 195 Competency Assessment Tools 196 Field Coaching Tools 197 Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence 197 Analytics 198 Appendix: Sales Coaching Cadences 199 References/Further Reading 203 Acknowledgments 205 About the Authors 209 Index 211

About the Author :
STEVE JOHNSON is the President and Founder of The Next Level Sales Consulting. He has been working with clients to increase their sales effectiveness for over 35 years. Steve has developed hundreds of selling programs for clients such as Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, and U. S. Bank. He is the coauthor of Selling is Everyone's Business and If You're Not Out Selling, You're Being Outsold. MATTHEW HAWK, PHD, is Vice President of Instructional Design and Training Delivery at Synchrony. Matthew earned his doctorate from Yale University and is a member, contributing author, and speaker on the topic of sales enablement for the Association for Talent Development.