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A sales coach (or sales consultant) enables you to get the help that you need with marketing skills and services. Whether you need someone to help you come up with a marketing plan for your business or you need help with sales performance, working with a coach can give you clarity, and guidance, to help you achieve your goals.
If you’re struggling to market your business, working with a sales consultant may be the best choice that you can make. They will take the time to understand your vision and goals. Plus, it means you’ll no longer be struggling on your own and you will be able to solve any problems that you might be having with your marketing.
They may have experience in different areas and specialise in working with certain types of businesses or industries. Like other coaches, a sales coach will work closely with you to help you improve your skills, make better decisions, and ultimately ensure you are able to fulfil your goals.
There are various things that sales coaches can help you with, whether you’re just establishing your business, need assistance with growth or are ready to scale.
Whenever you or your sales team need help with strengthening your marketing skills or the way that you approach marketing, investing in effective sales coaching is a wise choice.
Sales coaching techniques can often overlap with general business coaching and personal concerns too. For example, some may also help you to sort out issues such as a fear of failure, limiting beliefs, etc. that may also be contributing to your current obstacles.
By taking this holistic approach you can tackle your business goals with confidence and have a much better chance of increasing your sales success.
Sales Coaching sessions can take many different forms. From online courses and programs, and one on one meetings, to group sales training sessions, conducted either in-person, over the phone or on the internet. Platforms such as Zoom & Skype have made coaching fully accessible, regardless of your location.
The process will vary depending on your individual needs and the services offered by the coach. Here are some things you can typically expect:
Many sales coaches offer a complimentary discovery session. The purpose of which is to allow you both to discover if you’re a good fit for each other, without any financial risk. Each subsequent session usually lasts somewhere between 45 to 90 minutes each, the frequency of which will again, depend on your needs.
Initially, you will often go over your goals and get clear on your desired outcomes through the use of the coach’s active listing skills and quality questions. Sometimes also through the use of tools such as personality quizzes, assessments, and exercises.
The data gathered will help to establish where you are now, and the steps required to bridge the gap and get you to where you want to be.
You may also be asked to do some work on your own in between sessions (often called homework). These will generally consist of specific tasks relevant to your needs to move you closer to your goals and the sales results you want. For example, if you need to build confidence around sales calls, a homework task may be something that pushes you out of your comfort zone in order to build that confidence.
Committing to these tasks with your coach holds you accountable to them, greatly increasing your chances of following through. Another reason why those who work with a coach make much more progress than those who go it alone.
Sales Coaching is an investment of both your time and money so it’s vital that you know how to get the most out of it. Here are our top tips:
Make your sales coaching sessions a priority by giving them the time and space needed to come to each session fully prepared and focused. Get specific on what you need to work on, do any “homework” assigned to you in between each session and make sure you remove any possible distractions.
It’s also ideal to allow enough time before and after each session. Beforehand, to get in an optimal mindset, and afterwards, to jot down any notes and do some self-reflection.
If you think you’ve already tried everything, or are closed off to change and new ideas, then to be completely frank, you won’t get much out of coaching. You need to be “coachable”; open to different perspectives and willing to take them on board.
Be prepared to have your beliefs and comfort zones challenged and trust in the process that it will be worth it.
It won’t happen overnight but it will happen (thanks Pantene!) Have realistic expectations and don’t expect to have the performance of you, your sales team or your sales manager transformed overnight. Sales coaching can provide you with awesome insights and tools, but change, and progress takes time.
Make no mistake, contrary to what many believe being vulnerable is not a weakness, it’s a strength. One that will dramatically improve the impact of your sessions. You need to be completely open and honest with your coach (and in turn yourself!).
This will facilitate getting to the root of your issues faster, and foster more meaningful results.
If you’re given “homework” or tasks to complete in between sessions, do them! This is where the magic happens. Don’t expect your coach to do everything for you, that isn’t what coaching is about.
Your sales consultant is there to be your guide, but it’s you that needs to do the work… and you reap what you sew.
Not essential but highly recommended. In addition to taking some notes during the session, take some time afterwards to make sure you get everything important down and use the journal to help with some self-reflection to deepen what you have learned.
Knowledge on its own isn’t enough to affect change. Only in implementing what you have learned is where transformation takes place. Listening and taking notes are important, but to fast-track your progress, you must apply what you have learned to your daily life.
For example, how do you best build confidence in riding a bike? Simply listening to the feedback on what to do and not to do? Or taking that information and putting it into action?
Sure, this may result in you falling off, but that too is the only way to learn and get better at it!
Embrace the journey and enjoy the ride!
In order for all of the above to happen, it’s vital that you find a coach with whom you have trust and rapport and whose approach resonates with you. We can help with that too…
Here are some more factors to keep in mind when choosing a sales consutant:
Not all coaches approach the same problem in the same way, which is great because each individual will respond differently to varying styles. Similar to a fitness coach, some people would be put off by a “drill sergeant” type approach, whereas others respond to it really well.
As such you need to find a coach who can effectively work with your personality type, communication style, and approach to learning. Essentially, this means someone you can trust, build rapport with and whose approach is in line with how you prefer to work, learn and grow.
You can expect to find sales coaches with different focuses who can offer you various things. Some offer a general service but many of them choose to specialise in some way.
Some will work with certain types or sizes of businesses, or who choose to work in certain industries. Some may work with specific populations or demographics. For example, some sales consultants might work specifically with women and female-led businesses.
You can also expect to find sales coaches who specialise in different marketing channels. Some may offer coaching specifically for social media marketing, while others might know more about SEO, personal branding, or perhaps traditional marketing methods. You might be looking for a marketing coach with a particular area of expertise, but you could equally benefit from working with someone who has a wider scope.
Currently, coaching is an unregulated industry in that there are no standard curricula. Some sales coaching programs and sales training courses offer certifications (such as the international coach federation) but they come with varying levels of criteria. This criterion does help ensure a certain standard of knowledge, skills, expertise and experience. The caveat though is the “varying levels of criteria”, vary a lot.
For example, some certifications are given after attending a 1-day course, others require years of study. If finding a qualified coach is important to you, take a look into what their certifications and/or memberships actually entail.
Also keep in mind that if someone you’re thinking about working with isn’t certified, this shouldn’t be a deal breaker. Some coaches have done years of study and have a wealth of experience and effective sales coaching skills, but for a number of varying reasons, just don’t have a piece of paper to go with it.
In these cases, I suggest paying close attention to other important factors such as the results they get. If they have case studies, great! Otherwise, testimonials and reviews are a great source of credibility and social proof.
As mentioned above, testimonials and reviews are a great source of credibility and social proof. You can usually find them on their website, Facebook page, Google My Busines listing or within their listing page on directory sites like this one.
If a coach doesn’t have any reviews yet, that can be for a number of reasons; such as they’re relatively new (doesn’t mean they can’t offer massive value though!). Or, they’ve been around for a while but struggle to get reviews from their clients. It’s a funny thing reviews. Even the most satisfied customer can forget, or not bother to leave one (we get it, life is busy!).
It’s a real shame though, as reviews are a vital element in contributing to the success of a coaching business (or any business for that matter!)…. so when you do find a great marketing & sales coach, please leave them a review!
You’re not only supporting them but helping to connect other people with their valuable services also.
Like qualifications, these aren’t always essential, but you can learn a lot about a coach by what they blog about. Their personality, knowledge, skills, and experience.
If they have a blog section on their website or share articles online, take the time to have a read-through to see if the content resonates… It’s also a great excuse to grab a cuppa and have some “you time”.
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