销售教练：最终指南

想象您的销售团队表现19％bettermonth after month。

听起来不错吗？当然。

Astudy from CSO Insightsreveals a correlation between quota attainment and coaching. When coaching skills exceed expectations, 94.8% of reps meet quota. When coaching skills need improvement, only 84.5% hit.

In other words, no other productivity investment is nearly as impactful as sales coaching. So, what is sales coaching, and how do you do it well?

Effective sales coaching is iterative, individualized, and包括的。这是旨在加强积极的行为或correct negative behavior. Typically part of each sales rep's daily or weekly routine, sales coaching is focused on skills and techniques rather than numbers.

Whatdoesn’t属于销售教练伞？

• 告诉销售人员到底该怎么做（而不是给他们最终目标并让他们找出细节）
• Giving the same advice to every single person
• Ignoring individual motivators, strengths, and weaknesses

Examples of Sales Coaching

To get a better sense of what sales coaching looks like, here are a few examples:

• Reviewing a call with a sales rep and discussing what went well and where they could improve
• Offeringinside salestraining and tips
• Reviewing远程销售技术and工具
• Scheduling weekly check-ins with reps to discuss objectives and areas of the sales process they’re less confident in
• Shadowing or listening to a rep's meeting or phone call with a prospect
• Reviewing a rep's email conversations with prospects throughout different points in the buyer's journey

Benefits of Sales Coaching

As highlighted in the introduction, sales coaching has a proven, positive impact on your bottom line. But win rates aren’t the only reason you should coach your sales reps.

1.销售coaching improves employee retention rates。

REP营业额是销售中臭名昭著的问题。尽管倦怠或在其他地方的薪水更大会诱使某些人，但专业发展机会将激发许多其他人留下来。十分之一的员工说professional development is “important” or “very important,” and 4 in 10 specifically want in-house programs.

2.销售coaching gives you an opportunity to share best practices。

当您注意到一位代表使用策略取得巨大成功时，您可以立即教团队的其他成员做同样的事情，类似于如何HubSpot sales rep's success with video prospectingspread throughout his team. Think of sales coaching as a rising tide that lifts all boats.

3. Sales coaching maximizes your investment in sales training。

Companies spend billions per year on sales training, butresearch showsmost of the curriculum doesn’t stick. Effective sales training relies on consistent, long-term reinforcement — which the sales manager can achieve through sales coaching.

销售教练Models

There are hundreds of different sales coaching models. Many managers are less than enthused about them — and it's not too difficult to understand why.

Some coaching models are designed for any manager with reports, rather than a sales manager and their reps. But sales is an incredibly distinct profession. It requires a unique coaching model. If you’re considering a generic model, you'll likely struggle trying to adapt it to your team.

一些模型仅适用于特定方法。如果您不喜欢应该使用的型号，那可能会令人沮丧。幸运的是，您始终可以创建规定的教练模型的混合体，这是您更热衷的。

And remember, some models areoverlystructured. Look for something flexible that you can use with different sales processes — that way, if you change your strategy, you won’t need a brand-new coaching model.

如果您不确定教练模型是否合适，请询问您的团队。他们的反馈最重要；毕竟，他们应该受益。您可能会使用员工反馈工具, or conduct an internalsurvey, to get this information from your team.

不w that you have a better understanding of what sales coaching is and why it's important, let's look at some sales coaching techniques you can implement.

These commonly-used coaching techniques are applicable to all types of sales teams. Don't be afraid to incorporate some (or all) of them on your team.

1. Use sales data.

弄清楚在销售教练方面和个人代表之间要关注的是什么。这就是数据发挥作用。而不是使用您的肠道来指导您Hubspot CRMand/orsales softwareto identify where your salespeople could improve.

想知道这会是什么样？

每月跟踪转换指标。如果您注意到交易速度正在增加，但较近的速度正在降低，则应挖掘代表的电子邮件到会议，会议到选举和粘贴率（或适用的情况）metrics for your sales process) to understand where they’re moving too fast.

You may also see many reps are skipping the discovery call and jumping straight to the demo, which saves time but leads to generic, low-value presentations … and, therefore, decreasing win rates.

In addition, compare each salesperson to their historical performance, the team’s average performance, and/or your top performers’ performances.

For example, let’s suppose your rep’s average deal size is $500. This quarter, their average was $300. Your best salespeople are averaging $600. With this context, it's clear this rep needs help.

2. Mix up your sales coaching style.

销售需要各种技能和技术，因此请确保您的教练融合了多种样式。

Director of Sales Enablement at Brainshark, Mike Kunkle,推荐varying between:

• 战略教练或大型指导，诸如销售到特定市场之类的主题，浏览复杂的购买过程，与客户拥护者合作等。
• Tactical coaching, or nitty-gritty suggestions on starting a relationship, qualifying, etc.
• 具体的技能教练或帮助销售人员改善他们的沟通，质疑策略，融洽的建设能力，远程销售等。

3. Get buy-in.

What's one of the worst ways to try to change a salesperson’s behavior? Tell them what to do.

Most salespeople are fairly independent — that’s why they’ve chosen to work in sales — and don’t respond well to being ordered around.

You’ll have far more success if you involve them in the improvement process. That means asking them how they think they performed, what they can do to get better, and which metrics will help them measure their progress.

4. Leverage your best sales reps.

Salespeople can learn just as much from each other as you. Use that to your advantage — if one person on the team is crushing it, ask them to share their learnings with everyone else.

为了给您一个主意，想象一下您的两个代表从prospecting on LinkedIn(social sellingis a highly-effective tactic, after all). Figure out what they’re doing differently. Are they sending a specific message? Targeting a specific set of users? Answering questions in specific groups?

These reps should give a presentation on their winning strategy — perhaps during your next team meeting. Your other salespeople will be eager to imitate them, and the group will potentially find an even more effective way to execute this play.

让我们看一下可以更轻松地管理所有这些教练技巧和技术的各种工具。

There are a number of tools you can use to improve and simplify your sales coaching techniques. These tools include software and educational resources you can use both individually or in combination with each other.

1. Chorus.ai

合唱provides a simple way for you to usesales enablement练习指导和授权代表。您可以建立，实施和衡量销售教练策略的成功，以确保您支持自己的代表，以便他们更有可能达到目标。

The software's AI capabilities simplify the creation of your coaching tactics and plans while pulling from real rep conversations, data, and interactions with leads and customers.

2. Gong

Gong通过使用产品的互动，可以与客户进行独特的外观conversation intelligence capabilities。As a sales manager, this feature will make it easy to identify and replicate the actions your best reps are taking as well as assist other reps in the areas they need support. You can review the conversations your reps have with your prospects and customers on the phone, email, or web conference.

3. HubSpot的经理销售教练

HubSpot Sales Coaching for Managersis afreeprogram for sales managers to learn how to better coach and support reps. The lessons focus on the best ways to coach reps so they can hit their goals and so your team continues to excel and positively impact the business's bottom line.

4. Showpad Coach

Showpad Coach, formerly known as LearnCore, is a sales coaching and training software. It allows you to organize and manage coaching (as well as onboarding and training) for each rep on your team.

The software offers features that allow you to review analytics related to each of your reps — this way, you identify which people need what type of support and coaching. You can also create and share coaching videos to customize and tailor the support you're providing your reps with.

5.执行

ExecVisionis a对话情报计划ideal for coaching large teams of reps. The software makes it easy to assist your reps and focus on their specific areas for improvement by focusing on their behaviors.

The software allows you to easily identify coachable moments in every rep's processes. It transcribes sales calls and highlights key moments in every rep's workflow. Then, you can go in and coach the reps in the areas in which they need support.

除了销售教练技术和工具, here are some all-encompassing tips to keep in mind as well. These tips will help you effectively coach reps to ensure your team is as productive as possible.

1. Focus on the middle 60%.

According toBrent Adamson and Matt Dixon, authors ofThe Challenger Sale，大多数销售经理倾向于将大部分能量花费在团队中指导“非常最佳，非常最糟糕的”销售人员。

经理们被迫帮助最低的20％使他们的团队获得配额。他们想帮助前20％，因为这是有益的。

Consequently, the middle 60% gets the least amount of attention. But Adamson and Dixon explain “the real payoff from good coaching lies among … your core performers.”

毕竟，表现最差的销售人员（谁是consistently表现不佳，也就是说）通常不适合该角色。您应该更换它们，而不是试图训练它们。

And the stars on the team show little to no performance improvement from coaching. So when you’re thinking about which reps to focus your attention on, think of the middle of the pack.

2. Share your vision.

销售代表想感觉好像他们正在为公司的整体成功做出贡献。raybet电子竞技这是激励人心的，并为他们提供了非货币实现。

为您的团队提出一项任务“Sell X amount of business.”This goal should be specific, actionable, and exciting — think“闯入市场”，“以做B的内部闻名”，或者“Break the company record for C.”

Periodically throughout team meetings and one-on-ones, share the overall team's progress toward this objective. You should also point out the people who have made significant contributions in doing so. For example, you might say,“I want to recognize Joella for landing a huge new corporate account, which will definitely increase our visibility in that market.”

3. Learn each salesperson’s drivers.

Everyone is motivated by different things. Even if the majority of your reps are motivated by making money, their specific financial goals probably vary widely. One salesperson might be paying off their student loans, while another may be saving up for a house. Some salespeople are primarily in sales because they love autonomy.

要确定如何参与代表，以前HubSpot销售总监Dan Tire推荐asking what they want to accomplish in both their personal and professional lives.

“This will not only show you the type of person they are, but also give you insight into what things will motivate them the most,” he explains. Tyre asks these questions:

• Are you motivated right now?
• 你长期的动机是什么?
• What can you do to motivate yourself?
• How will I know if you are not motivated?
• What do you want me to do if you don’t appear motivated?

Having these insights will allow you to tailor your coaching style to each sales rep and their personal visions.

4.有效地使用激励措施。

Sales contests and incentives should change behaviors, not reinforce existing ones. That’s why offering $100 to the first rep to make a sale that day probably isn’t helpful.

Figure out what your salespeople aren’t doing that you’d like them to — and design your contest around that action.

To illustrate, maybe your reps are focusing too heavily on product A because it requires less technical knowledge than product B. You might give a bonus to every salesperson who sells more than X units of product B.

5. Give personal rewards.

Individual prizes should be tied to a specific rep’s goals. For example, if a rep is working on increasing their call-to-meetings rate, you might say you’ll take them to a nice lunch once they improve by X%.

不t sure what to offer as a prize? Here’s where knowing every salesperson’s motivators is handy. You can also directly ask them,“What can I give you as a prize for achieving [objective]?”

6. Seek and experiment with new coaching practices and resources.

There are many sales coachingtechniquesand工具available today — don’t be afraid to experiment with them. Every team and individual are different — meaning, no sales coaching techniques arealways将成为万能的。

Learn about what’s going to work best for your reps and their needs and ask each rep for their反馈一对一会议中的教练风格。然后，坚持这些策略，直到达到需要重新评估其有效性和影响的时间点。

7.通过多种教练场景准备和练习。

As asales manager, it’s your job to prepare and practice with multiple coaching scenarios. Your team is bound to evolve and the people on it are going to change (in terms of their skillset but also rep turnover).

Stay efficient and effective in regards to coaching by preparing for different scenarios — this way, you’ll be ready to assist and teach reps with different needs and areas for improvement at any point in time.

Additionally, you might notice you have several people who need the same type of coaching in a specific problem area. In this case, you can prepare with training and information around that topic and share it among the group.

Or, if one rep is struggling in a specific area, you may have a prepared outline of a plan you can then tailor towards their needs — then, you can use it again in the future with another rep.

8. Leverage your entire sales team.

一些销售代表以身作则，这就是为什么利用销售团队的其他成员（也许达到20％）可能很有价值的原因。安排一些阴影会议，在此期间，您要教练的代表可以聆听一些成功的销售电话（或sales call recordings）。之后，用您的代表进行汇报，并分解为什么通话如此成功，可以改进的原因以及每个代表如何处理电话。

Moreover, ask the more successful members of your team what helps them duringtheircalls and consider providing similar resources or encouragement to those reps with room for improvement.

9. Have the hard conversations.

许多销售代表努力发挥其潜力，因为不可避免的前景后卫……而可怕的词，不。但是大多数代表都会通过这种练习来解决这种不适。

With the sales reps you're coaching, role play some uncomfortable scenarios and hard conversations, practicing some常见异议。一旦代表变得更加自在地听到这些反对意见并做出了相应的回应，他们将有能力在真实的销售电话上面对他们。

10.提供比负面反馈更多的正面反馈。

For as many pieces of constructive criticism you provide to your sales reps, give twice as much positive reinforcement. Not only does this help maintain morale, but it also allows sales reps to recognize what they're doing right — and hopefully encourages them to repeat and build on that behavior.

给我,(销售)Coach

销售教练既是艺术，又是一门科学。这是销售管理中最重要的组成部分之一。做得好，您的团队的成绩将为您说服。因此，开始合并各种销售教练技术，工具和技巧，以帮助您的团队完成更多交易，提高收入，超越配额并增长更好。

Editor's note: This post was originally published in August 2017 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.