Coach B Reps to Become A Reps

On the face of it, coaching sounds easy: find out what top performers do and have average performers replicate those behaviors. The occasional pep talk is no longer enough in today’s data-driven sales environment.

Great selling behaviors should be identified, implemented, measured and consistently reinforced through coaching to elevate selling success.

For example, instead of relying on the rep for deal status, successful sales managers need to come to their one-on-one coaching sessions armed with the right questions to ask. And knowing the right questions to ask means you must have the right data at your fingertips: a rep’s current deal status that highlights ‘what’s changed’ since your last discussion and what commitments were agreed to by both of you.

At the opportunity level, managers need to direct their coaching toward specific deals that are stuck in the pipeline or are at risk of falling outside the forecast period. By having instant access to “what’s changed” in a sales rep’s pipeline, sales managers can immediately direct behavior while there is still time to have an impact – instead of looking back at another missed quarter. We call this proactive coaching approach “Detect and Correct” versus the old way of coaching after the fact, “Measure and Punish”.

Cloud9-powered coaching sessions proactively uncover problems as they relate to deal quality and rep behavior. Now, instead of only asking open-ended questions, you can suggest rep activity that is relevant to the rep, right now. This approach results in more closed deals.