Hey Coach, Is This Right?

“Hey Coach, Is this right?” Now that is a question I wish I would hear more often. Over the past 7 years I have coached many of my son’s and daughter’s sports teams. Last year, it was very apparent that my son and his teammates needed some professional instruction, as their needs to grow as players had outgrown my knowledge/experience of baseball. We hired a professional baseball instructor to teach the kids AND coach some finer points of baseball. It was my job, as the team’s coach, to make sure the investment in the professional instruction was reinforced on the field.

In my experience, this approach is not any different than the approach sales managers should take with their sales team. To get your biggest bang for your buck, the money spent on professional instruction/training must be reinforced by sales managers (coaches) and by the business systems that are used by the sales organization.

In baseball, we teach our pitchers to throw a “first pitch strike” (FPS). Starting out each batter with a strike, gives the pitcher an advantage. During the game we track each pitcher on how often they meet this FPS objective. Then, during the game we talk to the pitcher and give them feedback on how well they did with their FPS performance. Isn’t this how every sale should be approached? Sales Managers, let’s check our systems, then ask the question (coach the salesperson): “Did you start your sales process correctly, if not, are you at a disadvantage?”

Baseball is a long game and kids get distracted and often times don’t know if they are winning or losing (sorry, no scoreboards in Little League). We teach the kids to focus on winning the inning. After each completed inning, we pull the kids together and give them feedback on how well they did and we let them know if they won the inning. The theory is if we win more innings in a game than our opponent, we should win the game. Would this be a good approach when discussing/coaching the path to a sale? Sales Managers ask the question: “Where are you in the sales process (check the CRM system) and do you think you are winning or losing at that stage of the sale?” You might find it much easier to manage your team’s win rate and become more accurate in your sales forecast if you check the progress of your sales rep with each deal that is in your pipeline.

In baseball, I do not turn the kids loose on the field and check with them after the game is over to see how they did. I don’t watch the game, then talk to them afterwards, that is what parents do. As a coach, during the game, I actively work with the kids, give them feedback and try to help them achieve higher performance levels – that’s coaching.

If you train your sales people, then you must train your sales managers and expect them to coach the content. The most effective sales training I have seen is one in which the sales managers are active in the training and are then expected to coach their teams per the training once they return to the field. Don’t count on your sales folks to ask “Hey Coach, Is this right?” I think it seldom happens.

Join the conversation?

Has your team gone through something similar? Have you been on a team that lacked a common language and caused inefficiencies? Leave a comment below and share what happened.

By:

Jim Williams, M.B.A.
Total Innovation Group Inc., Associate
and
Sam O’Rear, M.A.
Total Innovation Group Inc., Senior Partner

Published by TIGI