As the landscape of B2B selling shifts, sales managers can’t afford not to coach.
Ask any sales manager about their barrier to growth, and many will admit they wish they could just clone their highest-performing reps. Sadly, that’s not how growth works.
The answer isn’t cloning, it’s coaching. According to the Center for Sales Strategy, sales teams with dynamic coaching programs achieve higher win rates.
Although managers try their best, it’s hard to shoehorn coaching sessions into days spent “fighting fires.” One-on-one coaching falls off the schedule, or worse, turn into a generic pep talk. Without time to review each team member’s call and email interactions, sales managers end up flying blind.
Fortunately, there’s tech today that can help.
Conversation intelligence technology (CI) enables sales managers to become more effective coaches. Available in new generation sales enablement platforms, CI gives managers an x-ray view of ongoing deals.
The technology goes far beyond CRM reporting to provide an analysis of each customer interaction, completely in the background. The timesaver is a dashboard view that lets managers track every win—and every potential loss. Potential roadblocks can be identified. Coaching priorities are clear.
Without spending hours listening to call recordings, or relying on rep recall, managers gain the ability to offer practical data-based guidance.
There are three shifts in today’s B2B sales landscape that CI-based coaching needs to address:
Shift #1: The modern B2B buyer doesn’t want a generic sales pitch.
Harvard Business Review blames the internet. It’s a buyer-centric world out there and traditional product-focused selling in 2022 falls flat. Buyers can source all the information their stakeholders need online, no assistance necessary. Today, the lion’s share of even the most complex B2B buying decision is virtually rep-free:
- Gartner found that buyers now spend a mere 17% of their total buying time interacting with supplier sales teams.
- A McKinsey study reports that buyers want an “always-on, omnichannel experience.” They want their conversations with sellers to be a more personalized, consultative experience.
- Reps don’t typically engage with buyers until much later in the process and they need to bring valuable insights buyers can’t find on their own.
The B2B buyer has spoken: every interaction counts, communication skills count, and recognizing buying signals counts more than ever. Reps must master a new set of skills or find themselves left behind.
Shift #2: Reps don’t benefit from generic coaching.
It’s one thing to receive general advice. It’s another thing to get a clear picture of what you’re doing right and where you need to improve. CI allows managers to tailor coaching to an individual’s skill gaps.
Ken Blank, Senior Sales Enablement Programs Lead at Infoblox, agrees that it’s a critical time to leverage conversation intelligence so coaching can get more strategic over time: “Sales managers should able to see what’s happening in individual sales interactions, identify trends, and use those insights to build strategic coaching programs that help our sales force be more effective.”
CI is a game changer. It tracks things like the talk/listen ratio, monologues, number of questions, pauses, or even number of times a competitor’s name is mentioned. Numbers don’t lie. When managers can pinpoint specifics to work on, the rep can leave with a plan of action.
Shift #3: Reps need three types of coaching to be prepared for the future of B2B selling.
Every manager has their own approach to one-on-one time with their reps. According to Chris Orlob, Director of Sales at Gong.io and Startup Advisor, sales coaching tailored to the needs of individuals falls into three categories—tactical, strategic, and personal.
Tactical Coaching
The focus of tactical coaching is to identify what’s working, and what’s not. Reviewing the conversation intelligence dashboard ahead of meetings gives the manager an idea of the most pressing areas to focus on. Instead of asking the rep how they feel things are going, they can discuss what they see. They can share talk patterns, like whether the rep asked open- or closed-ended questions, how many times certain keywords were mentioned, or if the talk ratio was lop-sided. Reps can access recordings between sessions to see if they’re improving.
Strategic Coaching
Some data provides a barometer for the health of deals in the pipeline. Managers use a strategic coaching approach to help reps address any risk factors they observe before it’s too late. Working together, the rep and manager can eliminate roadblocks and brainstorm solutions to smooth progress.
Personal Coaching
All reps experience highs and lows as they try their best to navigate change. It’s hard to stay positive when the going gets tough. Personal coaching addresses the individual behind the data—the rep as a person. It takes trust from both sides to get at where reps feel vulnerable, what motivates them, and what they truly value. Personal coaching requires the skill to ask questions, really listen, and allow space for reflection.
When managers employ a mix of three types of coaching as needed, reps can focus on the skills they need to succeed—with measurable results.
3 coaching tips for (very) busy sales managers
Coaching requires a skill set that doesn’t come naturally to everybody. Managers with a selling background often lean toward sharing what worked for them rather than allowing a rep to find solutions on their own. Being a good coach takes patience and time—two things in short supply in a busy sales environment. Tools like conversation intelligence save preparation time by surfacing friction points, and behaviors to focus on, with tracking that keeps everybody accountable.
To coach effectively, it’s best not to over-complicate things. Helen Waite, from aptly named sales enablement platform Mindtickle, gives three pieces of advice:
- Focus on one skill per session, or one per quarter. Improvement takes time.
- Base guidance on real-world examples. That makes it easier for reps to understand where they may be lagging and provides examples of “what good looks like” from top performers.
- Follow up with training content to reinforce the coaching conversation.
When sales managers let their CI dashboard do the heavy lifting, they can focus on providing guidance tailored to struggling new reps, striving mid-performers, and even the superstars they wish they could clone.
Coaching with conversation intelligence shifts sales teams into high gear.
As the economy slows, the B2B buyer evolves, and the Great Resignation rolls on, sales managers need to do everything they can to foster team success.
The benefits of coaching are clear: as research shows, personalized, consistent, and realistic sales coaching results in more effective buyer engagement and higher quota attainment. The benefits go beyond revenue—reps who see a clear path to personal success tend to stick around longer than the industry average of 18 months.
The conversation intelligence technology inside the sales enablement platform makes it easier to help reps reach their maximum potential and, in doing so, build a high-performing team. Sales managers can’t afford not to coach. Conversation intelligence technology makes it easier to do more effectively.
This is an original piece of work from Barb Shimasaki, B2B writer. Find Barb on LinkedIn.