Coaching A Sales Professional on Time Management

Sales isn't an easy line of work to master - it takes a resilient person, with a lot of patience, confidence and tenacity to make it in sales. So, if you're a coach, how would you coach someone who's hoping to become a sales guru?

This is where your capabilities as a coach are put to the test. How do you plan to pull every last bit of potential out of someone who's just starting in sales? Well, I am going to walk you through the first 7 steps to this process. These won't cover every detail, but they'll get you started. These steps will help you hone in on critical components to any salesperson's skill set. In this article, I will cover the first: TIME-MANAGEMENT ABILITIES.

Do your best to understand your client's time-management abilities. Most of a salesperson's schedule is managed personally, so if she isn't organized, disciplined and motivated internally - this is where you will need to begin. You will want to encourage her - these are skills she can learn, they do not have to be inherent. She just has to bedevoted to developing them.

To assess a client's time-management skills, consider asking these questions:

Are you a self-starter or do you appreciate when others tell you what to do?On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your level of self-discipline? (10 = incredible, 1 = poor)How do you organize your days when you don't have any pressing priorities?When do you find yourself feeling bored?How do you feel and spend your time when you don't know what to do?

Asking these questions will reveal where a client's at, in terms of motivation, organization and prioritization. In sales, these skills play a serious role in one's success. If you discover your client does this process well, great - move on. If she doesn't, it would be well worth your time to work on fostering her time-management abilities. A few simple things that will help:

1. USE A CALENDAR. Help your client determine what sort of schedule would work best for her. A visual schedule, on a phone, computer or planner will always work better than relying on one's memory.

2. CREATE REMINDERS. Work with her to setup a process, so that when important dates are around the corner, she's alerted, far in advance, so that she can take the right steps to prepare for whatever it might be. This way, she's aware and ready instead of sadly surprised when deadlines emerge and meetings pass.

3. TRY TO PRIORITIZE. Identifying what's most important to complete is critical. So, maybe helping her start with a simple to-do list, so that she outlines what needs to be done, stars what's business critical, and starts there. By doing this, she will ensure nothing falls through the cracks, and will always have something to work on, even when things are slow.

If you're a coach and you care about your client, helping them understand and manage their time efficiently will benefit them in the short term and the long term. This is a skill that pays it forward, personally and professionally.

Looking for more insights about coaching a sales professional? Download a complimentary coaching article at http://wcwpartners.com/free-coaching-for-excellence-article/.

Doug C. Watsabaugh, senior partner at WCW Partners, understands how to meet your unique performance challenges. You can reach Doug at: dwatsabaugh@wcwpartners.com or 1-888-313-0514.

Check out WCW's latest book, The SuperSTAR Leadership Model: Good Boss, Bad Boss - Which One Are You? http://wcwpartners.com/superstar-leadership-model/.

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Coaching a Sales Professional on Responsibility

Yes, maybe some sales skills come natural to some people, but for the most part, most of it can be learned. This is great news, and it's important to stress this with the sales professional you are managing or coaching because he may get frustrated as he works through the basics and becomes convinced he doesn't have what it takes. One of your main roles as a coach is to realistically motivate - sharing the hard truth and the hopeful truth, so that you paint a real, but positive perspective for them.

This leads me to suggest that after exploring a client's time-management abilities (which is the topic of another article), the next thing you should explore with your sales professional client is his/her perspectives on responsibility and accountability. Young or old, expert or amateur, there are a lot of individuals that blame their lack of success on something their leader is lacking.

I'll illustrate this point with a story. Let's say you're car shopping. You don't quite know what you want, but you venture into a dealership. In this example, the car dealer is your leader. You are the consumer. Despite not knowing what you want, you could still do some online research, ask a few friends, consult your spouse and family, and just take a look around to see what catches your eye. But instead, you don't do any of that. You go straight to the dealership, and buy the first thing the dealer recommends. A week later, you see a report on the news that puts this particular model at the bottom of the list; supposedly after one year, everything starts to go down the tubes. You discover that the car manufacturer is covered from any liability because your warranty covers things that apparently don't really matter. As your stomach drops, you think, "I should have read the fine print." So, just a few days after purchasing a new car, you are counting down the days until it breaks down. You are beyond livid with the car dealer, and you start to blame it all on her.

Back to the point... should she have recommended that car? Probably not. Did she make you buy the car? No. Were there other options that you could have explored to make a better decision? Absolutely. This is exactly how it works in the workplace. Leaders aren't perfect (FYI: neither are you), they are going to do things, suggest things, and say things that are sometimes, so wrong. That doesn't mean you can sign them up to be your easy out. It simply means you need to rely more on yourself for the success you want.

Ask yourself... does my client blame their lack of results on their leader's deficiencies? Do your best to find the answer to this question. Stress the importance of the value in taking responsibility for one's actions. Let your clients know that if they can't take responsibility for where they're missing the mark, they can't expect to claim the rights to anything that happens to go well. They can't claim their good work if they won't recognize their less-than-perfect performances.

Looking for more insights about coaching a sales professional? Download a complimentary coaching article at http://wcwpartners.com/free-coaching-for-excellence-article/.

Doug C. Watsabaugh, senior partner at WCW Partners, understands how to meet your unique performance challenges. You can reach Doug at: dwatsabaugh@wcwpartners.com or 1-888-313-0514.

Check out WCW's latest book, The SuperSTAR Leadership Model: Good Boss, Bad Boss - Which One Are You? http://wcwpartners.com/superstar-leadership-model/.

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Coaching a Sales Professional: Information Accumulation

Coaching someone in sales isn't easy work. Not because the client is always difficult, but more so because the profession is complex, to say the least. This article is one of 7 that I have written to help coaches & managers coach sales professionals. Not that these 7 cover everything, but I think they are significant when hoping to set a solid foundation for a salesperson.

Ignorance isn't bliss in business. And it's definitely not praised in sales. That's why accumulating and applying KNOWLEDGE is critical. I don't mean knowledge in an educational sense. Yes, education is important, but I'm talking about the type of knowledge that's professionally relevant and progressively collected. Being informed is critical because it has the potential to powerfully transform a sales professional's credibility. If a sales professional doesn't accurately understand her product/service, client and context - well, she's in for a surprise. And it probably won't be a positive surprise.

When sales professionals are regularly uninformed, typically, they excuse their ignorance. Instead of taking responsibility, they blame it on something or someone else. They suggest they aren't selling because "it's a pricing issue!" Or, "It's a tough market!" Really, if a good sales professional isn't selling, their reasoning is going to be much more refined. Specific. To the point. Why? Because good sales professionals aren't satisfied until they get to the root of their selling problem.

Now, I'm not suggesting that as a coach, you force or expect your sales professional to knowitall. That's micro-managing, not coaching. Instead, I'm advising you to counsel your sales professionals to recognize the importance of information. They must not only appear to be experts to their clients, but they must actually be experts.

What does this look like? Well, it can vary. But, a few staples of staying informed, include:

Remaining updated on market trends, needs and prices.Thoroughly understanding clients' expectations and needs, especially as these develop & evolve.Maintaining relationships with key resources and partners.Constantly assessing the latest and greatest competitors on the scene.Staying educated on the product or service line that one sells.Reading the news and other relevant literature that shares timely information.Researching client-company information, so that one is fully prepared to make a personal sales pitch to every client.

Depending on the sales environment of the professional and the industry of the product/service that one sells, additional opportunities to stay informed may arise. After reviewing the above list with your client, another next step would be to brainstorm additional ways to expand the breadth and depth of one's information bank.

If your clients are hoping to become sales professionals that are set apart from the amateurs, they must appreciate, accumulate and apply the best information. It's pivotal to their professionalism. Critical to their credibility. And essential to their success.

Looking for more insights about coaching a sales professional? Download a complimentary coaching article at http://wcwpartners.com/free-coaching-for-excellence-article/.

Doug C. Watsabaugh, senior partner at WCW Partners, understands how to meet your unique performance challenges. You can reach Doug at: dwatsabaugh@wcwpartners.com or 1-888-313-0514.

Check out WCW's latest book, The SuperSTAR Leadership Model: Good Boss, Bad Boss - Which One Are You? http://wcwpartners.com/superstar-leadership-model/.

View the original article here

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