expectation from the beginning and avoids assumptions. Effective competencies are specific and measurable. For example, “good communication skills” might become “being able to communicate with senior stakeholders.” You might also want to categorize them into skill- and will-based competencies; plus, if a certain structure or process is impor- tant for your team, then this can be a category, too. Be careful to avoid competencies
that should be the basic expectation of any employee – trust and integrity, for example – and make sure they are ap- propriate for each role (e.g., someone just starting out in sales is unlikely to be ready to communicate with the C-suite). It is also important to know the competency path between each role. What competencies would you want a salesperson to exhibit to be consid- ered for a leadership role?
2. COMMUNICATE To embed a culture of coaching for success, you need to clearly, constant- ly, and consistently communicate your intentions and gain buy-in from every level – from the top of the organiza- tion down. Senior leaders need to exhibit the coaching behaviors they want to instill in others, and should give consideration to how to com- municate it before, during, and after every sales initiative. Changing a culture takes an army, and everyone needs to be aware of their role in its success – establishing an operating rhythm for how often, who, etc., can help with this. When getting started, it is impor-
tant that the first one-to-one ses- sion includes a discussion and then agreement on where a salesperson is performing against the competen- cies in order to avoid misaligned expectations. You should then agree on the priority coaching activities and objectives – you can’t expect to improve everything in the next three months, but some objectives will stand out as moving the needle for the individual.
You should also remember to align
these objectives to an individual’s per- sonal goals to maximize buy-in. After all, the “what’s in it for me” factor is a powerful one.
3. HOLD SALES LEADERS AND SELLERS ACCOUNTABLE Consistency is key to the success of your coaching program. The danger with any new initiative is that, while everyone is very excited at the begin- ning – fully onboard and diligent – the enthusiasm and adoption rates wane over time.
The key to avoiding this is to make
sure the program is a truly top-down initiative. Sales leaders need to be held accountable for embedding it consis- tently. If a CRO/SVP holds direct reports to account and checks on progress, initiatives, and engagements, then this naturally flows down. Visibility is also key to avoid lip service – the more vis- ible sales leaders’ actions are, the more accountable they will be. Implementing a way to track coach- ing objectives against the competen- cies is a great way to hold every level of the business accountable and will increase your chances of success. Or- ganizations doing this well have intro- duced gamification and company-wide sales challenges that can be used with great effect to up the ante and create a shared community-style learning- and-development sales culture. If you use these techniques to
promote wins across the organization in a common language, it will soon become apparent who is engaged and who isn’t – and, as in every good coaching culture, that creates a coach- ing opportunity for the sales leader.
4. USE DATA TO MEASURE AND MONITOR SUCCESS
Once you have defined your compe- tencies and engaged your sales teams and leaders, the next step is to measure the impact on performance. But how can you track incremental progress? The work you have done until now has laid the groundwork for this. Each salesperson is aware of the compe-
tencies and knows their individual starting points. You now need to de- cide how you will measure outcomes and improvements against each competency. For example, the outcome for
“improving negotiating skills” could be measured by an increase in the average order value or decrease in discount levels. “Teaching others” could be measured in how many win stories the salesperson shares or how many blogs they post. Easy access to the right data can be invaluable here. The sales tech stack is now a complex combination of many platforms and products – from CRMs and call intelligence software to LinkedIn Sales Navigator, communica- tions platforms, and HR portals. The list goes on. These disparate systems are all undoubtedly valuable in their own right but they present a chal- lenge for sales leaders who need to be able to correlate data to get a full picture of activity, behaviors, and im- provements. If there are blind spots, sales leaders will not be able to see progress, identify where extra help might be needed, or measure the true ROI of any training. In turn, therefore, salespeople’s successes will not be celebrated; gaps will not be acted on; and people will become disenfran- chised with the program. As sales leaders, we need to recog-
nize the value of each distinct solution in our tech stack, but we also need to have a central place where all of the valuable intelligence is brought together and can be used to drive coaching and improvement. Implementing, maintaining, and
scaling a “coaching first” culture is not designed to be a set-and-forget program. Just like any culture, it needs nurturing, so keep iterating through steps 1-4 and continually review. Don’t be tempted to keep changing the competencies or metrics; a coaching program will take time to embed – but it’s worth it.
Kate Lewis is founder and CEO of data- driven coaching platform e4enable.
SELLING POWER MAY/JUNE 2021 | 17 © 2021 SELLING POWER. CALL 1-800-752-7355 FOR REPRINT PERMISSION.
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