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Why Coaching Fails or Fails to Happen
THE FOOTBALL TEAM was getting clobbered. The first-string quarterback was injured. The second-string quarterback was injured. Even the punter was injured. All the coach had left was the third-string quarterback who had yet to play a down all year. He pulled the quarterback aside. “Look, we can't afford to let them score again. We've got to run some time off the clock. Here's what I want you to do. On first down, run it to the left. On second down, run it to the right. On third down, run it up the middle. Then, on fourth down, punt it as far as you can punt it.”
“OK coach!” said the quarterback. On first down, he ran it to the left for 30 yards. On second down, he ran it to the right for 40 more. On third down, he ran it up the middle to the one-yard line. Then, on fourth down, the quarterback dropped back and punted the ball right out of the end zone. When he got to the sideline, the coach was screaming, “What were you thinking?!!!?!!!” The quarterback replied, “I was thinking I must be playing for the dumbest coach in the world.”
In this anecdote, the coach was not very effective. He gave the quarterback the plays to run but failed to make adjustments along the way. His prior experiences probably shaped what he felt the third-string quarterback was capable of and, therefore, underestimated his chances of success.
Personal Background
One of the reasons sales managers fail to coach, or fail at coaching, is because they've never been shown how to do it. Whether you are already in a sales management role, moving into a new sales management role, or considering doing so, you may find one or more of these profiles sounds familiar.
The Achiever
The salesperson who got promoted to sales manager, which is very common, and that could be you. You were a top-performing salesperson with a track record of success. You didn't need a lot of feedback, coaching, or support, so they just let you do your thing. You've done some peer-to-peer coaching and spoken at corporate events where you shared with the rest of the organization some of the things you've done to be successful. Based on your track record, you have been approached multiple times by sales leadership to consider moving into sales management. Finally, you decided to take the plunge. You haven't had any training on sales coaching, but you're a good salesperson. Because you don't have sales coaching skills, you revert to what you do best, which is selling. So, you find yourself going on sales calls to make sure deals get closed, but you're not really developing your team – and you know it. In fact, you get impatient trying to understand why your team does not seem to want to put in the hard work to improve.
The Culture-Shocked
The experienced sales manager who moved from one firm to another within the same industry and found it was a higher-performing culture. It's a big change because the culture is completely different. Your prior employer ran from the bottom up and your new one from the top down. At your prior company, the tail wagged the dog. At the new company, the dog wags the tail. Your prior company did not offer much sales leadership training and now you are painfully aware that you don't have a defined sales coaching process for developing your team. You feel like you are in over your head, you've got a lot to learn, and you suspect the things you did to be successful in your former role may not get the same result in the new one. You now realize you need a plan, or you are going to be exposed.
The Change Agent
You came from a high-performance environment where there was a well-established sales process and methodology, as well as a sales coaching process and methodology. You had good training on both. Your new company is losing market share and wants to make changes but doesn't really have the sales culture required to do what they want to do. You were brought in as a change agent, but you realize you must be patient and adaptable and meet people where they are, because they are not the same caliber as the prior company. You know that in your new role you will be spending much more of your time than you did in the past developing the fundamental skills of your team. And you know you need to shift gears and adapt to your new environment.
The Sales Rookie
You were an experienced manager with no sales experience who transitioned into a sales management role within the company. You've been successful as a quality assurance manager in a large customer contact center. You have a lot of experience in call center operations, monitoring calls, and delivering quality assurance feedback, but the sales aspect was not part of the quality process. Now that you are a sales manager with a team of 12 agents dialing outbound for leads, you fear you lack credibility as a coach because you've never done the job.
These profiles don't exhaust all the scenarios, but they reveal the variables when someone is moving into a new sales management role. If one or more of the risk factors below apply to you, you will be among those who will benefit most from using this playbook:
- Moving from an individual contributor role as a salesperson into a sales management role.
- Moving from a non-sales management role to a sales management role.
- Changing industries.
- Moving up from a lower-performing culture to a higher-performing culture.
- Moving down from a higher-performing culture to a lower-performing culture.
Often, the flipside of risk is opportunity. Whatever your scenario, putting this playbook to work will give you a game plan you can execute from day one. You can invest all your energy and enthusiasm in doing the work, rather than wondering what to do.
Company Culture
In our experience, the quality and consistency of sales coaching among sales managers is akin to prospecting activity among salespeople. In other words, it's inconsistent. Spotty. All over the board. How about your company? Ask yourself if you agree or disagree with the statement: “Our sales managers effectively coach salespeople to higher levels of performance.”
If you can't agree, with a straight face, you're not alone! According to Miller Heiman CSO Insights, only 33% of all companies agree vs. 90% of world-class sales organizations.
“What continues to raise eyebrows is the lack of effective sales coaching in sales organizations in spite of its well-known benefits” (Miller Heiman 2019b, 16).
What goes into “effective sales coaching”? We break it down into two components: quantity and quality.
Quantity: Why Managers Don't Coach Enough
Managers don't coach – or don't coach enough – when:
- They don't have an effective sales process to base their coaching on.
- Senior management doesn't support it – it's not part of the culture.
- They are effective at sales coaching, but don't prioritize it.
- They want to prioritize it, but don't know how to do it.
- They are unwilling to put in the time and effort.
- They spend a large portion of their time on administration and meetings.
- They mean well but don't have a well-established cadence of coaching activities.
- They lack credibility with their team due to lack of consistency and follow-up.
- Like fitness, it takes time, patience, and persistence to achieve positive results in terms of performance metrics.
- The sales manager fears the team won't be receptive to skills development training.
Which of these applies to you and/or your managers?
Quality: Why Sales Managers Coach Ineffectively
Sales managers fail at coaching when:
- They don't have an effective sales process to base their coaching on.
- They were formerly a top-performing salesperson, but sales coaching requires a different mindset and a different skill set.
- They don't know how to coach because they never had a good example to follow.
- They don't know how to “provide correction without stirring resentment” (UCLA basketball coach John Wooden). Their style puts their sales team on the defensive.
- They do it inconsistently, so they never get really good at it.
Most high-achieving salespeople are successful in sales because they have the type of self-esteem or makeup as a person that enables them to handle rejection, overcome fear, and have the confidence and resilience to handle the challenges sales presents. The really good ones do it in a world-class way. The one thing that helps them succeed in sales is possessing the emotional intelligence that enables them to succeed with all the obstacles and hurdles that come with the job. Conversely, when you become a sales manager, you will spend less time and effort on selling and more time and effort on training and coaching others. This is a big shift.
Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.
—Jack Welch