For Whom Should You Invest in Sales Coaching?

Sales coaching has proven to be effective in increasing the productivity of salespersons who have undergone this special training. Were they top sales performers or were they the poor performers?

In making decisions as to whom to send for this costly business investment, management and sales leaders usually focus on their sales superstars and those who are struggling with their sales performance. Average salespersons who have regular but not outstanding sales outputs often miss this life-changing opportunity because, well … just because selecting candidates often becomes subjective by those who have the authority to choose whom they want to be trained.

After undergoing sales coaching, do the sales superstars and poor performers show significant change in their sales performance? A study conducted by the Harvard Business Review showed that coaching sales superstars didn’t make them more stellar and didn’t get poor performers to lift off from the ground. Money down the drain, with no return on investment for a sales coaching program that was ineffectively performed on those who didn’t deliver the expected sales results.

Who then deserves to be sales coached according to the study? The middle performers, the shy, reliable ones that regularly contribute to targeting the sales quota of their teams without a noise. These are the performers who showed a significant 19% increase in their sales performance after coaching.

Why? Probably, because they were just waiting for their star potential to be discovered. Some people are like that, they have to be probed, coaxed and motivated to set them free from their self-inflicted prison walls. Limiting thoughts and beliefs that become unraveled during the coaching session make them realize how their limiting thoughts made them believe they can’t be top performers, just average ones.

Once set free from these negativities, they soar to achieve what they rightfully deserve, SUCCESS just like all those who are getting the commendations and awards from the company.

To sustain the momentum of their euphoria they need to have follow-up coaching sessions, otherwise it will only be a 90-120 days of sales blitzkrieg. Studies have shown that salespeople forget 87% of the new skills they learned from a sales skills training program they went to within a within a week if they don’t have follow-up sessions.

Sales managers and sales supervisors who have undergone sales coaching or have the ability to coach should do their part to continue in nurturing their emerging sales superstars because by helping others they will ultimately help themselves also.

In sales, we often laud the top performers and give them all out support and encouragement to clinch a sale, while we ignore or lessen the importance of the contribution made by middle performers. This is one of the reasons why sales have a frequent turnover of personnel, disenchantment, unacknowledged service and worth to a team they’ve been continuously helping in small but constant sales.

Sales coaching can be an effective business investment to any sales company with a foreseeable return on investment (ROI) in the future if they send the right salespersons to go into coaching. Stop focusing on your top performers, they are already on the top. Poor performers might not be cut out for sales, so cut loose early while middle performers might be diamonds in the rough who are just waiting to be cut and polished to let their brightness shine out.