I was discussing some training and coaching strategies with a client yesterday. The company provides financial services and advice. They have a large number of Advisers who they categorized as Farmers. The majority of their Advisers were excellent with client service and always looking for ways to create value for their clients. This was evidenced by the high percentage of client retention.

The problem the company faces is a lack of growth through new and referral business.

“Can we turn our Farmers into Hunters?” was the question that I was asked.

Now this is a question that I have been asked in a number of different ways over the past two decades….. “Can you really teach someone to sell?” and “Can service people become salespeople?”

Yes…..but….

I am convinced that the answer is yes……but only if the ‘farmer’ is significantly motivated and energised to want to become a hunter. If they are not, and the decision is to ‘force train’ them into learning and implementing the skills and strategies of sales hunters, they may become de-motivated and stressed about the pressure being put on them to implement proactive selling strategies and as a result, become less effective in their more comfortable role of sales farmer.

So what’s the answer?

There are two approaches. The first is a long term process involving a series of training and coaching and mentoring interventions focused on changing the sales farmers’ belief about the value of the sales hunter strategies….the value that can be created from proactive sales and marketing strategies for their clients.

The second is to not try and turn the farmers into hunters, but rather help them become Sales Trappers.

The Sales Trapper strategies look at using the individual strengths of the Sales Farmer and creating sales and marketing strategies based on those strengths, that the Sales Farmer will be comfortable and confident in implementing.

For example, if a Sales Farmer is not comfortable in making ‘cold calls’, perhaps they are comfortable and confident in running client meetings. Therefore, we build on their strengths of client meetings and create some ‘public meetings’ where small groups of prospects are invited and the Sales Farmer chats about the value that can be created for those prospects through their products, service and advice.

This is just one example for illustration purposes, and by completing what I refer to as a ‘sales skill and comfort audit’ many Sales Farmers can identify proactive sales and marketing strategies that they are confident and comfortable to implement, that they enjoy, and more importantly, that will result in more new, repeat and referral sales.

I was interviewed recently by Ivana Williamson who is a coaching student at the International Coach Academy and is in the process of writing a research paper on ‘Does coaching sales professionals in the workplace improve their sales performance?’

When Ivana has completed her research I will let you know of her conclusions and recommendations.

In the meanwhile, when Ivana asked for my input, here’s a summary of what I said:

Coaching Salespeople Does Work If…..

My experience and results have proven that with the right support, with the right coach, with the right resources, with the right salesperson, with the right attitude, that coaching of salespeople in the workplace most definitely can improve sales performance, and I personally have hundreds of testimonials to validate this premise.

However, we also need to understand that when the above key elements are not in place, coaching and training salespeople in the workplace can have a much reduced impact and quite often fail.

Here are three reasons why coaching and training of salespeople can fail:

1. If the person who is being coached doesn’t have ongoing access to the resources they need to continue to build their skills and confidence in selling with success when the coaching ends.

2. If the level of intention of the person being coached is not sufficiently inspired, ie they don’t see the value of the coaching, or they don’t believe strongly in the value they create for buyers when they sell what they sell.

3. If the level of ability, knowledge and intent of the coach themselves is not sufficient. For example a sales manager who is also expected to be the coach may not be equipped to be a good coach. It’s not that they don’t know how to coach but they don’t have the resources to enable them to be able to coach, ie time, access to quick tips, sales and marketing tools, and other sales development/coaching resources like audios, videos, interviews with experts, webinars, and eCourses.

The Big Issue

The biggest issue that affects the success of coaching salespeople in the workplace is not do the coaches know how to coach.

It is do the coaches and the salespeople have access to the ongoing sales development resources to enable self-directed learning and coaching to continue. And even more importantly, given the access to the resources, do they have a big enough “WHY” to inspire and motivate them to use them to learn and succeed?

Learning is a process not a project. Process continues while projects end.

If you need to have unlimited access to learning and coaching resources to help you build your skills and confidence to win more new repeat and referral sales go to www.SalesCoachCentral.com

In an article appearing in November 2008 edition of Training & Development Magazine (the major publication of the ASTD – American Society of Training and Development) Boyer and co-author Brian Lambert report that the research shows the following benefits are evident when salespeople actively participate in self directed learning:

• Reduced Training Costs
• Higher Profits
• Higher Revenue Performance
• Lower Turnover
• Greater Salesperson Retention Rates
• Higher Customer Satisfaction
• Higher Customer Loyalty
• Higher Employee Commitment
• Greater Efficiency and Effectiveness of Training
• More Adaptive Sales Force
• Greater Employee Motivation

Despite this evidence, most organisations are still operating off more traditional approaches to sales training through the occasional workshop, boot camp or annual sales conference.

For self directed learning to become a reality for salespeople, regardless of the size of the sales team or organisation, and for the organisation to reap the benefits listed above, it requires that sales managers and their salespeople be provided with unlimited, 24/7 access to a vast array of resources to help them identify and build on the skills and knowledge they need to be able to win more new, repeat and referral sales.

I guess it’s yet another validation of the value of membership at Sales Coach Central.