Keith Rosen's Executive Sales Coaching Blog on Selling, Leadership, Management

Fourteen Questions, Observations and Potential Pitfalls to Address to Ensure the Long Term Success of Your Internal Coaching Program – Part Two

Jan 22, 2010 Executive Coaching, Sales Coaching, coaching articles, coaching for managers, coaching salespeople

Yesterday, I started answering the question, “I’ve heard various opinions about the importance of coaching. I’ve even heard some philosophies that argue sales managers shouldn’t be coaches at all? Where should “coaching” fall as a priority for a sales manager and why?”

As I’ve mentioned, failed coaching initiatives certainly do happen frequently in many organizations for a variety of reasons. The main reason is that, quite frankly, coaching is more difficult than most managers realize. Granted, there are a many moving parts and variables which come into play that would determine how effective the coach is, how valuable the coaching is, and whether or not all sales managers or even a specific sales manager needs to, or for that matter, has the opportunity to transform into more of a coach.

In this post, I’ve listed fourteen questions that every company needs to address in order to ensure the long term success of any coaching initiative.

1.How is coaching introduced and rolled out within the organization? Is coaching being positioned correctly? (Is coaching positioned as a perk to better support each person at every level or is it viewed as more remedial for the underperformer and “broken wing?” (I.e. “You’re broken and you need some fixing!”)

2.What type of coach training will the managers receive? This is another topic altogether, that is, how to choose the right management coach training program that will produce a measurable return on your time and monetary investment.

3.What is the company’s definition of coaching? What is the universal definition of coaching that each manager will be embracing? Ultimately, coaching is a language, a new way of communicating and engaging at a deeper, more meaningful level. This is why managers always have an opportunity to coach in every interaction.

4.What is the level of buy in and commitment from the top? Are senior leaders fully onboard and supportive of this initiative? Will they be coaching as well? In some companies, I’ve seen senior leaders actually pull their people out of a management coach training program! (Hmm, now what message is being sent here?)

5.Building off the commitment of senior leadership, has coaching been made a priority as reflected in the manager’s new daily responsibilities? Has more room been made in the manager’s schedule, have certain activities or tasks been removed or their workload decreased to make room for coaching, has more support been given to management so they can offload some of these activities that have now been marked as less of a priority in relation to coaching?

6.What is the commitment each manager has to their team around how each person wants and needs to be supported based on their individuality?

7.Does the manager have the right team to be coaching?

8.How willing is the manager to develop this new skill of coaching in order to make their people more valuable? (This is management’s primary objective.)

9.How effective is the manager in enrolling their salespeople around being coached? Did they uncover and shatter negative assumptions, faulty thinking and costly perceptions around coaching?

10.What is the level of trust between the salesperson and manager? Was it established, confirmed, assumed or re-created?

11.Is the manager also a producer? Coaching is challenging enough for managers. Does this create an even more challenging dynamic if there’s a sense of competition between manager and salesperson? (Is the manager’s personal agenda aligned or conflicting with coaching?)

12.What is the level of consistency and follow through in the coaching? Does the manager only coach in ‘good’ or in ‘bad’ times?

13.Is there a dedicated coaching team? If the manager doesn’t deliver formal coaching (as in scheduled weekly or biweekly coaching sessions, for example), then someone needs to do so. In some organizations, it’s worked to have a separate sales skills coaching team that fills some of this void, whether it’s outsourced or done internally. Keep in mind, this doesn’t dismiss the need for managers to learn how to coach. What it does is help leverage the manager’s time and complements the coaching they are doing with their team. After all, the manager will still need to support the work that the external coach is doing with their team.

14.Who will be coaching the coach? Is this coaching initiative reactionary and event based or built to sustain itself over the long term? Training your managers in effective coaching skills and providing them with a framework they can use to coach is only one part of the equation. After the training is over, what is being done to reinforce the coaching and what was learned during the coach training program? What level of continued support is being provided for management to ensure that the managers themselves have a coach to lean on for support and accountability throughout the process? Who can the manager go to for situational coaching where they can share what they’ve experienced while coaching their salespeople as well as discuss their challenges and goals in a safe and confidential setting? Offering ongoing coaching for your managers will further embed their newly learned skills and the approach they need in order to lead and develop their people. Having a coach for the managers also sends the right message to your salespeople regarding the stand that management is taking around coaching by demonstrating the importance of coaching – at every level.

These are just a handful of questions, observations and potential pitfalls that every company needs to be mindful of and address to ensure the success of any long term coaching initiative, as well as the level of success that the manager will be able to realize when coaching.

Tags: coaching for managers, coaching salespeople, Executive Coaching, management coach training, Sales Coaching

Managers, Communicate from Abundance Rather Than From Scarcity

Dec 8, 2008 Communication, Executive Coaching, How to Manage Your Team, Sales Management, accountability, coaching articles, coaching for managers, management articles

To pick off from my last blog entitled, Motivate Through Pleasure Rather Than Consequence, I mentioned that in order to shift from consequence to pleasure it not only requires a change in your beliefs around how to motivate people but also in your communication strategy and the language you are using.

For example, if you listen to children talk, they often talk about what is present or what was pleasurable for them. If you ask a child, “How was the park?” You’ll hear things like, “It was great! It was so much fun!” Children communicate from a place of pleasure, from abundance from what is present for them. Now ask an adult how dinner or a movie was and you’ll hear, “Not bad.” If you ask someone to do something for you or for a favor, a typical response might be, “No problem” or “No worries.” Adults often communicate from the point of view of what isn’t there, what is lacking or missing, what will not be present or scarce or the consequence and fear that’s being avoided by their action rather than what will be present as a result of their efforts.

Instead of focusing on what is not present or focusing on the potential consequence, talk about what benefit will be present; that is, coming more from the mindset of abundance. For example, the following statement implies fear and consequence. “If you don’t make your quota this quarter, then you won’t have a job” or “If you can’t get this project completed within the time frame we discussed, then you won’t be able to take that vacation you wanted to at the end of the month.” These statements are consequence driven statements which focus on what will be missing or what they will not be able to do or have in their life if they don’t do what is expected of them.

Your communication style tells a lot about you, and where you are coming from. So if you’re communicating from scarcity, then where do you think your focus is when it comes to managing your mindset? Chances are driven by fear and consequence instead of your own goals and vision. And if that’s where your focus is, what exactly, do you think it is you are going to create? If there’s one universal law worth driving home it’s this: “How you think is exactly what you are going to get.”

Now, listen to this statement. “If you reach your quota this month, then you will be eligible for the quarterly bonus, or “Once you complete that project, then the only thing I want you to focus on the following week would be planning your vacation and the fun you’re going to have during the week off, especially knowing that this is a paid vacation week.” Notice how these statements imply the benefit or pleasure that will be present in their life rather than what will be missing.

Here’s another example of communicating from scarcity. “If you don’t get more organized, your stress level as well as your workload will continue to pile up to become even more unmanageable and overwhelming.”

Now, here’s the same message but this time it’s being delivered from a place of abundance. “If you keep following through and honoring your daily routine, then you will eliminate the overwhelming workload on your plate that’s been weighing you down. This way, your stress level as well as your workload will diminish and become more manageable so that you can feel in control and start enjoying your job again.”

And just to be real clear. When speaking from a place of pleasure or abundance, I am not suggesting you say things like, “If you just do your job, then you will get paid.” This statement is still implying a consequence and as we discussed, we want people to be motivated by a pleasure. (Similar to the strategy of utilizing positive, solution oriented questions rather than problem focused questions.)

Now, is it possible that some people will actually hear the consequence more and as such, change their behavior accordingly? Of course, and uncovering the pain or the cost of not making a change is a selling strategy I certainly endorse when it comes to motivating your prospects and customers to make a purchasing decision. However, it’s not the typical method of communication you want to use in the office and here’s why. Closing a sale for the most part is a one time event. And even if you are constantly selling or upselling to existing clients, it’s still not something that typically happens on a day to day basis with the same customer.

On the other hand, developing a positive atmosphere within the workplace is something that requires daily reinforcement, often more than once a day. Since we do not want to breed a negative culture from the continued reinforcement of this selling strategy, consider this instead. If a consequence needs to be driven home, then you are better off asking questions that focus on the cost or pain they will realize as a result of not changing their ways which, they, in turn can articulate. (For example, “What is it going to cost you if you don’t make any changes?”)

It is this subtle yet powerful change in the language you are using which can set the tone and atmosphere of not only every meeting you have but of the culture of your company. After all, think about how you feel after having a conversation with certain people. Why is it that some conversations with people leave you drained and some energize you? Because how you come across is created in the language you use. The language you use creates and reinforces the environment within your company as well as the experience people leave with from every conversation they have with you.

Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions Lands Two International Rights Deals

Aug 29, 2008 Books, Books by Keith Rosen, Executive Coaching, How to Manage Your Team, Sales Management, coaching articles, coaching for managers, management articles, training for managers

This is pretty neat! My book, Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions is being translated into a Chinese and Czech version! Below are the details.

Global Rights Deal Announcement for Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions: A Tactical Playbook for Managers and Executives by Keith Rosen

We are pleased to report a Global Rights Department license for the following title:

Author: Keith Rosen
Title: Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions: A Tactical Playbook for Managers and Executives
ISBN/PL: 0470142510/H

Here are some details of the deal:

Rights Licensed: Translation/Simplified Chinese
Licensee: Enterprise Management Publishing House, CHINA

Rights Licensed: Translation/Czech
Licensee: Computer Press. a.s., CZECH REPUBLIC

What Exactly Do You Coach? The Top Ten Things You Can Coach Someone On

Aug 5, 2008 Books by Keith Rosen, Business Coaching, Executive Coaching, Life Coaching and Career Coaching, Sales Coaching, Sales Management, accountability, coaching articles, coaching for managers, coaching tips, training for managers

What Exactly Do You Coach?
The Top Ten Things You Can Coach Someone On

I have found that the gap (the space you coach that is the area of opportunity which exists between where the person is now and where they want to be or the result they want to achieve) represents several key indicators or areas of opportunity that you can coach someone on. The opportunities for coaching someone are vast. Here is a detailed list of what you can coach.

1. The Who: Values, passions, standards, boundaries, integrity, and so on.
2. The Attitude: Belief, mindset, philosophy, outlook, or assumptions.
3. The Lesson: What have they learned? Why are the same lessons repeating themselves? Are they getting it?
4. The Ideal Characteristics: The ideal qualities you have defined that encompass a sales leader or manager. (Extroverted, actionable, honest, strong communicator, process driven, accountable, curious, organized, strong integrity and presence, knowledgeable, comfortable disposition, smart, responsive, etc.)
5. The Skill: Is there a missing discipline or one that needs further development?
6. The Activity: Are they engaging in the activities that support their goals?
7. The Strategy: How do they plan to achieve the intended result? What resources are needed?
8. The Commitment: Observe their energy level, consistency, enthusiasm, and motivation.
9. The Communication: The language, dialogue, or communication regarding style, delivery, presence, and disposition.
10. The Relationships: The relationships they have with intangible concepts and feelings as well as with their stories/illusions/assumptions.

Time To Quit Your Job? Ten Signs That Suggest You’re Ready For A Career Change

Apr 30, 2008 Business Coaching, Career Advice, Executive Coaching, Life Coaching and Career Coaching, Live Responsibly: Life Tips, Great Living, coaching articles, coaching tips

When do you know it’s time to quit your job and move on to a more promising opportunity? Here are ten signs that would suggest it’s time for you to re-examine your career path and move on.

The Top Ten Signs That Tell You It’s Time To Quit Your Job

I remember years ago when researching people’s sense of satisfaction and fulfillment in the workforce, the statistic at that time was that about 80% of the people in the work force were not happy at their job. Today, that percentage is even higher. And in my line of work, it doesn’t come as a shock to me, especially with the way I see people making career decisions and the tyrannical managers who they are unfortunate enough to have manage them. The bigger question is; “When do you know it’s time to quit your job?” Here are ten signs that would suggest that you need to move on and re-examine your career path.

Coaching Tip From the Sidelines: Ask Your Employees How They Want To Be Coached – Set the Expectation

Apr 21, 2008 Books by Keith Rosen, Communication, How to Manage Your Team, Sales Management, articles on leadership, coaching articles, coaching for managers, coaching tips, management articles, management tips, training for managers

How do we uncover internal drive? By using one of the most valuable tools as a coach – asking more and better questions. To uncover each person’s internal drive, schedule one to one meetings with each member of your team and invest the time asking questions to uncover what is important to them. Listen to their responses and ask more questions as you uncover what they most want.

Here are some suggested questions you can use during your one to one meetings in order to tap into a person’s internal drive, while uncovering exactly how you can best coach and manage them.

Questions will assist your employees in uncovering what internally motivates them based on their beliefs and values, so they can access their own energy to achieve it. You are also uncovering the style of management they respond to best. Moreover, you are setting up the expectations on both sides as to what to expect from one another. It certainly beats using your energy to push or stimulate interest or action based on your assumptions or beliefs based on what may work for you.

If you rely on pushing to get someone into action, they won’t move unless you’re there to push. It’s more effective to help them articulate what they want so they can begin to self-motivate.

The real benefit of getting this is that empowering people by tapping into their internal drive doesn’t drain your energy. Pushing for results is exhausting.

Get more coaching tips from Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions.

Barriers to Coaching a Sales Team: #8 and 9-Full Accountability and Competitive Managers

Apr 17, 2008 Books by Keith Rosen, Executive Coaching, How to Manage Your Team, Sales Management, coaching articles, coaching for managers, coaching tips, management tips, training for managers

72 Hour Special Book Event April 15 – 17. Ends Tonight.

Barrier Eight: Full Accountability
If you want to become powerful, hire a powerful coach. It’s a simple, yet highly effective strategy. If you want your salespeople to be powerful, you need to be a good role model for them. As you evolve, so does your team. Consider this truth: Your team is a reflection of you. If you’re not prepared to be 100 percent accountable for the success and failure of your team, if you skirt accountability in any way, if you lack professionalism or proficiencies in certain areas, your team will reflect these weaknesses. If you choose to evolve, so will your salespeople. If you want a world-class sales team, you have to become a world-class executive sales coach.

Barrier Nine: Competitive Managers
The most effective leaders develop other leaders. They encourage their people to perform as well as they do—even better. That is the sign of a true master and the real testament of a great manager. But what if the manager perceives his coworkers and subordinates as a threat? What if the manager is driven strictly by ego, the need to prove himself and his worth? What if this manager thinks he has survived only by keeping a competitive distance from his peers and salespeople? I’ve known managers who don’t share their tools and best practices with their salespeople for fear their salespeople will outdo them. These are likely to be inferior managers who will seek to selfishly leverage the coaching relationship in a way to better themselves and their position rather than for the betterment of their sales team.

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Annihilating the Albatross of Leadership

Apr 17, 2008 Books by Keith Rosen, Executive Coaching, How to Manage Your Team, Sales Management, coaching articles, coaching for managers, management tips, training for managers

72 Hour Special Book Event April 15 – 17

Great managers realize that one of their key roles is to maximize the productivity of their team and ensure they are operating at peak performance. The consequences of not having your sales team live up to their potential are severe: a decrease in sales, lower morale, higher turnover, and client attrition. Additionally, there’s the stress every manager feels from the added workload each time there’s a vacancy in a position, sales that need to be made, and territories that have to be covered.

Now, compound this challenge with the additional responsibility managers often have. Aside from being responsible for the production and development of their sales team, some managers are often responsible for hitting their own sales numbers and production goals.

With long work hours, deadlines, and personal responsibilities, something gets sacrificed. As such, managers find that developing, coaching, and retaining their staff takes a back seat to the problems and challenges that arise daily. Even with their best intentions, managers don’t often have the time and resources needed to effectively coach their staff or a strategy to identify and develop the essential skills and core characteristics needed to become a masterful coach. As a result, morale and productivity suffer.

Through the eyes of a salesperson, this lack of attention and support translates to a feeling of isolation. Quite often salespeople believe that management simply doesn’t care, won’t take the time to work with them, or simply isn’t available. This environment becomes the perfect breeding ground for high attrition and deteriorating performance.

What is management’s fundamental problem that proliferates dismal results, inefficiency, and failure? While most managers may have the theory down, they struggle to convert these leadership principles into actionable, measurable steps and a process that can be duplicated consistently. Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions cracks the code and solves the most pressing issues that plague most managers today. This book makes it possible for any manager, business owner, or executive to develop the missing discipline of leadership: coaching.

Most leadership programs train in ideology rather than in developing a core competency or skill. Nothing more gets accomplished other than identifying another great concept in leadership, an overanalyzed theory, or an attribute the greatest leaders possess. Although they are sound principles, they’re devoid of a specific, measurable process and a practical application that generates the results you seek. With a team of salespeople to manage, objectives to reach, and expectations to meet, you need measurable results fast!

Increased global competition, a rapidly changing marketplace, and less face time with customers and employees are forcing companies to reevaluate their selling and leadership strategies. With more business conducted across various communication platforms and more sales teams operating in a virtual environment, these managers question how proficient they can be at managing their team at a distance—especially since they have never been shown how to do so effectively. Managers do not always have the luxury of calling a face-to-face meeting and instead find themselves supporting, coaching, and managing their people over the telephone. Developing and strengthening your telephone coaching skills becomes essential to leveraging your competitive edge or you’re bound to get left behind.

Top leaders know that in order for their people to live their fullest potential every day, they need someone in their corner supporting them throughout the process. As such, a growing need for a proven, long-term solution that can be rapidly deployed to continually develop and retain top talent while maximizing new business opportunities has sparked the evolution of this new kind of manager: the executive sales coach.

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Barriers to Coaching a Sales Team: # 6 – No Judgment? #7 -Anyone Can Manage, Not Everyone Can Coach

Apr 17, 2008 Books by Keith Rosen, Executive Coaching, How to Manage Your Team, Sales Management, articles on leadership, coaching articles, coaching for managers, coaching tips, management tips, training for managers

72 Hour Special Book Event April 15 – 17. Ends Tonight.

Barrier Six: Confidentiality and No Judgment? Sure, Boss!

Lets get right to what you’re thinking. Your role as supervisor or boss presents some inherent problems with coaching that need to be addressed head on.

Given the parameters, guidelines, and principles necessary to be a masterful coach, trust is critical to make the connection. After all, if your employees can’t trust you as their manager, forget even trying to coach them. Coaching requires an elevated level of trust that transcends the superficial trust between employees and management.

And what if some of your salespeople already have a problem with you as their boss and now you’re going to try and coach them? How does that get handled? Do you think any of your employees are going to just come out and say that? Think again.

As a result, this relationship could quickly turn into more of a mentoring rather than a coaching relationship. This is a major reason why companies bring in an expert coach from the outside who doesn’t have any direct ties to the company as a manager would.

Barrier Seven: Anyone Can Manage, Not Everyone Can Coach

“I’m really not cut out to be a coach.” The hard fact is there are managers who want to be coaches, managers who need to be coaches, and managers who shouldn’t be coaches, and probably shouldn’t be managers, either.

Companies that force all managers into a coaching role make a costly assumption that all of their managers would actually make great coaches, just like every college athlete should automatically make the pros. The rules work the same. Desire, attitude, ability, and skill will always be the formula for becoming a successful coach, or athlete. Then there is the mistake of pushing managers to do something they don’t want to do. Managers can easily sabotage their own coaching efforts, and in the end, corporate may learn the wrong lesson: “I guess our internal coaching program didn’t work.”

Get the book 37% off and hundreds of dollars worth of additional materials here.

Barriers to Coaching a Sales Team: # 4 -You’re Coaching not Changing People #5 Connection

Apr 16, 2008 Books by Keith Rosen, Business Advice, Executive Coaching, How to Manage Your Team, Sales Management, articles on leadership, coaching articles, coaching for managers, coaching tips, training for managers

72 Hour Special Book Event April 15 – 17. Ends Thursday.

Barrier Four: You’re Coaching People, not Changing People

There’s a big difference between coaching people and changing people. However, for executives or front line managers who are commissioned to hit some aggressive sales numbers, coaching is the last thing they want to talk about. The real distinction is that coaching is a process of discovery. A coach cannot push for results or attempt to change people overnight. The traditional scenario to facilitate change is typically a stressed-out manager who lays the same stress on his salespeople that his boss dumped on him. “Work harder; get focused; our jobs can be on the line; just bring in some more business.” This hollow approach seldom drives change.

Barrier Five: Connection—It Has to Be the Real Thing

In coaching it’s critical for unrestricted, honest communication in the coaching relationship. It’s extremely challenging to connect with your salespeople at a deeper level, the type of connection necessary between the coach and the person being coached. Many employees are afraid that if they disclose too much, it will be held against them in the future. So they limit their vulnerability level to what is absolutely needed to perform their job function. This restricts safe and open communication, limiting the chance to connect with your people in a way that allows coaches to get to the real issues and barriers;—barriers that are preventing improved performance.

Get the book 37% off and hundreds of dollars worth of additional materials here.