Why work with an external sales coach?

Break the cycle

According to the State of Sales Report 2018 from salesforce.com, 70% of Account Executives in Australia do not expect to reach quota. That only partially explains the high attrition rate in B2B sales teams. At around 34%, it’s three times higher than the employee attrition rate across the whole company. And that’s not because sales people give up easily. It’s because sales is hard. It’s a messy world with a huge amount of pressure and not a lot of structural support.

The burden to somehow make it all work lies with the sales manager, who unfortunately doesn’t have the bandwidth to fix things. Sometimes, it’s the lack of experience that represent the bigger problem; the sales manager had a couple of good runs as a rep, got promoted and now manages a team of hungry reps – without any training or other support.

As a result, targets get missed and the team gets stuck in a chasing-the-tail spiral that demands more and more energy without delivering the right results. Even when it’s clear what needs to be fixed, the end-of-quarter focus on closing deals simply means there’s no time for that. And then, the next quarter, the same thing happens again, pushing good talents to look for greener pastures. Sounds familiar?

As a Sales Coach, I help break this cycle by 1) fixing structural problems, 2) skilling up the team and 3) helping embed these skills. My aim is to leave behind a better set of processes and skills so that the sales manager is better equiped to get to sales success.

Structural Fixes

Often, sales processes are not clearly defined, causing friction within the sales team, particularly around the collaboration with xDRs, AEs, and SCs, as well as with CSMs and Marketing. To help fix this, I wear more of a consultant hat and:

• Run workshops to define the Ideal Customer Profile
• Help with territory segmentation plans
• Provide a training on Why-What story telling framework to improve sales decks by instilling urgency
• Teach a framework to translate your dollar target into quantifiable pipeline activity to drive more accountability.
• Develop an understanding on Why Forecasted Deals Don’t Close to help managers coach AEs more effectively.

Skills improvement

I can leverage the existing online and offline trainings that are typically created by Sales Enablement and can act as your local trainer. I can also customise or expand on existing programs so they suit the typically less mature markets in APAC. Examples are:

• Understanding the Buying Cycle
• Better discovery: how to prepare for a call and what questions to ask
• How to read an annual report
• Your existing sales trainings tailored to the APAC market.

Skill embedding

The reality is that 70% of what is taught in a training will be forgotten within 24 hours. A coaching approach is required to truely embed skills and create the right habits. To practice the skills and material from the trainings in real-life. To observe what works and provide feedback. To determine what needs more work. Such services cover:

• Role Plays to practise pitches and help SDRs and AEs prepare for calls
• Listening in on sales calls to provide feedback
• Analysing virtual (Zoom) sales calls and sharing key learning moments
• Ongoing 1:1 reviews with front line managers and individual contributors to share observations to accelerate success.