5 Questions to Ask A Struggling Sales Person

1.      What are you willing to do to turn things around and what might that look like?

a.      Strategy: the worst person to coach is a person who is not willing to commit or produce effort to move in the right direction; therefore, it is imperative we as coaches understand the foundation of where this person is coming from and what they’re willing to do. We cannot own what somebody else chooses not to own.

2.      If you had to name two areas of performance that would accelerate your success what would those be and why you think you might specifically be struggling in those areas?

a.      Strategy: often salespeople will come up with reasons why they’re not having success but very few will tie it back to their own personal performance sadly. It is imperative that we ask questions that drive their awareness of performance and not just allow them to grab market conditions such as economy or the industry is down as reasons why they are not achieving success.

3.      What is one specific area, with scheduled and continuous practice, you will feel more comfortable selling that you know in your heart will lead to greater success.

a.      Strategy: this question is certainly a mouthful, but it leads to the one area that most salespeople simply roll their eyes or sigh out loud in team meetings and that is the thought of role-playing or practicing. People do not arbitrarily become more skilled due to demands and certainly not without practice.

4.      If your top two customers were advising you right now and they honestly shared where you have a strong strength and where you have an opportunity to improve what do you think they would say?

a.      Strategy: this question leads with the strength which lowers their defense to looking in the mirror which is the opportunity is to improve. The wording is also carefully crafted because the word opportunity is positive versus words such as where you might struggle. The goal is to lead with the strength that ultimately uses a third-party resource such as customers to position the salesperson to truly look at themselves and where they have opportunities to improve.

5.      If there was an area where you felt uneasy in terms of your knowledge what might that be and how is that affecting your confidence when selling?

a.      Strategy: this question leads to things such as product or industry knowledge but helps pinpoint where confidence might be lacking which can certainly undermine other areas of the sales process.

The ultimate goals and strategy with each of these questions and certainly other sales questions is to first get salespeople to look in the mirror and ultimately take action on what they see. This is not about yelling or screaming are demanding higher sales; rather, the objective is to have a conversation so salespeople can be honest with themselves to position them selves to thoughtfully move in the direction of higher performance in sales.

If you would like some information on our sales coaching manager system please send an email to tim@progresscoachingleader.com -this is not your typical one or two day workshop rather we work with you on an individual basis providing you specific strategies and help based in your situations and not some generic approach.