Sales Coaching - A Board Level Discussion?

NewsFlash!! The data is now here to support the theory. Sales coaching doesn’t just work. It moves the needle on the business so damn much, that naivety and ignorance to this is nothing short of business theft.

Too strong an opinion? Well, let me just reinforce the numbers here:

Dynamic coaching can deliver a 27.6% improvement in win rates for forecasted deals. Even a formal approach to coaching can deliver a 13.5% improvement in win rates. (CSO Insights)

Those sales people who aren’t coached are 27% MORE likely to miss quota than those who are coached.

Those companies who embrace call recording as part of their coaching play, are 30% more likely to exceed quota than those who don’t. (Jim Keenan 2018 survey).

But is the industry taking notice of this, and importantly - are they taking action? Furthermore, are these revenue number variances SO strong, that the decisions on coaching actually should be made round the board table? I interviewed some Sales Leaders, Coaches, and Coaching Experts to give me their thoughts:

Do you feel Sales Leaders are taking notice of this data?

I asked the panelists that although the data is there for all to see, is it turning heads and getting people talking about the possibilities here?

Dionne Mischler, CEO & Founder - Inside Sales By Design

“I think its a 50/50 split. Some Sales Leaders will never coach because they have the mindset that salespeople are born and not made.”

Rob Jeppsen, CEO & Founder - Xvoyant

“Yes they are taking notice, but there are still problems. When we start a client engagement, we always start with a role audit. Coaching always shows up in the top three. When we do a use of time audit however, it never even makes the top ten! Sales Leaders constantly tell me that they are coaching, but we have a huge disconnect in that they confuse having conversations as coaching. If they aren’t changing behaviours, then they aren’t coaching.”

Chris Kunz, Director of Digital Sales - Workfront

“Personally, its something I’ve really taken on for a long time now. When I was at eBay, we created a strong coaching program, and since then I’ve always seen it as the predominant function of a sales manager. Recent data has just made us go more heavy on coaching if anything else”

Blake Harber, Director of Corporate Sales - Lucid

“The data is absolutely fascinating, because I’m always blown away from how little coaching is happening in sales organisations.The coaching framework just isn’t there. What does the sales manager playbook look like for a start? There's a lack of effectiveness because individual contributors get promoted and they don’t have that structure in place.

John Klymshyn, Author/Coach - The Business Generator

“I don’t think there’s ignorance out there. I think ultimately science catches up with reality, and data proves something that many people already instinctively knew.”

David Dulany, CEO - Tenbound

"I don't think so. Coaching will always take a backseat to the daily firefighting. They know spending time coaching is the right thing to do, but its seen as hard and time consuming. Its so much smarter doing the hard thing, as coaching is the thing which will actually move the needle".

Nikki Finucan, Managing Director - Protelos Group

“Its being talked about more, so I guess that’s a form of taking notice. But are they actioning it? I see varying degrees. Some people have good intentions to start doing it, but it drops off. And there’s still a culture of coaching through micro management rather than actual coaching.”

Coaching has been a hot topic for the past 18 months or so…generally speak, are you seeing a shift happening in the industry?

From someone heavily ingrained in the industry, and passionate about the topic- there hasn’t been one conference, webinar series, or topic of conversation in the past two years I’ve been involved in where coaching hasn’t been high on the agenda. Is this an indication that there has been a real shift in people taking it more seriously? Where are things falling down which is holding companies back from creating a great coaching culture?

Chris Kunz:

“Over the past five years, I feel there’s been a lot of awareness of coaching, but there’s still a lack of good true mastery in the space. There’s too many misconceptions that exist too, such as differentiating between ‘training’ and ‘coaching’, as well as managers feeling a one-to-one meeting is automatically classified as coaching”

Ian Moyse, Sales Director - Natterbox

“Not really. For me, there’s still a lack of understanding within sales, that leadership is not about just running the metrics and reporting the numbers, it’s about mentoring and coaching. My job as a Sales Leader is to help you be successful, help cultivate and motivate you, and remove obstacles. Its ultimately an investment in your team.

It’s getting harder out there. The reason it’s getting harder is because the buyer dynamic has changed. Everyone is more informed than ever before. To address this, Sales Leaders should be daily coaching and mentoring, and even hiring external coaches to supplement. External coaches give a fresh perspective on individuals, and their strengths/weaknesses."

David Dulany:

"People want to do coaching and they know its the right thing to do, but if you follow people around, you'll realise it never seems to be on their schedule. But its damaging. Fewer and fewer reps are making their number, theres high attrition rates. It also doesn't help the sales profession, as we are bringing through reps who aren't getting the mentorship and coaching they need, and they end up falling back into using poor sales practices."

John Klymshyn:

“What I see is a lot of talk about coaching, and I don’t tend to see resistance to coaching. The problem I see, is that organisations find it difficult to hire coaches, as coaching is so personal (to the point of being a therapist), to an individual that the individual should be involved in vetting the coach they work with. Coaching is a relationship, it’s not an event.”

Dionne Mischler:

“The people who show up to industry events, and who are interested in learning - they tend to be the silent majority. With all that being said, I'm definitely seeing a shift nevertheless.

When thinking about introducing a coaching culture, you have to figure out - how you’re going to coach and build a system around it. One of those could be call reviews, which includes putting in a system in place for calls to be captured, and then getting leadership to coach calls, as well as getting reps to review calls.”

Rob Jeppsen:

“There’s no doubt theres a shift. All you need to notice is the frequency of coaching being a top topic at all the sales conferences out there. And its not just one person speaking about it; there are entire talk tracks all connected with coaching and there’s so much awareness now! You don’t get great at coaching until you have awareness.”

Compared to coaching, what other activity or strategic business decision have you seen makes such a big impact on revenue attainment?

The data at the top of this article demonstrate the results great coaching can achieve. So do the panelists believe there is another business function or role which delivers even comparable results? If so, what is that function?

Rob Jeppsen:

“It is EASILY the most ROI positive investment you will make. It’s easier to get adoption than other investments you will make, as you just need to get your smaller population of Sales Leaders on board rather than an entire sales force. There’s not even a close second place”

Blake Harber:

“I’m a firm believer of key marginal gains. I believe organisations are naive if they are overlooking the benefits of getting better 1% each week, and ultimately this is driven by coaching. If you aren’t looking to get better, then you’re missing a trick.

Ian Moyse:

“Focusing on the right marginal gains in the business is also critically important. This could be looking at ACV, Close ratios, Sales Velocity, or discount level. Tweaking every single one of those  levers by a marginal amount continuously, you have a huge compounding effect.”

Chris Kunz:

“Outside of focus on the key goal of revenue, there’s nothing that impacts the bottom line as much as coaching”

Due to the revenue gains which have been proven through good regular coaching, should the strategic decisions about coaching actually be made at Board Level?

Jim Dickie from CSO Insights made the point that great coaching drives significant win rates, which ultimately shifts the company share price. As such, the coaching discussion needs to also be happening around the board table. How much did the panelists agree with this?

Dionne Mischler:

“I think you need board buy in. The longer answer though is, you really need a VP Sales to believe in coaching, and then it is incumbent on that individual to evangelise and educate their board as to why this is the way forward. If your board pushes it down to your VP, but they don’t agree with it, then you’re going to have crappy results”

Chris Kunz:

“The coaching skill set is something well beyond what normal managers are enabled with when they are trained. The coaching skill set is not one that’s taught, and so the board has to get involved to enable managers to coach, or better - create a coaching vertical within the company itself.”

Ian Moyse:

“I think the decision should reach the Board, but I think the Senior Management has to provide a sound business case on what coaching will deliver. Too often they are providing a fluffy reason as to why coaching is important…it needs to have a metrics outcome to get buy in.”

Rob Jeppsen:

“Every leadership team should be asking themselves: ‘What’s our approach to one-on-ones?’. If you don’t have an answer to the question - ‘What are we doing to help our sales people get 10% better?’ then this needs to be a board level discussion. The ones who know the answer to this question get growth faster than anybody else."

John Klymshyn:

“Because coaching is such an intimate and personal thing, I think the board should have a vote as to whether or not it occurs. Who provides it and what it looks like needs to happen further down the chain.”

Nikki Finucan:

“I actually think that as coaching is part of your short to long term sales strategy, then it should be discussed around the board level. If you don’t have executive sponsorship, then any initiative will likely not work.

If you are looking for exec-sponsorship to get it off the ground, then you need to have skin in the game. The board should be able to feel they have a real contribution here, and part of this should be coaching their own Sales Leadership”

"I agree 100%. If you think about how beneficial coaching can be for the entire organisation, and the impact it can have on revenue growth - then why would it not be discussed at that level?"

Blake Harber:

“I would love to see a world where coaching decisions are being influenced from Board Level. That being said, Sales Leaders tend to struggle to put a process in place and they need to understand how to put a coaching framework in place, before the board are brought in. A lot really depends on where you are at as an organisation.”

The feeling from the panelists that I gathered overall, was that yes - there is more awareness and acceptance of coaching, and the data is there to drive that awareness. But the age old problems still exist. A lot of saying, but not a lot of doing. Sales Leaders putting coaching on the top of the priority list, but ultimately their actions suggest the opposite. As I have written before, a big contributing factor here is the disconnect and confusion between what managers believe is coaching, to the reality. Until managers understand what good coaching looks like, they will forever be in this vicious cycle of sales people not hitting quota, and leaving companies to find employers who understand how to truly change behaviours.

And a strong case was made for Board input here. A supportive board who understand how strong sales coaching cultures align with the business objectives of driving more revenue and ultimately the share price. But whilst the panelists in general were supportive of board room influence in helping to support drive a coaching vision (or even giving a commitment to building coaching skills in managers), what this looks like in practice and how this is delivered HAS to be driven by sales leadership and management. If the two parties are misaligned, then the coaching venture is doomed to fail from the start.