Should I Hire A Sales Coach?

I received this question the other day and I started to reply and then realized that the answer would be really useful for many of my readers…

I follow your regular updates with interest. I’m doing some work on goal setting at the moment both personally and for clients. One of the personal goals I’m toying with is the idea of hiring a personal sales mentor/coach.

I was interested to know if this was an area that you had an opinion on?

Do I have an opinion? I think all my readers will know that I must have. To try and help, I have broken the question down into several sub-questions…

Who should hire a sales coach?

• Salespeople who want to increase their skills, their sales strategies and their sales approach.
• Non-salespeople who want to ensure that their sales systems and processes are the most effective that they can be.
• Sales managers and team leaders who need to recruit, manage and motivate sales teams, both small and large.
• Sales leaders and business owners looking to develop powerful sales systems and productive sales teams.

When should I hire a sales coach?

Better question. Now, this is where I disagree with many people because many people would say, “All of the time!” Not surprisingly, most of them have coaching services to sell!

For many people, constant sales coaching loses it zing and may suffer from co-dependency issues. Personally, I think most if not all people involved with sales would benefit from having a coach or coaches at times but not all of the time. Maybe most of the time but certainly not all.

Coaching is great for salespeople looking to break through barriers, stretch for new sales goals, get unstuck orwho are taking on new projects. Here are some classic examples where a sales coach can help?

• Setting new goals, life plans and strategic direction.
• Setting out a sales and new client acquisition strategy.
• Developing new sales skills and sales processes, practising sales techniques and approaches and trying out new methods.
• Creating realistic systems and plans for achieving unrealistic goals.
• Getting out of comfort zones and motivation traps and re-motivating and re-energizing salespeople not firing on all cylinders.

Who should hire a sales coach?

• Salespeople and non-salespeople taking on new challenges where support or experience is limited.
• Team leaders, sales managers and sales leaders facing promotions, new responsibilities and new challenges.
• Anyone wanting to achieve quantum leaps in their sales results…. fast!

When should I not hire a sales coach?

• When you don’t want one.
• When you are looking for someone to sympathise with your “plight”.
• When you don’t believe in them.
• When you want them to do the work for you.
• When it’s forced upon you.
• When you don’t want to hear the truth (although this is, of course, just when you do need one!)

What are my alternatives to using a sales coach?

Sometimes there aren’t any but sometimes there are many options available and all of them may well be right at one stage or another of your sales career. Here are just a few alternatives…

• Self-learn from your own experiences.
• Read a book, listen to an audio, watch a DVD, join a sales progamme.
• Set up a Sales Champions group.
• Buddy up with a friend.
• Attend a seminar or a training course.

How do I choose my sales coach?

• Do some research, join some newsletters and watch some videos from sales coaches.
• Get referrals and advice from friends and colleagues who have used a sales coach.
• Ask some sales coaches some questions and facilitate a few conversations.
• Find someone you can trust and who has credibility and the credentials to help you.
• Make sure that they challenge you… this is not about blowing hot air up your rear end.
• Choose someone who inspires you.
• And feel free to use different coaches for specialist situations. This is not a one-size-fits-all scenario.

Will you be my sales coach Gavin?

Great question. I don’t know yet.

For many years, I have wrestled with the constant challenge of not having enough time to do everything that needs to be done. I only have limited time and only a small amount of that is allocated to very (very) committed clients who want to achieve extraordinary results in their sales and in their lives. If you have a desire to be average or, worse still, mediocre I’m not interested.

If you want want to consider coaching with me, spend some time reading the blogs and watch some of the free videos. Better still, read a few of my books, listen to an audio, watch a DVD or attend a seminar. If that juices you up and you’re up for making a quantum leap in your sales or taking your sales teams to the next level then use the contact form to tell me why you think I should work with you and we’ll take it from there…