Lack of Sales Coaching: 9 Things Terribly Wrong With Sales Today

Sales is suffering from 9 brutal ills:

1. 1. 1. Bro Culture
      2. Lack of Sales Coaching
      3. Product-Centric Selling
      4. Not enough salespeople understand the game/rules of sales
      5. Too much reliance on selling tools.
      6. Not enough training in the industry/space
      7. Too much activity management
      8. Little respect for prospects and buyers time
      9. Not enough humility

I tackled the Bro-Culture in the first of this series because I feel culture is critical to change. But as important to eradicating the “bro culture” in sales it’s equally important that we elevate our sales coaching game.

I see sales coaching from two angles, the ability of the rep or salesperson to be coached and accept the coaching and from the ability of sales management to coach effectively.

Coaching is the biggest, non-financial way for sales organizations to improve their number and grow. Look it like maximizing your existing resources. It’s like getting the most out of what you already have. And that’s how it should be perceived.

People are the most valuable resources in an organization, and therefore the organizations should be built to maximize the output of those resources, via coaching.

Unfortunately, the lack of coaching in sales today is atrocious. According to our recent Sales Coaching and Quota attainment report, although 80% of sales managers/leaders believe they coach. less than 50% of sales people feel they are actually getting coached. This is a major disparity.

Whatever sales leaders and managers are doing, it’s not being perceived as coaching and therefore it’s not working.

This wasn’t the only powerful coaching data we uncovered.  We also found that there is a direct correlation to coaching salespeople AND quota attainment. You can download it here: 

As I said earlier, sales coaching is a two-way street and I’m not going to lay the abysmal state of sales coaching solely on sales managers and sales leaders. Salespeople are just as culpable.

For whatever particular reason, although they say they want to be coached, salespeople have a tendency to resist coaching. That is, they feel that if they are being coached it implies they are not good or are not-performing and this couldn’t be any further from the truth. Over-achievers know that they can always get better and are constantly looking for ways to improve their skills and coaching is a critical part of that.

It’s time salespeople and sales leaders come together and work to create a sales coaching culture within their sales organization.

It’s time leaders learn to effectively coach and recognize coaching isn’t a monthly performance review or providing overly critical feedback. But rather, a productive opportunity to develop and support their salespeople.

It’s time salespeople let go of their ego and start self-reflecting in an effort to understand where they can improve and how improvement will elevate their sales game.

Strong coaching cultures underpin strong sales organizations. They establish fantastic working relationships. They promote improved communication. They create better employees and most important to a badass sales organization, they foster a safe working environment.

Let’s elevate our sales coaching games and stop treating each other like cogs in a wheel, but rather like the valuable assets we are. Remember, we’re all on the same team.

Next, I tackle how product-centric we are and how it kills our deals.

If you or your sales team need help improving your sales coaching, reach out to our sales team to learn more.