Peer-To-Peer Sales Coaching | Rewards and Processes

Last week I introduced the very important concept of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Sales Coaching in my post entitled Best Practices in B2B Sales Leadership | Peer To Peer Sales Coaching. I promised some examples.  First, though, let me reiterate the power of “P2P Coaching”. I use this term specifically, as it differs distinctly from traditional ”mentoring”.

While mentoring is traditionally passive, generally informal, and usually unspecific, P2P Coaching as I teach it is active and specific. By implementing both incentives and regular processes for leading and rewarding reps for helping each other, you will achieve larger and more consistent measurable results.

Why?  How?

Several reasons:

1. In P2P Coaching, ideas and experiences take on a more socialistic spirit than one of imperialism (those of you who know me know my distaste for socialistic leadership principles, but in this case, the analogy works).  That is to say…in traditional mentoring “A superior coaches a subordinate,” or a veteran coaches a novice or rookie.”Proper” mentoring protocol doesn’t allow for rookies to mentor veterans, and bosses don’t learn as much from their subordinates as they should.
   
   The socialistic idea pool means that all ideas are equally valuable, regardless of their origin.So…a rookie sales rep may have fewer experiences than his veteran counterpart, but he may have a unique and specific deal experience that could prove highly valuable in helping his veteran counterpart overcome a current deal hurdle.A rookie’s limited quantity of ideas and experiences does not render all ideas and experiences valueless.
2. Rewarding reps for contributing to the success of others, and ultimately the greater success of the whole, validates the time investment required.
3. Financial rewards give credibility to the initiative, since the organization is investing its most tangible asset.
4. Financial rewards speak in a language that sales reps clearly understand, and have in common…so there won’t be any confusion when a rep needs to prioritize his activities.

The best reps are extremely focused and persistent, prioritizing their activities to accomplish explicit goals that result in predictable and quantifiable rewards. If a sales rep’s goals and rewards do not include helping their peers and rookie counterparts to succeed, then guess what you’ll get…

Yup! That’s right.

In order to maximize the value of your sales team’s collective knowledge and experience, it’s paramount that you reward reps and lead them in the process of sharing their expertise across the organization.

I prioritize my own P2P Coaching initiatives in order of Rewards first, and Process Leadership a very close second. You are unlikely to implement a successful P2P Coaching initiative with only one or the other.

I rank Rewards first, for the simple reason that, given the right rewards that lead to clearly defined goals, your sales team will be self-motivated to make the program work.  Well thought out and designed sales incentives have the power of working even when the sales leader is out-of-town, out of touch, or out to lunch!

Rewards without leadership will have difficulty gaining momentum due to lack of understanding of objectives and guidance on the “how to” processes of doing P2P coaching.
  

So…on to those examples I promised:

I’ll keep this brief.  You’ll come up with your own ideas based upon my earlier discussion and your own operating environment.  It’s easy to create an infinite number of reward combinations depending on your appetite for risk and the results you experience as you try this out.

P2P Rewards

The simplest reward structure is to implement a team incentive that is calculatable and significant. If the reward is insignificant, don’t wast your time.

If your reps traditionally receive a commission component of 2% of the sales to their direct accounts, then consider adding a commission over ride of 0.5% of TOTAL SALES to be shared across the sales force.  Yes, there will be those who benefit without contributing, but that is a different issue that you need to deal with.  You will quickly know who is contributing and who is not based upon the Process Leadership Example below.

If you discover that this program works, then consider restructuring incentives to weigh rewards more heavily on team success than individual success.  Consider reducing individual commissions in exchange for increased team rewards.  I will not try to tell you how you should go about this, and I’m not even recommending it.  I only recommend it be given consideration.  Every culture is different! I am available to assist you in developing specific incentive approaches appropriate to your environment.

P2P Process Leadership

There are many means for facilitating Peer-to-Peer Coaching programs. I can help you design your own specific program.  Some of the methods I use:

• Weekly Sales Hurdle Call .  Limit each call to 6-7 participants and end after 45 minutes (always).  The call objectives and format are always the same and are always clear: Each sales rep solicits solution input on an important prospect opportunity.  The other participants brainstorm solutions.  After 5 minutes each STOP and move on to the next opportunity.
  It sounds simple, and it is…with proper leadership, it’s very powerful.
• Case Studies and Testimonials
  Each sales rep is required to compile the details of a client success story in my SOAR format every quarter.  The marketing communications department crafts these details into communication pieces that help other sales reps to achieve success with similar prospects.  These testimonials also act as high-impact marketing pieces.
• Presentatin of Case Studies and Success Stories at Quarterly sales meetings.  Most sales meetings miss this opportunity.
  For each quarterly sales meeting, the sales leader selects 2-3 of the highest priority case studies to be presented to the entire audience.  The case study is then presented by the sales rep who created it.

The above are just examples of some of the ways I have capitalized on the group knowledge of my teams to maximize ROS.  They are intended as food for thought, and I encourage my readers to explore ways they can achieve greater results through group thinking and P2P Coaching.

I am available to work with clients to develop P2P Coaching initiatives that meet the specific needs of their business.

Cheers, and Happy Hunting!

 Scott Trunkett