Sales coaching is one of the most critical components of a sales growth strategy, and is necessary to ensure implementation of effective selling skills. Sales training alone does not generate the key repeatable sales behaviors that help your sales reps to grow professionally and to continually increase their success and productivity. A Certified Sales Coach can influence substantial long-term sales performance improvement by providing ongoing reinforcement of behaviors and real-time situational based skills training.

The process of sales coaching itself further stimulates collaborative problem solving and provides an opportunity to consistently include your sales reps in the bigger picture. For some remotely located sales reps, this provides the necessary sense of belonging that some need in order to remain engaged, enthusiastic, and loyal to your team.

Unfortunately, sales coaching in business is a term often overused and underutilized. Every great sales leader knows that sales coaching is a good idea. But every great sales leader also knows that ideas dont produce the same level of results that can be achieved through consistent execution of effective selling skills.

Try this exercise: Next time you are analyzing the results of your more productive sales reps and compare them to your less productive reps, ask yourself, Did they attend the same sales training seminar? If so, then why is one so much more productive than the other? Sure, some may be simple personality and predisposition to the sales process. But even the less natural sales reps may be simply gems in the rough (of course, not all of them fit this description, either!) If sales coaching is such a great idea, then why is so little time invested in it by so many sales leaders?

There are many reasons, including the fact that if not handled correctly, coaching can feel threatening to the reps, and uncomfortable, when it comes from the boss.