Be A Better Sales Coach with Value-Based Techniques

it with customers. So if we so if we take that concept of that mindset and think about it as we're talking to our team members, what does that look like? So that's what we're going to talk about today. So John, let's just start right there. What does it look like when we take that rigor of command of the message, aligning value to the conversation and what's in it for them to coaching our reps?

You mentioned value a couple of times as you are kind of doing the intro, and that allows us to guide appropriate development with the person that we're in front of. You know, oftentimes we find that the reps don't feel like the one on ones are valuable because we as leaders sometimes don't take the time to determine what is Rachel going to find value in this count? How is

she going to find value in this conversation? So instead of telling reps what to do, we need to ask open ended questions and uncover their challenges and motivations and blockers that are getting in the way. So, just as we discover pain with the customers, we need to discover

reps challenges. And when we align to a customer's value drivers, we need to align to the rep's goals and when we guide the customer's decision process, similarly, when we're coaching reps, we need to guide the rep to a development process. And so this approach transformed coaching from a reactive task to a strategic leadership discipline where every conversation is an opportunity to drive growth, not just hit a number and go accomplish performance.

to that value based approach. And we know that coaching is learned, right, Great coaching is learned, and it's about developing that muscle in yourself to be a great coach. And it starts with kind of shifting that mindset. Can you talk a little bit about that.

to be accomplished. So coaching isn't about fixing people, it's about developing them. And there's a book that's out there by Keith Rosen and he puts it best by saying, stop solving and start coaching. When leaders treat coaching as a corrective action, it becomes punitive reactive, right, But when it's seen as a core to leadership competency, it becomes proactive, it becomes empowering, it becomes consistent. And so the mindset

shift goes to building trust in psychological safety with your rep. Right, you've got to build that trust in safety, and it encourages reps to have self reflection and be able to self assas as to take ownership and the challenges that they're trying to overcome too, and that in turn will drive long term capabilities and not just short term compliance

meaning they're just doing the task to be compliant. They're becoming capable of teach a person how to fish versus catch the fish forum, and so you teach them how to fish. In a nutshell, that's the difference between managing for results versus leading for growth in some of those competencies that are needed. It's about taking the time to stop solving and start coaching.

the prep work that comes into it. But again, how often do we find ourselves before we go into a one on one conversation or an opportunity coaching session or whatever it may be, and we're going in with two to three five minutes of preparation because of everything that's on our plate. Fully aware that there's so many things

that sit on the frontline. Leaders played, all leaders play everybody's plate, but we've got to take the time to prepare again to understand that each person is going to have different value and how do we bring that value tone?

And so in selling, again, we uncover paying, we align the outcomes, We guide the buying process when we're coaching similar to what I said before, We're uncovering those challenges, we're aligning to the personal and professional goals and then guiding that development journey along the way, getting them from where they want to be to where they want to go. And I'll never forget this. I had a leader that I worked for early in my career and he sat down with me and he had this conversation. This is

really where this started to get instilled with me. Is he said to me, And through the conversational understanding what was important to me, he said, look down, I'm not here to make you a better salesperson or a better leader or any of those things. I'm here because I want to help you be a better brother, a better husband, a better father, a better son, and be a better person in life. And that just stuck with me forever. It still sticks with me to this day because he

took the time to understand what was important to me. Now, whether you said that to everybody, I don't know. He said it to me, and that was important to me, and in turn, I ended up being a successful rep and a successful leader because of the time he took to understand and then coach me on the behaviors that were necessary. So at the end of the day, the value based coaching mirror versus the value based selling. They both require curiosity over control. Right, we have to continue

to be curious. I often will say to the sales leaders when we're doing our manager coaching day that the little kid in us has to continue to come out be asking the why. Right. Little kids are very good at asking questions that we sometimes can't answer, but the curiosity over for control, and when they succeed, we tend to ask more and talk less. Similarly to when we're in front of our customer, we should be having our

customer talk more than we're talking. So when you come out of a one on one and you're working with one of your reps, ask yourself who talked more? If you spoke more, then you're probably taking control of the conversation and the rep may not be seeing the value that's necessary for them to want to come back the second time. So the same discovery mindset that wins deals also builds our reps and their productivity plan and their journey for development down the road.

your reps have challenges, right, they have pain points. And you may look at the data and see, okay, well their deal sizes are too small, or they're not getting enough meetings, Like you can see the what, but you might not know why it's happening and why they're having these challenges. So talk a little bit about how a great manager can uncover those challenges, those pain points, those obstacles using the same way they uncover customer pain.

So some examples of some questions, and I'm going to leverage some of the things that we teach day in and day out, leveraging ted tell, explain, describe so, and walk me through, which happens to be one of the first questions that I'm gonna ask, walk me through your goal for this quarter. What's getting in the way. You had just mentioned removing obstacles. I got to help remove that obstacle. I'm probably aware of the goal. There may be a shift since our last conversation based off of

client interactions. Clients things that move and change, But I really want to know what's getting in the way and how can I help you to get some of those obstacles, as you said, out of the way. So that's one example. Explain what you might do differently if you had to do a deal over again and have them walk through again. I'm getting them to ask some open ended questions just to get their thought processes, versus me telling them you should do this, you should do this, you should do this.

I want to help them. It's the art of persuasion. It's getting them to come to their own conclusions through the conversation that we're having. Another example, describe what support you need form me to move this deal forward? Again,

obstacles in the way? What help do you need? What's in the way, And if they're unwilling to answer that question because of pride, because of ego, whatever it may be, you got to dig deeper right understanding that the deal may be stuck and it could take you into a qualification discussion around medic to determine what is in the way, and then trying to determine what the plan can be

for both of you to advance that deal forward. Then the last example I have is tell me how you think the customer perceived your last conversation, which I think

is a really insightful conversation. One. Are we aware of how the customer was feeling when we're in that conversation where we again in a tell, tell, tell mode, similar to what we do when we're in a coaching situation, or we trying to engage them in a discussion, helping them to come to a conclusion, being consultative, having them talk more than we talk to understand what are the pains within their organization or department, or team, or whatever

the case may be. So those questions mirror the ones we ask a customer to uncover pain and obstacles. They invite reps to reflect. It gets them to own their development, It engages in a two way conversation. So again, very similar to the things we try to teach around command of the message. It's applying those same concepts to how do we have the internal conversation that we need to have with the people that are on our teams.

But there's also some discovery that you probably want to do around like what motivates your people, And there's probably some good questions to use around that area as well.

And again, leaders approaching reps very similar in the discovery call of it can become more collaborative and insightful and impactful if we take the time to build these questions rather than just jumping to the solutions. To mention this before, we would listen more than we would speak. We would ask the open ended questions using tell, explain, describe, walk me through, and seek to understandable before advising, and before I kind of list off a couple of questions that

I think would be benefit. I often will tell people, hey, try this at home. Yeah, how often do we find ourselves trying to solve the problem versus taking a time to listen to understand, whether it's with our significant other or it's with our kids. We immediately come in with the answer, here's what you need to go do. And again we're teaching. Are we teaching how to fish? Or are we just giving the fish to somebody? And saying,

here's your meal and so great coaching questions. Some of the examples that I have, there's again, what do you think is getting in your way of success? And walk me through your biggest challenge in your deal that you have. Right now, what have you tried so far? Tell me what success would look like for you in this quarter? Right? It's kind of like again Ted, tying it back to that value based conversation, what's the future look like? What's the art of the possible? How do we get you

from where you are today to where you need to be? So? What does success look like for you in this quarter? And if there was one thing that you could describe that you would like to improve on, what would it be and why? And so now I'm starting to understand a little bit more about the person about what it is the success to them. Success for them in the quarter it might not be for them, and every person's different,

as you said, It might not be a number. It might be something totally unrelated to what happens at work, but work contributes to that other success that they're looking for. Success for me would be making this up, Rachel, but it could be being able to pay in cash from my child's tuition that they have for this upcoming quarter. Okay, that's important. So the contribution of what I do at work is going to contribute to how I'm going to

be able to afford to do that. Eying it back to a very personal thing, because I want to be able to put my child through the best education that I can. Yeah, and it's just taking that time to understand, like what are the goals, what are the motivations? How do you get from where you are to where you want to be?

listen and never just instinctively reacted. Would come back the next day and say, hey, I put some thought into this. Here's what my thought process was. And every time she would always ask what my perspective was. First, she wanted to know what I thought about overnight. My perspective was. The other thing is create space for reps to reflect.

You've got to create that safe space. How do we create that time and space for somebody to be able to have some reflection, to be able to come back and have the answers necessary and feel safe in a conversation like that. There's vulnerability to this. And the last thing is building the coaching habit into your calendar and have it being rooted in curiosity, not in solving problems. And so in the next one on one that you have with one of your reps, ask three simple questions,

what is your goal for the week? What's getting in the way? What would success look like? Those are six things that I just rattled off real quick, Slow down, create space, make sure that you continue to stay curious. What's your goal for the week, what's getting in the way, what does success look like? And then you'll be surprised how much your reps already know without you giving them the answers, and how much more they'll grow when you coach the rep like you coach a deal. Great if

it was one of your own deals. Yeah, and there's so much more on this topic. I know that this is a brief conversation that we're having, but it's such a powerful conversation. And I think the thing that we have to understand and I said this at the very beginning, is that and you said it too, This is a skill and you can't just assume that everybody knows how to coach that when you come out of a command of the Message training session, Hey, you're going to go

coach this starting on Monday. Well, do we know how to coach or.