What are sales coaching best practices?

Understanding where a particular rep may need some coaching around a certain skill set is important. I know we’ve had reps in the past that are great at hitting a certain number of activities. They can go cold-call like a machine, but they don’t convert any of those calls into actual business or any meetings set. Other ones have struggled to hit those activity metrics but they convert a high percentage. So it’s really about finding that balance, and the coaching that I’m going to give to one person in one situation is not the same coaching that I’ll give another person in another situation.

Effective sales coaching doesn’t just happen during everyday conversations or in sporadic meetings; it must be intentional, purposeful and structured. As you think about how to enable your own organization’s sales coaching activities, give particular attention to the rigor with which it takes place. In addition to providing guidance on how to do sales coaching, you might also need to set expectations for why coaching is critical, how often it should take place, where the coaching interactions will be held and what content should be covered during meetings.

We have adopted a 10-20-70 framework for sales coaching, the 10% being we are teaching our sales managers something new. The 20%, we’re giving them an opportunity to socialize and discuss the practices they’re learning in one-on-one coaching calls, in team meetings, in a variety of different ways for them to socialize what they’re learning. And then the 70% is we’re giving them circumstantial capabilities to practice that every day of their lives.