How performance coaching helps in various sectors

I was a guinea pig for testing a game which was based on performance coaching a few days back. It was an extremely interesting game and quite different from any other I had ever played before. While it was a typical board game where you have to roll a dice and move forward based on the number you roll, it also had a very unique theme. Every time you moved forward on the board, depending upon the spot you landed on, you had to pick a certain card. And these cards were all based on the skills required to be successful at performance coaching.

While I had a great time playing the game it also made me think. It made me realise how performance coaching was needed by practically every individual at some time or the other in his or her life. It was what could help tackle obstacle and barriers that hinder our progress and accelerate us to the next level. So here I am listing down how it can help professionals from different sectors and roles:

1.      Sales – Performance Coaching can do wonders to an individual’s sales performance. Sales professionals require dedicated efforts in first finding good quality leads and then trying to close on what they have to offer. Sometimes they can tend to lose track of the direction in which they are going and may go astray. They may even land up making efforts in the wrong direction by tapping the wrong customers or offering the wrong solutions. That’s when their performance goes for a toss and they may require the help of an external person who can show them the mirror and help them get back on track. Sales also being a function which needs to face the maximum amount of rejection can take a toll on some salesperson’s confidence levels. And that’s where performance coaching can also help them.

2.      Customer Service – Handling irate customers can be really difficult. The first and foremost thing that you have to watch out for is your own emotions. An irate customer can really press your buttons and we all know how we land up reacting to that! Performance coaching can help in improving the emotional intelligence of an individual. It can help get the person in touch with their own emotions and show them ways of managing them better. This helps the individual in having good control over himself which in turn makes it easy for them to handle even the toughest customer!

3.      Managers – A Manager’s job is to handle not just his own tasks but also those of his team members. And believe me, having to do all of that can be quite intimidating especially if you are new to the field! Coaching your team members becomes an important part of your responsibility and when you are inexperienced in the domain, that’s when you really realise that you need Performance Coaching yourself! By going through the process yourself and by understanding how to manage your own developmental areas, it becomes easier to guide others. Besides, the impact and influence of a strong and sorted manager is very different and one that every team member would be willing to follow.

So those were some benefits of Corporate training in some of the roles that immediately came to my mind.

Have you ever been through Performance Coaching yourself? We would love to hear how it helped you. So do write in and share your story with us…

Be a high ticket closer with right sales training program

Sales Training is an absolute necessity for every sales professional. And it can make a huge difference to the service that they deliver to their customers. I got a live example of it last week during a sales call, and I thought I’d tell you about it today.

So I went on a doctor visit for a client from the healthcare industry last week. And believe me it made me all the more certain of why sales training is so important!

I was accompanying a sales executive who was trying to explain to the doctor why his products were good and why the doctor should recommend them to his patients. By the way, I must say the executive was wonderful when it came to his knowledge on the products. He knew each and every product along with all its specifications like material, size, price etc. and frankly I was really impressed with his technical knowledge. However, even after so many years of selling the same products, there was a very apparent gap. A gap that only the right coaching by his Manager or Sales training could fulfil.

While the executive was top notch when it came to hard skills, he had a lot to learn on the soft skills front. Basics like building rapport, talking to the client with confidence, etc. were completely missing. I realised that it was partly because of the personality type of the executive, him being an introvert. And also the fact that I was observing him, which made him conscious. But when I asked his Manager about the same, I came to know that that’s a feedback his Manager had been giving him since quite some time now. But one that had failed to reap any benefit.

Once the sales executive got a little more comfortable with me, I also asked him whether he enjoyed his job. He said he did and also said he did not face any challenges while doing so!

And that brings me to one of the important things that sales training does. It creates awareness.

Many executives are not aware of how they come across to a client when they are selling. They have no clue that they may come across as being low on confidence through their facial expressions and body language, even if they know their product like the back of their hand. Sales training sessions act as a mirror for participants and make them aware of the areas, verbal and non-verbal, that they need to work on.

Typically, building rapport and being friendly with a client comes very easily to a person who naturally has that kind of a personality. However, it may be difficult for executives of other personalities. Sales training makes people aware of the differences in personality development that exist. They discuss the positives and areas of development of each personality, along with how you can go beyond the limitations that these pose.  In fact, apart from exploring facets of your own personality, they also throw light on the different personalities that customers may have and how you can adapt to these to build rapport easily. So a sales executive with an introvert personality can also get to know how to crack a very extrovert personality!

These are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what is covered in sales training. There’s a lot more than just awareness that gets covered in the same. Will discuss those in some later articles. For now you can start with these. These itself will take you from closing small accounts to much bigger one’s while creating relationships with customers for life!

Sales Training - To Sell or not to Sell

Sales Training is extremely important as the number one focus of any company post coming up with a unique product or service is to sell it.

If you can't sell your product you will perish.  The market either has a need for your product or else you have to create it.

When Steve jobs was about to introduce the touch pad phone in the market, he said something very interesting to his friend who said that this was not going to work in a market that was used to key pad phones.

Steve Jobs explaining...

Steve Jobs' answer was that the buyer does not know what he wants and he was going to put in every effort to make the buyer learn to adapt to it. We all know now what happened post that in the cell phone industry with Apple being a pioneer in the touch pad technology and being followed by so many others!

The same funda applies to sales.

You either fulfil an existing need or you create something so radical that your buyers have no option but to get hooked to it and get so used to using it that that it actually turns from being a want to a need!

So what are some of the rules of successful selling? The number one rule of successful sales is that the point of focus is the customer. The number two rule is, well, that you focus on the number one rule!

Most of the companies inadvertently focus on their product and services and then try to match it with the customer needs. However this is where they fail or they struggle.

Successful companies always focus on the customer and their needs and then check out if the product or the service matches this need. An interesting question that arises then, is if their product is not fulfilling the need of the customer, can they come back without selling it to them? After all, leaving the sale for the good of the customer itself is an indirect sale. The same prospect will go and tell ten different people around him about how genuine your intentions were and it will automatically lead other customers towards you. This word of mouth will really give your sales a shot in the arm.

An effective sales training will always teach you this. Selling skills training is not about hooking the customer and getting him to buy your product. It is about how to be genuine, how to focus on customer needs, how to create an impact by fulfilling the promises given, how to establish a rapport and how to learn to let go and how to stay in touch with the customer even post your role being over.

If your sales team learns this and imbibes this in their daily behaviour, then success is bound to happen. However it must be remembered that this attitude cannot be imbibed into the sales team until the top management is also aligned to this philosophy as it is only possible as a top down approach. The management has to eat, drink, sleep and talk this at all points of time and any one not aligned to it has to be questioned.

Are you willing to take this stand !!!!

If you would like to know more about the Sales Training we conduct, please visit our website at http://www.theyellowspot.com/

Happy Selling:)