Someone recently downloaded our Roadmap to Unbound Growth and when I asked them how they found us their reply was; "I believe I was searching for 'sales coaching' or 'professional sales coaching.' I have contemplated using coaching before and I am still on the fence if it is what I need right now..."

I am willing to bet there are a of people out there wondering how they can get better sales results without having to read endless books (although you should be a regular reader and learner) or without having to sit through endless seminars of the same generic information (again- not to discount sales training, but what you take away from it is up to you- not the trainer). After all, nearly $20 billion is spent on sales training a year and according to a study by ES Research group about 90% of those who take training end up back where they started in 90-120 days. Classroom learning is clearly not enough.

Why is that?

Sales is all about relationships and behaviors. To say that it is dynamic is an understatement. Classroom learning, memorizing scripts and processes is not enough to help a salesperson adapt when they are in the midst of a real life scenario. Why is it we all know what we should do, but can't seem to do what we know we should when we need to? 

Sales coaching can seem subjective, and therefore the ROI on it is hard to grasp. There are so many variables. Yet research from the Sales Executive Council shows that sales coaching improved productivity and sales by an average of 17%. 

So if you are an entrepreneur, sales person, or even a sales leader- how do you know if you need sales coaching? And no- it is not for everyone. According to research by the Objective Management Group, 6% of people in sales (and yes- if you are an entrepreneur this includes you!) are the elite. They have the mindset, skills and competencies to adapt to any buying process. About 20% do well, but could make some improvements. Of the remaining 74% of salespeople, 25% shouldn’t be in sales at all So leaves 49% that could improve with work because they are trainable and coachable. That is still almost half of sales people being ineffective.

The question is, which percentile do you fall into? How do you know if sales coaching will work for you?

Are you coachable?

When determining whether or not someone is coachable, here are the indicators that we look for:

• You aren't satisfied with the status quo.
• You have a personally meaningful goal.
• You have a whatever it takes attitude.
• You are open to feedback and look for ways to apply it.
• You believe there is room for improvement.
• You take responsibility for your outcomes and don't believe in excuses.

• You need validation.
  If someone comes to us and wants us to figure out a way to make what they are already doing work- they just want to be told they are right. Maybe something happened where you didn't get the job you wanted, or the deal that should have closed didn't. But if rather than figuring out what you did wrong, you want to know that you did everything right and it was circumstances outside of your control that made you fail- you might not be coachable. 
• You need to show how smart you are. 
  If you are highly educated, or even think you are a fast learner who will eventually figure it out on your own- your ego might be the thing that gets in the way of a coach being able to help you. 
• Your situation is unique. 
  If you believe that your product/service/industry/buyer is so specialized that a coach needs to be an expert in all the nuisances, you may not be able to draw the correlations from other situations to learn from. Nothing applies to you because you are the exception to everything.
• You won't invest in yourself.
  If you believe your company should pay, or that you just don't want to make any sacrifices to pay for it yourself- your issues with money and the way you buy will not only not enable you to hire a coach, but it will also stand in your way when you encounter a buyer who doesn't believe in investment either. Or maybe what you think are personally meaningful goals (stop living paycheck to paycheck, pay off a debt, save more) are really de-motivating goals. The sacrifice isn't worth the payoff- there is no joy in the accomplishment.

What are (some of) the symptoms that you need a sales coach?

If you are an entrepreneur:

• You haven't reached the goals you set for yourself.
• Employee turnover is high, or others are not stepping up and leading as you had hoped.
• You need to get funding. This is still a sale you have to make, just a bigger one.
• You need to understand the problems your buyers have. Sometimes asking the right questions is all you need to discover what you don't know that you don't know.
• You need to sell more! Sales cycles are longer, smaller, or not happening as much as you need them to.
• It's hard to differentiate from the competition.
• You are getting asked to lower your price a lot.
• You aren't getting a lot of referrals.
• You aren't getting responses.

If you are a sales person:

• Your manager doesn't have the time to spend with you. Meeting once a month to go over the pipeline isn't giving you the info you need to make improvements.
• Your manager doesn't have the skills to coach you. When you ask for help, they tell you how they do it- but it doesn't seem to work for you. Or they take over the call or meeting to "lead you by example." But you still struggle to do what you know you need to when you are in it yourself.
• You have "tried listening to every podcast, researched information online every night for other peoples experiences and advice, read blogs, etc in order to learn methods to better yourself as a sales person...", but you still aren't where you think you could be.
• You want a "dedicated resource, rather than trying to work with generic material and adapt it constantly."
• You recognize that you don't know what you don't know and that maybe that is the reason why you aren't where you want to be.
• You are getting beat up on price by the competition.
• Current customers aren't referring you, or influencers aren't introducing you to decision makers.
• People don't take your call or respond to your emails.

If you are a sales leader:

• You want your people to start figuring things out for themselves rather than you having to babysit them.
• You have limited time to be able to coach, so you want that time to be as effective as possible.
• Your company doesn't have a framework in place for coaching.
• You aren't sure if you know the best way to coach. 
• Your people are asking to discount a lot.
• You aren't sure who needs coaching, where they need it, and how best to help them.

Still on the fence as to whether or not sales coaching is right for you?
Not sure what questions you should be asking? Download the complete eGuide: "Is sales coaching right for you?" and get questions you need to ask yourself, a potential coach, and determine if you are ready to be coached.