The goal I am championing includes re purposing one-on-one reviews with sales team members so they become a consistent, reliable component of a sales management system. When used this way, a monthly 1-on-1 turns into a developmental coaching conversation.

A common complaint I hear from sales managers is that their sales reps are stuck selling to low-level decision makers: supervisors, purchasing agents, clerks. People at those levels are often concerned only about price. Coaching sales reps to reach higher-level decision makers will make closing the sale more attainable

Matt McDarby’s new book,  “The Cadence of Excellence”,  is an outstanding book that every sales manager – and those who manage sales managers – should read. The book includes many real-life examples of leading companies that have refocused their sales managers toward a new, early stage and value-creating operating system.

Successful sales managers do not tolerate mediocrity. They set clear performance standards for salespeople, and then effectively apply those standards to correct poor sales rep performance.

Becoming a better observer of sales rep performance is key to effective sales coaching. To correctly diagnosis sales rep performance issues, you need to observe a sales rep “in the field”— whatever that means for your organization.

One of the most challenging times in sales coaching is when sales reps have been on your team for a few months. They’re starting to get a handle on how your process works, how to connect with customers, and how to value-sell your offerings. Handling this phase correctly can determine the rep’s achievements in the future.

I recently ran across an article in Forbes from January 2016 called “15 Surprising Things Productive People Do Differently.” Learn how to apply these things to what sales managers can do to become more productive

7 essentials for better sales coaching conversations. Making sure those conversations lead to lasting improvement and more and bigger sales.

Great sales managers question their own assumptions about their people and find ways to minimize bias when doing sales rep evaluations.

Learning how to sell value is critical in today’s market. To be effective at this task, salespeople need to be able to connect with customers at a deep level. They have to approach the sale by asking themselves, “Where can our offerings have the greatest impact on this customer’s business?”