Most sales managers coach too fast. When coaching, we don’t help sales people find their own answers.
Managing a sales team is a much different set of skills than selling, but in at least one respect, the same skills which helped you become a great salesperson can, when applied, help you become a more effective sales manager, too. Your ability to diagnose customer needs can and should be applied to help you become a better sales coach.
While coaching salespeople, we sales managers often don’t listen to everything salespeople want to tell us – we jump in with a “diagnosis” and “prescription” before they’re done talking. Just as slowing down the sales process can help your customers buy faster, slowing down as a sales coach can help your sales people learn and develop faster!
As a salesperson you asked a) about customer problems, b) why the customer was experiencing this problems, and c) what will be the likely effects on the customer if they do nothing to solve these problems?
