Sales Coaching

Everyone can use a little coaching from time to time. One way we grow is through mentors sharing their experiences and knowledge with us. That basic principle is what underlies the concept of sales coaching. What is sales coaching? It’s what good managers do to help sales representatives improve their own performance. The idea is to give them the skills and knowledge they need to succeed, rather than leaving them dependent on just doing whatever their manager tells them to do. This process encompasses a few different activities. Part of sales coaching is helping agents discover their strengths and weaknesses, guiding them to the best ways to make the sale and meet their goals, as well as correcting erroneous behaviors and pointing out the better path to take. There are many benefits of sales coaching. Let’s go through a few of these now. 

First of all, good coaching lifts some of the burden off the sales manager so that they can focus on higher-value tasks than just solving the problems of sales reps. One problem that frequently occurs in call centers is that the manager becomes the go-to person for all problems, and agents begin to make little to no attempt to solve the issues on their own. Coaching helps to address this.

Secondly, sales coaching increases sales. The reason for this is fairly obvious. If your sales reps know how to solve their own problems and have been given the skills to reach their goals, they will be able to spend more time focused on making sales rather than waiting on their manager for help. Sales coaching also has an indirect benefit of helping sales managers grow. It is an essential skill for a good leader to have the heart of a teacher, and sales coaching can help inspire that in a manager. Why is sales coaching important? It’s important because research shows that sales coaching can drive impressive increases in sales results which is, after all, what we’re all after.

With all these benefits, it may come as some surprise that managers often avoid sales coaching their reps. There are several reasons cited for this, but one of the most frequently heard reasons is the belief that they don’t have enough time. This may be true; a manager has many complicated tasks to work on and may not always have the time to devote to coaching. However, there is a solution. You could use an AI-powered system that monitors calls and can automatically alert managers in real-time for coaching opportunities. Sales managers can use a system like this to rapidly increase their agents’ performance and therefore can spend less time in formal coaching sessions. Fortunately, this system does exist in real life. It’s called Balto.

Sales Coaching Techniques

The styles and methods used in sales coaching vary from team to team and manager to manager. However, there are a few standard sales coaching techniques that are often used. 

The first technique is to build trust. The point here is that sales reps who do not trust their manager will be far less likely to heed and implement their manager’s advice. Some managers work to build trust by sharing honest stories about their past experiences that say as much about their mistakes as their successes. Another technique is to encourage your agents to do self-evaluation assessments to help them track their own progress and performance. This can inspire them to achieve better results and help them pay more attention to sales coaching from the manager. Yet another strategy is to use a real-time conversation analysis tool like Balto. Balto’s Cloud App makes it easier than ever to provide coaching to agents. The app includes features like triggers & alerts so that managers can get alerts about key moments on calls. The Live Listen feature allows managers to immediately jump in and listen in on a call that triggered an alert. When joining a call, the manager is also provided with a real-time transcript so that they can quickly get up to speed as to what caused the alert.

The Agent Chat element of Balto’s Cloud App can also facilitate better sales coaching by providing a real-time communication link between the manager and the rep on the call so that the manager can give real-time guidance to help the rep correct the call and bring things to a better conclusion. The chat function gives managers the chance to provide live one-on-one sales coaching for agents. This gives you the opportunity to proactively save calls before they end. Finally, managers also get easily digestible reports on all their agent’s performance that can give them insights into who may need some help and who deserves recognition for exceptional performance. In terms of individual sales coaching that focuses on each agent, Balto is an incredibly effective tool.

Sales Coaching Tools

In today’s world, most sales managers do not rely on purely manual coaching techniques. There are now many different kinds of sales coaching tools available that

In today’s world, most sales managers do not rely on purely manual coaching techniques. There are now many different kinds of sales coaching tools available that can help managers achieve their coaching objectives. Most of these tools include tracking agents and data reports so that managers have a better idea of what specific reps are in most need of additional coaching. Some of these tools are even integrated with the onboarding process, making the transition between new hire training and sales coaching seamlessly. One other tool managers can use is a sales coaching program. A program like this trains managers so that they have the skills they need to better share their knowledge with their teams.

One final tool that can help with a variety of sales coaching activities is a call monitoring tool like Balto. Unlike your managers, Balto can be in several places at once, listening to each and every call. Not only does it provide features to your managers to help them with coaching, but it can also coach your agents themselves through the Agent App. This app is like an automated sales coach for reps and provides agents with checklists to ensure that they cover everything they need and provides them with live recommendations to help resolve mistakes. It would be difficult to find a more versatile or effective tool to help managers conduct strong sales coaching.

Sales Training

The top sales training programs alleviate the burden on sales managers, who often have a significant number of direct reports. Balto is one such sales training platform because of the carefully designed features that make it easy to train sales reps. As agents are on the phone with customers, they can have the Agent App on one side of their screens. This app analyzes the call in real time and can guide them. As they go through calls doing this, they develop experience and will need the guidance less and less. Furthermore, Balto can help your agents remain compliant with relevant laws and regulations by giving them exactly what to say at specific moments.

In addition to a tool like this, you may want to look into sales leadership training. As we have already mentioned, sales leadership training consists of training to help your managers be better leaders. Balto features an Activity Log which can help managers and team leaders to see what alerts they are missing and how often they are responding to alerts. This can help them refocus their efforts.

Sales Coaching Jobs

Sales coaching is so important that an entirely new career path has opened up for those who want to specialize in coaching. Sales coaching jobs can be found on online job boards and are increasing in number all the time. If you are interested in mastering the craft of sales coaching, you may also consider looking for sales representative jobs or even entry-level sales jobs. In many of these positions, there are opportunities to climb the ranks and reach a position where you have the opportunity to provide coaching.

As an organization, finding good employees can be challenging, which is why having a tool that can improve their performance straight from the start is essential. That’s exactly what Balto is designed to do.

Sales Mentoring And Coaching

At the end of the day, the main goal of any sales team is to increase conversion rates. That’s why sales mentoring, and coaching is so important. By riding alongside your representatives and giving them the advice they need when they need it, you are increasing their ability to perform, which in turn increases sales overall.

Balto has the answer when it comes to sales coaching. Businesses can use Balto’s real-time guidance platform to increase their conversion rates by up to 26% in just 45 days. Many sales managers have sales coaching questions and are looking for sales leader coaching. Our platform solves both problems by providing sales coaching statistics to managers and valuable coaching material to the agents themselves.

Sales Coaching Philosophy

It’s important that you instill a strong sales coaching philosophy and culture in your team managers. Although they may have different sales coaching styles or prefer different sales coaching models, all need to be focused on building trust with their team members and direct reports. The end goal is more sales. Coaching can help you reach that goal.

Balto is one of the most effective ways to facilitate your sales coaching efforts. Experience the difference Balto can make for your team today.

Related Pages

Call Center Compliance | Contact Center Software | Call Center Management | Call Center Software | Customer Service Skills | Call Center Scripting Software