Sales Coaching Training: How to Level Up Your Training Sessions

In organizations that rely on talented salespeople, upward mobility puts top performers in leadership positions to capture the essence of their success and mass-produce it for the sales force. Unfortunately, success in sales does not always translate to success in coaching sales.

It’s understandable. The skills that make good salespeople are rarely the skills that make good coaches. Expert sales professionals too often become novice trainers.

As a result, a lot of sales coaching falters, reverting to cookie-cutter training strategies that are insubstantial, irrelevant and uninspiring. Beyond limiting sales potential, these failures in sales coaching hold a number of negative implications for the quality of the sales team:

• Higher turnover due to salespeople not meeting quotas.
• Disengagement from the training and sales process.
• Longer training periods for new hires.
• Disconnected team culture.

Devising higher quality sales coaching strategies is critical for your bottom line and making training more efficient, lending more time to focus on enhancing other areas of the business.

Sales Coaching Training

If your sales coaching is getting stale, it may be time to take a meta-perspective on training and investigate sales coaching training options. By leaning on the wealth of available sales coaching training resources, managers and trainers can create customized programs that better address their unique sales process and opportunities. With higher quality sales coaching techniques, you can affect your sales team and the entire organization in several meaningful ways:

• Inspire sales person confidence and motivation.
• Develop more relevant, actionable sales knowledge and skills.
• Instill new behaviors at a cultural level.
• Strengthen bonds with sales team members.
• Create better feedback mechanisms to facilitate continuous improvement.

Getting to better training is not a matter of guesswork nor does it need to be done alone. Professional sales coaching programs and accessible sales coaching tools abound to guide and inspire sales coaches across all industries. 

Starting points for building a better sales coaching program are virtually limitless so we’ll make it easy by reviewing some of the most effective sales coaching programs, tools and techniques.

Effective Sales Coaching Programs to Create Better Trainers

We have discussed in detail some of the best sales training programs and sales training companies. What most managers fail to realize is that many of these same services can enhance their sales coaching skills as well. 

Sales coaching programs are designed to provide fundamental coaching skills, proven practices and tailored guidance. Professional trainers discover sales opportunities to develop customized coaching strategies and offer a support mechanism. By setting up a workshop, training course or blended learning program, sales coaches can hone their skill sets to produce maximum sales effectiveness.

Sales Readiness Group

SRG’s High-Impact Sales Coaching is a sales coaching training system that covers the breadth of knowledge and depth of skills needed to get the most out of your sales team. Following a rigorous consultation, they form a customized training program, suited to the sales team’s unique challenges and relevant circumstances. 

Their interactive, in-person training sessions provide real-world exercises and an immersive learning experience. They back these training seminars with online training and support for continued learning and reinforcement. Through their attentive approach to effectual sales training, coaches will learn how to prioritize their training and create more productive coaching plans.

Richardson Developmental Sales Coaching

With over 3 million trained under the program, the sales coaching training program from Richardson has proven its worth. The program focuses on empowerment, giving managers the tools they need to help sales team members realize their full potential. In doing so, sales leadership can expect an automated force of independent, driven and skilled sales personnel.

Richardson offers its development program in-person and through an online platform full of resources to create a better coaching culture. Virtual instructor-led learning sessions provide convenient access to industry-leading training knowledge tailored to your needs. Their workshops go a step further, creating a layer of a real-world application using their “Learn-by-Doing” methodology.

Brooks Group Sales Leadership Accelerator

The Brooks Group’s virtual multi-session sales coaching training program provides leaders the ability to assess and address areas of opportunity within their teams. By providing a better understanding of the sales coach function, the program teaches coaches how to enhance strengths and diminish weaknesses at an individual level.

The system is broken into eight virtual training sessions covering everything from hiring quality to developing superior talent. Their platform provides an excellent networking opportunity among sales leadership and a wealth of effective sales management tools. Sales managers engaged in the program can expect to see more streamlined sales cycles leading to higher win shares.

Key Sales Coaching Tools for Efficient Training

Training programs are the most effective way of developing a skill set but smart use of available sales coaching tools facilitates the training process significantly. From management and training systems to analytics, these resources maintain ongoing control of your sales force’s effectiveness.

Lessonly

Lessonly is LMS software used by a variety of organizations to deliver fundamental sales coaching optimization. Managers can effectively bring interactive coaching and practice sessions for training at scale, leading to higher close rates and faster onboarding. The comprehensive package of versatile training and data reporting makes Lessonly an essential sales coaching tool for any company.

Showpad Coach

From onboarding to coaching, Showpad Coach supports organized training for every member of your sales and customer service teams. The exhaustive array of analytical features and intuitive interface make the software’s addition to your sales coaching toolkit quickly yield a high ROI.

Ambition

The training and tracking software from Ambition keeps sales reps motivated and accountable. Users can run personalized coaching sessions, create engaging team sales training exercises and communicate metrics through dashboards. The program also offers integration of existing sales software such as CRMs for more user-friendly access to data and insights.

Gong.io

This AI-driven call-recording and analytics software gives direct insight into sales conversations via phone, e-mail and video conferencing. The system records and interprets interactions, supplying instantaneous feedback to create a better customer experience and help teams win more sales.

Chorus.ai

Similar to Gong, Chorus.ai is a conversation intelligence software that allows managers and reps to pinpoint opportunities during customer interactions. Its recording and data organization allow managers to easily search conversations to guide coaching sessions and perform reviews.

Proven Sales Coaching Techniques

Getting the most out of coaching a sales team necessitates assistance from professional services or practical software tools. But bearing the everyday essential sales coaching techniques in mind grounds your efforts, offering direction and instilling a learning culture among your team.

• Leverage CRM software and KPI reporting tools daily to identify and address gaps.
• Use call-recording technology to get a first-person perspective on sales execution.
• Solicit help from customer service and marketing teams to support your training. Don’t feel like you have to do it alone.
• Inspire buy-in by offering sales team members independence and involvement in building a better training process.
• Incorporate big picture strategic thinking and small picture tactical practices for more comprehensive training.
• Discover what motivates your salespeople and frame your training to achieve their goals.
• Create a schedule and structure to guide consistent coaching.
• Use incentives to build better behaviors and set higher standards, not reinforce the status quo.

Essential Sales Coaching Books for Every Manager’s Library

The most convenient paths to a better sales training system are often found in leading sales coaching books. Our top sales coaching book picks are favorite references among successful managers and industry experts.

• Sales Management. Simplified.

By Mike Weinberg

• Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions: A Tactical Playbook for Managers and Executives

By Keith Rosen

• Nuts and Bolts of Sales Management: How to Build a High-Velocity Sales Organization

By John Treace

• The Challenger Customer: Selling to the Hidden Influencer Who Can Multiply Your Results

By Brent Adamson, Matthew Dixon, Pat Spenner and Nick Toman

• Sales Manager Survival Guide

By David A. Brock

• Cracking the Sales Management Code: The Secrets to Measuring and Managing Sales Performance

By Jason Jordan and Michelle Vazzana

• 52 Sales Management Tips: The Sales Manager’s Success Guide

By Steven Rosen

• The Accidental Sales Manager: How to Take Control and Lead Your Sales Team to Record Profits

By Chris Lytle

Coaching a Sales Team

Coaching a sales team does not have to be an alone venture. For new managers trying to mirror the success, they had in sales or seasoned veterans trying to keep up with current trends, innovative sales tools and new sales coaching programs are continually emerging to help them reach their goals.

If you need help coaching a sales team, our sales and marketing professionals at the Selling Revolution are ready to give you the guidance and resources to maximize your training ROI. We approach each client’s particular objectives with in-depth involvement, customized programs and a comprehensive service arrangement. From hiring better team members to developing sales skills, our years of experience benefit every part of the sales process. If you are ready to tackle your sales and marketing needs, the Selling Revolution team is here for you.