You work on your coaching skills – knowing it’s one of the key to sales success.
Yet… you’re a sales manager and leader – no one’s taught to coach. You were promoted because you could sell.
Today I’m going to help you build a resilience tool kit of questions you can use to coach your salespeople! You’ve probably asked all these questions (none will surprise or shock you) – yet how often do you take the time to use a lost deal review as a coaching opportunity?
Yes, this type of conversation is especially appropriate when sales failures occur (and they often do). We do of course gain resiliency when we learn from our failures and mistakes.
- what had you hoped for?
- what happened?
- what obstacles did you encounter?
- had you expected _______ (their obstacles)?
- what resources did you use?
- did you have all the tools you needed to do what you wanted?
- if someone else shared _________ (insert the failure) how would you treat them?
- what would you do next time you have this kind of opportunity?
- when have you been successful ___________ (winning that kind of opportunity)?
With these questions you take take a sales failure and turn it into a resilience building experience.
We know failure is a part of learning – that doesn’t make it easier when we look at it purely from a goal achievement perspective!
Instead take the time to do a debrief, using coaching questions to pull feelings, actions, and reactions out.