As much as I believe inside sales managers and leaders need to be great coaches, today I’m going to throw out you also need to hire people who are coachable.
Here are 5 things to look for and ask yourself to determine if the people you’ve hired are coachable. They come from August Turak, author of Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks: One CEO’s Quest for Meaning and Authenticity
- Humility –are they willing to admit that _________ is holding them back?
Without the humility to admit something isn’t working, coaching will not be effective. - Action Bias – what action(s) have they taken since our last coaching conversation?
Without making the change and putting in their own effort nothing will change. - Purity of Purpose – are they working on __________ because they want it to change?
The reverse might be that they are working on it so you leave them alone.
Another example of the wrong purpose is to work on something because you, their manager, tells them they have to. - Surrender Control – have they let go of “their way” and are trying something different?
Until an inside salesperson is willing to let go of “their way” and try something different, no amount of effort put into them by their coach will have any affect. - Faith – do they have the belief that the effort of changing is worth the gain they will receive by putting in the work?
Inside sales doesn’t have much instant gratification. It will take consistent sustained work to change beliefs… behaviors… techniques.
One key to knowing if coaching will be effective is to answer this question for yourself: are you putting more effort into their career success than the salesperson is?
If you are, STOP.
Make sure you are spending the most time with your inside salespeople who: have room to increase your team results exponentially and will do the necessary work to make the change happen.