Eric Warner

How much time do you spend coaching your team?
5 tips to ensure you are coaching your team not just supervising or training.

Sounds odd, doesn’t it?

I asked a client how he divided his time between supervising his team, holding them accountable to goals, training on new skills, and coaching on individual improvements, he was stumped.

Both procrastination and perfectionism are paralyzing traps that undermine an individual’s (and even an organization’s) confidence and create chronic dissatisfaction. As a result, so many good ideas remain locked in people’s heads or left on the drawing board because they don’t feel those ideas are “good enough”…when in reality, they are good enough for most of the world.

You may have heard the old saying that 90 percent of success happens between the ears. That’s easy enough to say. But what does putting this principle into practice really mean? What does it look like when it shows up, in a discussion with a prospective buyer, as part of who we really are?

How often do you debrief each of your teams' calls together? Not just the big ones, but every one.

As managers and frankly, as people, we are often drawn to people who are like us. They make us comfortable. We feel OK when we are around them and often feel like we have connected with them. I have managed hundreds of salespeople and the ones who I remember the best are those who achieved success in ways in which I never could have imagined nor duplicated myself. They weren’t like me but, in so many ways, so much better.

Information is everywhere today so at what point do you decide it's time for action? How much preparation is too much, and can over-preparing hurt your sales production?

Sometimes, preparation can be a crutch and prevent you from action. For example, let’s think about cold calling for a second. You could spend hours searching Google, LinkedIn, company websites, and news outlets before picking up the phone and making your first cold call.

Are you focused on Winning the Sale or just the WIN? 5 Tips to Focus on What's Important Now in your sales process!

When we give buyers permission to get into our head, we can’t do our job as sales professionals effectively. If we allow ourselves to become emotionally involved in a discussion with a buyer, we give that buyer control over us. If a buyer tries to manipulate us, and succeeds, that’s not on the buyer. It’s on us!

Try, Need to, and Can’t. These are three words that any sales coach worth their salt will not allow to pass during a coaching conversation without probing. Why? Because these words are almost always code for a salesperson doing what salespeople do best, influencing their managers and coaches to let them slide.