Perhaps, after planning, the coaching skill is the most important competency that a sales manager can develop. In fact, planning and coaching are the ‘‘bookends’’ of the job. You start by planning for improvements and then you coach those any time and all the time.

Coaching, like so much of the sales manager’s role, is a well-thought-out strategy for identifying the salespeople’s perception of events, gaining their support in finding a solution, and developing an agreed-upon measurable plan of action to improve a behavior or competency. Coaching is not manipulating people.

Coaching can be a challenge for many sales managers for several reasons:

• Fear of being too intrusive into the private world of the salesperson
• Fear of not being able to manage emotions and staying cool
• Preconceived ideas, assumptions, and/or prejudices
• Fear of hearing something negative about oneself
• Poor listening skills (What?)
• Allowing too short a time or being too rushed
• Wanting to be too much of the solution

Coaching can unveil all of the above, but it can also be one of the most rewarding investments of time for any manager. For a sales manager, specifically, becoming skilled at coaching can positively impact sales results more quickly than any other activity. This is true in both the field ride-along and in the office environment.

There are some well-tested and proven steps to coaching success. Let’s take a look at the two most common forms of coaching