By Jeff Beals
What do Tom Brady, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Wayne Gretzky have in common?
They’re all world-class athletes who have won championships? Yes.
They’re all incredibly famous? Yes.
But there’s something else they all have in common. Each had coaches who helped them reach the pinnacle of their sports.
Not only do athletes benefit from coaching, they probably would never win a championship without it. Well, if coaching is so advantageous for professional athletes, it makes sense that other professionals would gain similar benefits from coaching.
I would argue that sales professionals benefit more from coaching than your typical professional. Sales is not necessarily rocket science, but it does require you to master an array of differing skills and attitudes.
Mindset is incredibly important in sales, because the profession requires you to be passionate. An accountant, for instance, can be bored to tears yet still do an effective job. In many professions, you can hate your job, and even be turned off by the products your company sells, and still manage to be effective.
That’s not the case in sales where it makes a big difference when you’re excited about the product and a believer in the company. But sometimes even passionate sales reps become discouraged when things go wrong: you hit a prospecting slump; the economy goes south or deals fall through at the last minute unexpectedly. A coach can help you with mindset, keeping your energy and enthusiasm flowing when things don’t go your way.
Sales also requires a person to master somewhat dichotomous skills. You need to be both an attentive listener and compelling presenter. You need to have strong emotional intelligence skills yet be analytical when determining the profitability of a potential deal.
Should you have a coach? That’s a personal decision, but the research tells us that those sales professionals who have access to coaching enjoy more success. And that applies to sales professionals of all levels – from chief sales officer to entry-level sales rep.
Coaches come in a variety of forms, but most are informal coaches. The typical way to get a coach is to find someone in your company who can advise you and help you grow as a professional. That can be a boss, an experienced colleague who wants to give back or even a person from a different department or company who enjoys helping people succeed. Some sales pros will work with a retired sales leader they happen to know.
Of course, you can also hire professional sales coaches. There are many companies that provide this service. If you go that route, ask around and find someone who has had a good experience with a sales coach and feels like they got a lot of value for their money.
What do you look for in a coach? First and foremost, you want a good listener. You want to find a person who wants to see you succeed but won’t just simply give you all the answers. A good sales coach will do some teaching and advice sharing but mostly helps you come to your own conclusions about how to build a more successful career.
I recommend you share your goals with your coach and use those as part of your conversations. Great athletes have goals they’re trying to achieve. Along with their coaches, those athletes constantly monitor the progress they’re making and push themselves to greater heights.
Jeff Beals shows you how to find better prospects, close more deals and capture greater market share. Jeff is an international award-winning author, sought-after keynote speaker, and accomplished sales consultant. A frequent media guest, Jeff has been featured in Investor’s Business Daily, USA Today, Men’s Health, Chicago Tribune and The New York Times.”
Here’s Why Should You Choose Jeff Beals as Your Next Speaker:
“Jeff Beals has presented four different topics at five of our internal events this year. At each event, the audience of commercial real estate principals and agents was completely engaged and motivated the entire time. Jeff facilitates his training sessions in such a way that each member of the audience was able to relate and understand how to apply it every day in the field. Jeff is brilliant, and we have hired him to continue speaking at our events next year!” – Lindsay Fierro, Senior Vice President, NAI Global, New York, NY
I’m in Phoenix and had breakfast earlier this morning with our semi-retired sales representative who is doing some continued work for us here. He attended your sales meeting last week and told me that in 43 years of selling, you were the best he had ever heard. Thanks for a great experience.” – Drew Vogel, President & CEO, Diamond Vogel Paints, Orange City, IA
“Our corporate partnership team had great takeaways regarding how to network smarter while also understanding the importance of our personal brand to current and prospective partners. Jeff does a great job weaving in real-world examples and how you can apply his teachings to growing your business and building long-term partnerships.” – Jason Booker, Senior Director of Corporate Sponsorships, The Kansas City Royals Major League Baseball Team
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