3 Common Coaching Mistakes

Last week I posted a blog on “How to Coach Salespeople” (read it here) and it prompted a lot of questions on problems that managers run into when coaching their team. As a follow up, here is a look at the 3 common coaching mistakes and how to avoid them.

1. Don’t change your approach to coaching. Stick to your system. Coaches who change how they work with their people cause confusion. If you don’t have a system for coaching, I would suggest starting with a simple system like FIS. FIS stands for…

F-Feedback – Listen to your salesperson and give feedback on what you heard

I – Instruction – Explain what you think the problem is and ask questions to help the salesperson discover why it happened

S – Specific – Give a specific solution, and when possible, role-play that conversation with your salesperson.

2. Don’t make it a personal attack. Salespeople need to “step out of their head” and look at the problem objectively. A good coach helps them do that. Explore the situation and discuss tactics and strategies.

3. Don’t forget to follow up. Make a note of when the salesperson will meet with a prospect again and ask about the meeting. If you are discussing something like cold calls, remember to circle back with  your salesperson after they make their calls and ask if they noticed any difference in the calls this time.

With time, you’ll eventually work out the bugs and get quick and efficient with coaching!