Sometimes we forget about that crazy thing called “a salesperson’s ego” and how difficult it is for them to make themselves vulnerable enough to ask for help.

So when a sales rep goes to their manager and needs a little coaching . . .

1) Please don’t launch into a lecture about what they should have done. I know you want to, and I understand that the bigger lesson is discussing how they wound up in this situation, but it doesn’t help them NOW. One of the things I do in my coaching practice is to break the conversation up into two portions, the “what can we do now” and the “what can we do in the future to lower the probability of this happening again”.

2) Don’t get caught up in trivial, administrative ball breaking. I can’t tell you how many times a rep will vent to me that they went to their manager for help with something only to get a 45 minute lecture on the importance of entering things into Salesforce or filing the TPS Reports in triplicate. My suggestion would be to once again, divide that conversation into two parts. The “let’s actually brainstorm and do productive sh*t” portion and the “how doing the administrative portion can help me help you” Oh, and if that administrative thing, has nothing to do with why they came to you, don’t talk about it today.

3) Please don’t take every call, and check ever email alert that pops up on your smartphone. You’re busy, we get it, but you need to think about something. Would you pull this nonsense if you were sitting with a customer? I hope you answered “Hell no!” because then you’ll understand that your sales rep is YOUR customer. Start giving them the same respect.

4) No war stories please. Stick to that magical thing experts refer to as “helping”.

5) Don’t follow the typical coaching model. Yep, I’m gonna get lots of “coaches” putting my face on a dartboard for that one. In a typical coaching model, a coach will ask you lots of questions and lead you on a path of self discovery. I think that’s important but it can also be disrespectful to a simple truth . . . by the time a rep checks their ego and comes to you, they could sure use some answers in addition to those questions. I would invite you to do both.

And One More Thing . . .

If you’re responsible for a team of sales reps, I hope you’ll consider my online sales leadership course.

There are 6 awesome (if I do say so myself) sessions waiting for you and we record each one so you can go at your own pace.

Please click here to check it out and to reserve your seat!