Coaching involves very personal styles, and seasoned coaches are unique in their approach. However, there are ten principles to remember.
- Taking over the call – when dual calling with salespeople, the urge is to take over the call, particularly with newer recruits. Don’t!
- Loss of order versus training need – a tough decision. How do you balance losing the sale by not stepping in versus the patience to allow a self-discovered learning need?
- Tell versus ask style – one of the oldest discussion points in the history of coaching.
- Help to learn – do you teach people or allow them to learn by encouraging them?
- Experienced versus recruits – knowing how to treat people differently is a great skill in coaching. The experience deserves more empowerment.
- Focus on one or two areas – priorities bring results. Remember Pareto’s famous 80:20 rule. It survives in all aspects of life. 80% of the pub’s business comes from 20% of its customers. 80% of business comes from 20% of your coachee client bank. 80% of your income comes from 20% of your people. In this instance, 80% of improvement in performance comes from 20% of those potential improvements. The trick is finding the 20% priority.
- Coach before the call – help your coachee to consider areas of potential improvements he/she would like coaching on after the observation. This way, you work on the priority.
- Regard your coaching day as a learning day – this means eliminating targets for the day, so you focus purely on learning and development issues.
- Need a selling model – a good coach needs a process model to follow. You’ve got to compare against something, and even the best salesperson/coach needs a crutch.
- What do you take forward? How much coaching is forgotten about in the hustle and bustle of business life because it wasn’t taken forward by all concerned? The coach is in an ideal position to take the coaching forward.
