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It’s funny how the HR folk have got off their soapboxes when it comes to coaching. Last year, it was all ‘coaching is great, coaching is everything’. This year they’ve gone quiet. Well to be fair, they’ve got their hands full with furlough and other not so nice work.
Recently, I came across the “ESC” – that’s the Effective Coaching Scale¹ to you and me. It seems to be the first psychometrically sound measure of coaching skills. I’ve been using the ideas behind it with my team of reps recently with good results.
There’s 3 main areas in the scale; adaptability, involvement & rapport with 14 individual elements. I consider myself pretty adaptable, (you have to be selling industrial chemicals!) So, I decided to focus more on the involvement themes which are:
The role play idea caught my attention: At first it felt a bit odd, but once we got into it, it really helped. Somehow doing it via Teams virtual meetings made it easier too.
Typically, I used it when one of my reps was facing a difficult meeting, and we role-played it. We always learnt something, and I found it a very natural forum to give advice and support to my team.
The ESC is a good tool: Developed by researchers at California State University, it just has practical ideas in it. I recommend!
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Sometimes sales is described as an art…people have the ‘gift of the gab’, or mysterious powers of persuasion that other mortals cannot copy. Recent research in the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management² has set out to demystify ‘sales influence tactics’ (SITs). The authors have created a well-grounded set of commonly used tactics, based on 3 main categories:
We are in the early stages of understanding which methods are most effective and in what contexts, although, some risk are obvious with coercive appeals already.
What type of persuasion tactics do you see in yourself and other sales professionals in your company?
Are they effective?
If only one main method is used, are you at risk of becoming a ‘one-trick pony’?
There is nearly always an argument for adapting our sales approach according to the context and personalities we are working with.
This month, we would like to put forward “Virtual Selling” by Jeb Blount as a good read. His earlier book “Fanatical Prospecting” is packed with pragmatic tips for those who have to reach new customers on a regular basis.
With so many sales people working remotely, getting up to speed on the latest selling methods is essential.
While Jeb’s no-nonsense USA style might not be to everyone’s taste, it is based on actual results & experience, so you know the approaches work!
Have you attended a digital / virtual conference yet? No? Well now may well be the time to try it. The National Sales Conference, previously a rock-star event at the Ricoh Arena, went on-line this year. We attended the event and found it a great way to network and meet new prospects & clients.
Find out more here: https://www.nsconference.co.uk/
With so much chopping & changing going on with government advice about covid-19, training programmes have faced a lot of challenges. The majority of our programmes have moved to on-line delivery, and we introduced a number of new procedures to ensure maximum transfer of learning into the workplace.
We have also introduced a total flexible delivery model, allowing clients to switch between on-line and face to face without any extra charges.
We are also working on a digital-natives programme that will radically shake up the way sales training is delivered. So, watch this space!
The Selling Interactions team
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