Today's post is by Ed Ross, CEO and founder of The CORE Results, Inc.
We’re hearing a lot about which businesses are “essential” and “non-essential” in this pandemic. No matter what condition the market is in, I think we can all agree that sales teams are in the “essential” category. Salespeople will drive your ongoing operations and may even help you tailor your offerings to appeal to markets with growth opportunity.
Sales Coaching Is Critical to Success
That said, this is a new world for salespeople, and they’ll need proper coaching to find their footing and yield the best performance. (Salesforce research indicates that 67 percent of companies that have had a formal sales coaching program in place for three years or more experienced high revenue growth.)
For the time being, this coaching will have to happen remotely. At The CORE Results, our AI-enabled approach to sales coaching was developed to maximize a sales manager’s ability to leverage data to improve the level of individual, targeted training – absent the need for physical interaction.
How AI Enables Great Remote Sales Coaching
Innovations in machine learning and AI are leading the way to fully automated, personalized sales coaching programs built on precise insights and remote interactions.
Real-time coaching fosters greater coaching competence and proficiency among managers (so you support your team at all levels – both managers and sellers). Our system helps you in the following ways.
- Takes the guesswork out of sales coaching. For decades, sales managers have led teams by relying on instinct while cherry picking data buried in multiple systems. This is time consuming and, honestly, an elaborate form of A/B testing.
Our technology identifies coachable moments for the sales manager and the individual contributors throughout a coaching interaction by establishing clear and concise actions to advance an opportunity in the sales process. Focusing on the core behaviors aligned to each stage and/or milestone enables sales organizations to increase sales-funnel velocity. - Helps you coach efficiently and with greater precision to save time. One of our global healthcare clients has used our system to provide just the right amount of coaching for each salesperson on his team.
As he put it: “There’s never enough time in the day to spend time with every rep, on every deal. CORE’s dashboard allows me to quickly see my team’s progress, then drill down to gain insight into each rep’s individual skills and competencies. With this level of visibility, I know exactly where I need to focus on developing an employee – whether a top performer or rising star. We’ve never had insights like these all in a mobile platform. It has allowed me to be more effective as a coach, in less time.” - Fine tunes your sales coaching insights and increases deal velocity. Our proprietary technologies analyze emotion, context, and sentiment in real time for nuanced coaching insights. Because interactions on our platform are powered by AI, our system delivers more precise and useful suggested action steps the more you use it.
We’re on track to create a fully automated cycle in which sales managers receive the key insights, feedback, and analysis they need to be exceptional sales coaches, while also sharpening their skills. When insights are converted into predictive analytics about selling and coaching behaviors, they have a great impact on deal lifespan and revenue. - Accelerates sales managers’ progression from individual contributor to game-changing sales coach. Recently promoted a rep to manager? This transition often leaves the new manager feeling overwhelmed and under-prepared. Our Six Elements of Coaching™ methodology enhances your newly-promoted manager’s ability to measure key competencies of individual sales representatives, as well as analyze the performance of the entire team. This data can then be combined to understand and improve the proficiency of a sales manager’s coaching ability.
During this time, it is more important than ever that we all leverage technology to stay productive and keep sales moving forward. Adopt remote sales coaching strategies today that will yield your team greater success tomorrow and beyond.
For more insights about sales coaching, download the Six Elements of Coaching Guide.
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