Top 5 Highlights from COACH with Allego
Recently, a group of the industry’s finest sales masters came together to bring you COACH with Allego—an afternoon dedicated entirely to the topic of coaching sales for better performance and outcomes. The afternoon was packed with practical techniques and tried and tested insider knowledge into ‘what works’ from leading industry experts.
At Allego, we live and breathe sales best practices on a daily basis, but that doesn’t mean that we’re not always learning. We invest heavily in continually coaching our team and practicing what we preach.
Here are some of our stand-out practical golden nuggets of advice from the event including links to the exact timings of each session so you can listen in for yourself!
(link to video)
1. Think about the art of the possible and set clear coaching goals [watch from 00:15:45 with Josh Braun]
Coaching should be about what good looks like for each and every individual. If you enlist the guidance of a coach for a physical challenge, the likelihood is you’re looking to meet some sort of personal goal or accomplishment. As a sales coach, or a salesperson embarking on a coaching journey, this initial goal setting should be crucial. It should be an ambition, a personal motivation and a challenge – something you’d feel really great about accomplishing. A clearly set goal broken down by steps becomes a plan, a plan backed by action becomes reality. The path to success for coaching sales is no different.
Also key here is to ensure you have the tools you need to set you up for success. If you’re embarking on a physical challenge, (in this example – an Ironman challenge) you’re going to need equipment to help you on your journey. This applies for coaching too, in order to efficiently and successfully implement sales coaching, whether that’s one on one coaching, group coaching or personal self-development, you’re going to need the tools to enable you to revisit, reflect and replicate what good looks like and to continually measure improvements in performance. That’s where tools like Allego Conversation Intelligence can make life a whole lot easier.
2. Coaching is more than helping individuals to get better, this collective effort can drive real, tangible growth company-wide [watch from 00:52:18 with John Richardson]
We’re all bought into the fact that coaching is hugely beneficial for improving the performance of salespeople. You probably wouldn’t be reading this article if sales coaching isn’t already on your radar. At this granular level it can be difficult to take a step back to recognize the huge size of the impact that coaching can make on overall business performance. Coaching can be validated by measuring the direct impact on sales performance (as per the real world examples demonstrated in this session).
‘You can’t manage what you can’t measure’ – seems really obvious right? Coaching should be SO much more than a tick box personal development exercise and it’s really about unlocking what’s happening within real sales conversations, coupled with the data to give you a clear vision of truth. If you’re actively measuring, you’ll notice small nuances like a lengthening deal cycle, or a dip in conversions for a specific product/service.
Just through coaching and listening, you can connect the dots to troubleshoot smaller issues before they begin to have a larger impact on performance and you can turn this around into wins by correcting what you uncover. It’s about more than just the individual, it’s the power of a collective team and knowledge gleaned from what’s going on within those real life conversations, highlighting your path to successful outcomes.
3. Know the difference between training and coaching and apply accordingly [watch from 01:32:00 with Kevin Dorsey]
This is a massive fundamental pillar for sales team success, knowing when to train someone vs. when to coach. During this session Kevin Dorsey breaks down the differences between the two, arming you with the ability to identify the correct solution on a case by case basis.
4. A super simple coaching framework from Kevin Dorsey [watch from 01:38:22]
Step 1 is knowing when to train vs. when to coach. Step 2 is making sure you’re equipped with effective methods. Kevin shares this really easy framework you can remember and follow. KPIC (know, problem, impact and call-to-action) – listen from 01:38:22 to learn how to apply the framework!
5. Role play is feared across the board, but done well and it’s rocket fuel for your sales team [watch from 02:51:05 with Dave Kurlan coaching a role play scenario]
Role play is one of those terms that can strike fear into the hearts of even the most seasoned sales professional. However, if rolled out well, it can be super effective at providing ‘in the moment’ advice and key learnings on how to tackle specific obstacles, objections or ‘moments’. In this session Dave Kurlan live-coaches a sales representative Jake, while Jake role plays with a colleague posing as a prospect. This is a slowed down, easily digestible version of a real life sales challenge and the coaching advice provided throughout can be interpreted and applied to multiple scenarios, it’s SO insightful. Plus, we love Dave’s groovy outfit choices!
If you’re looking for the right tools to combine conversation insight and data to coach for long term improvements in sales performance, we’d LOVE to show you how Allego does just that.
Learn More
Download The Complete Guide to Conversation Intelligence to learn how Conversation Intelligence can help improve sales coaching, content, and training.