Sales Coaching: The Right Level of Management Involvement

Posted by James Fennessy

There are several basic guidelines that govern the behaviour of great sales coaches. The most fundamental point is that an effective organisation – a world-class sales force - thinks about the rules of when a manager will be involved face-to-face with a customer. That is to say, they consider in principle under what circumstances their managers will be involved in face-to-face selling, and the rules are derived by a process of reasoning without reference to particular facts or experience, but rather to certain generic realities. The basic guidelines for involvement in face-to-face sales are as follows:

• Only become involved in face-to-face selling when your presence makes a unique difference.
• Don’t make sales calls on a customer unless your salesperson is with you.
• Before any joint call, agree on specific and clear selling roles with your salesperson.
• Always have a withdrawal strategy that prevents any customer from becoming dependent on you personally.

The most vital, indeed the overriding principle on which all the others hang, is the first: a manager should be involved - and only should be involved - when he can make a unique difference. A unique difference exists when a manager has Expertise, Authority or Position that is both valuable to the client and valuable to making the sale.

• Expertise: The manager may have special industry knowledge, for example, that can create value for the customer, and thus may move the sale forward.
• Authority: The manager may bring negotiating authority, e.g., which the salesperson cannot provide.
• Position: The manager may be able to use his title to get higher access in the buyer organisation.

If a manager does not bring at least one of these three unique strengths to the table, he must absolutely not get involved. Period.

Most sales managers are promoted into management because they were spectacularly successful as salespeople. For this reason, most managers are able to sell at least as well as their top performers. Sometimes being great at something makes it very difficult to sit on the sidelines; the temptation is to get in the game. Great coaches understand the error inherent in this impulse. They control the urge, and get involved only when their presence will make a unique difference.