Better Sales Coaching: 21 Tactics that Work

When you give suggestions to salespeople, you're trying to help them improve their performance and boost their sales. So why do they get so defensive?

Since suggestions can easily come off as criticism, modifying your language—without changing your message—can pay off. Try one or more of these techniques to improve your coaching style:

  1. Suggestions from others. “The district manager suggests that you ....”
  2. Defer to the profession. “Today's literature points to ....”
  3. Fear. “Based on what I've seen so far, I'd caution you to ....”
  4. Alternatives. “In this type of situation, I'd recommend... or ....”
  5. Humility. “I know I couldn't pull it off, but maybe you can.”
  6. Probing. “What other approaches did you attempt before you ...?”
  7. Emotion. “How do you think the prospect felt when you said ...?”
  8. Power. “If our CEO had been there, what would he have done?”
  9. Training. “Did they show you the movie on ... at the last training session?”
  10. Imagination. “What would the situation look like if you'd tried ...?”
  11. Challenge. “How could you modify ... to fit this situation?”
  12. Prove it. “Experiment with ... on your next visit and see how it works.”
  13. Ask for permission. “May I share a technique I saw used with good results?”
  14. Play a game. “Would you like a hint?”
  15. Blend. “Why don't you try combining ... with ..., which you already do so well?”
  16. Fact. “Marketing data show that 55 percent of our customers prefer ....”
  17. Authorship. “Someone needs to lead this new approach. Would you like to try developing a plan?”
  18. Reference. “I once saw (a star salesperson) do ..., and it worked.”
  19. Credible source. “I heard at a seminar that this approach works well.”
  20. Mystery. “I wonder what would happen if you ...?”
  21. Knock out. “The competition won't be able to respond if you ....”

Reprinted from Competitive Advantage, Briefings.com.  Adapted from The Sales Manager's Troubleshooter, John Cebrowski and Charlie Romeo, Prentice Hall, www.prenhall.com.