‘Push, Push, Pull, Push’ – Adapting GROW for Sales Coaching

We ‘LOVE’ sales people, no genuinely…we ‘LOVE’ them, but they can be ‘slippery little critters’ when it comes to performance coaching them.

We’ll get to the topic of using GROW when coaching shortly, but first some context.

So why ‘slippery little critters’? We’re not being disingenuous…but when we see a manager ‘performance coaching’ a sales person we’re impressed at how well the sales person can ‘duck-and-dive’ and make excuses for why their performance isn’t where it should be. Here are some classics;

·        ‘It’s tough out there, competitor X is just buying the market right now’.

·        ‘If we had better / more competitive products / solutions / offers I’d be okay’.

·        ‘Talk to credit and risk, they haven’t got a clue how hard it is out there’.

·        ‘I blame the economy / exchange rates / the Chinese, Germans, Americans’.

·        ‘If I didn’t have such time consuming / awkward / complex accounts I’d be okay’.

·        ‘I’ve had no support from you / training / finance’.

·        ‘I’m just overloaded with admin…if there was less of this stuff I could see more customers’.

·        ‘The customer just can’t make up their mind’.

Sound familiar?

We’re NOT saying some of the reasons are untrue…selling isn’t easy, even if it’s done well.

Performance issues can stem from one of FOUR typical sources:

1.      Lack of KNOWLEDGE (I just don’t know it).

2.      Lack of SKILL (I know it…I just can’t do it).

3.      Lack of MOTIVATION (I know it…I can do it…I just don’t want to).

4.      BARRIERS / BLOCKS (I know it…can do it…want to…but can’t because of...).

Knowing the above can help the manager to diagnose the root-cause of the performance issue. If it’s a knowledge gap the solution might be different to one used to solve a skill gap.

Simple questions a manager could ask to identify the root-cause;

1.      Knowledge – ‘Tell me how you would’, ‘Describe x to me’, etc.

2.      Skill – ‘Show me how you would…’, ‘Demonstrate it to me’, ‘Do it so I can see’, etc.

3.      Motivation – ‘You know it, I’ve seen you do it, so why aren’t you?’

4.      Barriers / Blocks – ‘You know it, you do it, you seem to want to…so what’s stopping you?’

Once a manager knows the reason for the performance gap the coaching conversation can then become more effective…but here is where we have a problem with the GROW model.

We’re fans of GROW. A significant number of organisations use the; Goal, Reality, Options and Will / Wrap-up / Way Forward model. Let’s be clear, it’s a GREAT model. We use it and will continue to.

The issue is when it is used by unskilled managers (e.g. sales managers) and where they use it in a PURELY ‘pull’ style. This means they are being ‘pure’ in ‘seeking answers’ from the coachee (the sale person).

Here are some simple examples of a ‘pull’ style of use of the GROW model;

·        Goal – ‘What is your goal for this meeting / the client meeting / your learning needs?’ etc.

·        Reality – ‘What’s been happening?’, ‘What have you tried?’, ‘What’s working?’ etc.

·        Options – ‘What could you do differently?’, ‘What would the customer say?’ etc.

·        Will / Way Forward – ‘What are you going to do next?’, ‘What are your key actions?’. etc.

They’re all good, but it allows the sales person to immediately ‘DEBATE’ the Goal and Reality…and bring forward items from their ‘book of excuses’.

The result is a very ineffective coaching session. The essence of learning and development is lost. The manager ends up trying to persuade the sales person and rarely gets into the heart of coaching in the OPTIONS phase of GROW. It all becomes a massive waste of time.

Rather than be wedded to the PULL style, our strong advice is to use a PUSH, PUSH, PULL, PUSH approach. This removes the ambiguity and makes the GOAL and REALITY tight. There is no debate, it’s non-negotiable. It can happen quickly and allows for time to be spent on OPTIONS (where the magic happens). Here’s an example;

·        Goal (push); ‘You need to be seeing more problem owners, at least 3-4 to have influence in the account’ (this is not up for debate…especially if sales have been told / trained to do this)

·        Reality (push); ‘When reviewing your accounts, you only have 1-2 problem owners for each, this is insufficient’ (these must be facts…and are, again, not up for debate).

·        Options (pull); ‘What can you do to ensure you have the right number of problem owners for each account?’ (seeking ideas…this then becomes the heart of the discussion / coaching).

·        Will / Way Forward (Push); ‘So then, I want you to do x, then y by this date’ (specific and time-bound actions).

The Goal, Reality and Will / Way Forward should ideally be NO MORE than 1-2 sentences each. More than this and you end up overcomplicating the coaching session.

Get to the heart of the coaching. Ensure your set-up is tight and not open for discussion. By doing this the coaching will be 100’s of times more effective.

For more information or help on how we help sales organisations to be more effective – just contact us.

Sales Performance Management - Through 'Progressions'

Sales Performance Management:

Despite clever CRM systems, pipeline management software and forecasting models many sales organisations (and their Leaders) still seem to lack confidence in the validity of the pipeline or sales forecast. They have mountains of data at their fingertips yet still schedule ‘pipeline review’ calls to check on the progress of deals, when they will close, how much is going to come in etc. I’ve seen managers surprised when a ‘certainty’ falls out of the pipeline, or a deal unexpectedly comes in.

Senior leaders and shareholders HATE inconsistency in the sales forecast. Unexpected ‘ups’ and ‘downs’ are a sign the business isn’t in control of the sales process…or is unable to accurately monitor or control it. Investment decisions and staffing levels become difficult…’How can we plan effectively if we don’t know the true revenue forecast?’, I hear leader say.

To make matters worse, sales people are often measured on a common set of items;

·       Revenue

·       Contribution margin

·       Cross-selling

·       Up-selling

·       Retention

etc.

Many of these metrics fail to support the accuracy of the forecast. In fact, in one extreme case recently, a senior (and very experienced) sales person told me they had hit their numbers in the first four months of the year and were ‘holding off on any further sales until the following year’ because they would earn more by doing so (sales commission is another topic entirely!)…so they were manipulating the forecast accordingly.

So is there a better way? Perhaps.

I’m NOT suggesting the ideas below will work for everyone, or every type of sale…but some of these principles can help to bring more clarity to a sales forecast.

Let’s talk about ‘customer commitment’ first.

 If the sales person is doing all of the work (sending quotes to customers, setting up trials, sending samples, pushing for meetings etc.) to what extent is the customer DEMONSTRATING their commitment? Are they being asked to provide feedback on the proposal, connect the sales person to other key contacts, set up meetings or provide data and insights? If not they might not be fully committed, and if you ask for these simple commitments and don’t get them…then it tells you all you need to know.

Making a simple adjustment and asking for a ‘customer commitment’ suddenly changes the game…we are no longer being ‘busy fools’ – we are checking the customer still has some ‘skin-in-the-game’. It is the MINIMUM we should do. This is NOT the same as a sales meeting objective!

What if we then look at a typical sale or engagement process with a customer – from first contact to contract - it is highly likely at various stages of this process there are TYPICAL commitments you would need from the customer along the way. Each sales leader will know what these are…they could list the most crucial 6-10 commitments within 10-minutes.

When you obtain these commitments from the customer it is a sure sign you are making progress along the sales / buyer journey. When you don’t obtain these commitments you are stuck, stalled, stagnant – going nowhere.

So it stands to reason if we know there are certain ‘customer commitments’ along the path – these can be objectives for sales people to obtain. You can tie these to the progress of a sale and the more of these you obtain along the way…then the percentage chance of closing the deal increases.

It is also a process that can be refined, by looking at typical cycle-times between commitments…allowing you to see if a sale is ahead or behind of where it should be, or if certain sales people are better at others in obtaining them. This knowledge could help in setting standards or expectations…as another form of sales performance measurement linked directly to pipeline validity and forecasting.

When ‘progressions’ (with a customer…or indeed internally with support functions) are added to sales performance measurements, you suddenly have a new way to look at ‘salesforce effectiveness’.

For more information about salesforce effectiveness, how progressions work, or for examples – please get in touch!

Andy