Are Your Managers Effective Coaches?

We know that effective sales manager coaching is important – but just how important is it? Years of SEC research has shown that a successful coaching program can significantly raise the performance bar for the average sales rep. In fact, we've found that effective coaching can increase overall sales team success by up to 19% (see page 5).  Even more, when the SEC looked at coaching at the individual rep performance level, reps with star coaches have an 8% increase in their performance against goal compared to reps with ineffective coaches.

The value of coaching doesn't stop there. Salespeople who receive more effective coaching are far more likely to stay at their current company than those who receive less effective coaching – which has huge implications for disengaged star performers who may be looking at other opportunities. Losing our top performers can be detrimental to overall success, which call for an increased focused on effective coaching that, as one SEC member put it, "can impact team member engagement, team unity, and the team members' perception of career path position and progression."

So, if sales manager coaching can have such positive returns on investment, how can we quantify the overall effectiveness of our managers' coaching abilities to make sure we're on the right track? Below are three steps we've seen members take to gauge and improve manager coaching effectiveness:

1. Get hard numbers. A good place to start is to survey the sales team to gather quantitative feedback on managers' coaching performance.  Leading companies establish clear measurement criteria that evaluate coaching's impact on organizational goals. We've seen sales organizations use a blend of measurement strategies, including customer feedback on sales rep improvement and sales rep feedback on coaching quality.

SEC Members, consider deploying the Coaching Pulse Survey to see how much time managers are spending coaching their reps, where in the sales process managers are focusing their coaching time, and how valuable their coaching efforts are to reps' expectations.

2. Certify manager coaching. To embed great coaching into your sales teams' culture, consider creating and rolling out a comprehensive coaching certification program. This has the dual benefit of giving leadership the complete picture of coaching quality in the organization and is also a great mechanism for incentivizing managers to continue to improve the quality of their coaching. This kind of coaching certification program incorporates the following:

Feedback from the sales reps collected via an annual coaching survey to get the upward perspective
Feedback from leadership who have observed and assessed the manager's coaching to get the downward perspective
Team performance metrics to validate that coaching is having an impact

SEC Members, see how Britannia used a Tiered Coaching Accreditation Program to improve and sustain manager coaching abilities over time.

3. Incorporate coaching into performance objectives. Because coaching has such a big affect on goal attainment, many organizations weigh coaching behaviors just as high as other performance criteria.  Consider incorporating coaching activities into existing behavioral performance expectations. If management skills are called out in existing development plans, for example, employee development would tie into that specific objective.

SEC Members, learn more about embedding star coaching into your sales organization in the Coaching topic center.

SEC Members, see the Anatomy of a World-Class Sales Coaching Program to get a clear view into how your managers are performing and which metrics should be incorporated into manager development plans. Also, check out other members' perspectives on measuring coaching effectiveness in the Sales Talent Management Forum.