Making Remote Coaching Work

Dispersed sales teams and their growing mobility is increasingly challenging manager ability to coach reps. Managers often turn to e-mails, team meetings, and phone calls—the same tools they use to communicate with their teams—to coach reps remotely.  But despite consistent communication, managers still struggle with gauging rep engagement, identifying problem areas, or giving feedback. Managers often wonder, what can I do differently that can make remote coaching work?

To drive coaching effectiveness, managers must rethink their approach to remote coaching. Indeed, successful remote managers use the same coaching principles as that of face-to-face coaching.

Below are a few tactics to help improve your coaching to remote sales reps: 

1. Plan for the session: Both managers and reps should know what they want to achieve from a coaching conversation. By setting an agenda prior to the call, managers can ensure that both s/he and the rep are prepared for the meeting. For effective execution, managers can use SEC’s virtual coaching toolkit for tips on how to plan, prepare, and choose the right coaching channel.

2. Overcommunicate: To coach effectively, managers must be in constant communication with reps. This helps reduce the distance barrier, while simultaneously builds a personal rapport. One way of doing this is to establish routine check-ins.

3. Look for non-verbal cues: While coaching, managers should focus on what is being said, as well as what is not being said. For example, do reps come prepared for a scheduled meeting, are they focused or distracted, do they sound disengaged, and are they being proactive or reactive? Grasping such subtleties can often help managers identify coaching instances.

4. Build trust through discipline: Reps gauge manager commitment by their involvement in rep coaching. This is often reflected in coaching discipline and is usually measured by instances like the frequency of sessions canceled or postponed, level of attention during an interaction, or even promised action steps taken or not following a coaching session.

5. Adapt to remote situations: Managers must create opportunities to observe rep behavior, when required. For instance, while a ride-alongs may not always be observable, cold calls or follow-up calls can be shadowed over the phone for coaching purposes.

What other coaching tactics would you recommend to make remote coaching more effective?

SEC Members, learn more on the four rules of effective remote coaching and related tools here. And for more tips and resources on coaching, visit our Coaching topic center.