Here at the-Coaching Blog-run by Gerard O’Donovan, our aim is to constantly bring value to those seeking to improve their lives. Therefore we have a policy of publishing articles and materials by guest authors whom we value and appreciate. Today’s guest author is Laureen Quick (USA).

For most people in business, sales is a word fraught with emotional contradictions. We love it when we close a sale and we hate it when we have to “do” sales.   And yet sales is simply an interactive process that involves seven key steps and a set of skills that can be learned.

The selling process involves:

1. Developing leads and referrals
2. Making ongoing connections
3. Identifying and articulating problems based on client needs
4. Presenting and offering solutions
5. Closing the sale
6. Fulfilling orders
7. Soliciting client or customer feedback

At a very basic level, sales require three foundational skills:

1. Resiliency—the ability to bounce back from rejection.
2. Relationship—the ability to quickly establish and maintain a personal connection with others.
3. Reframing—the ability to reframe isolated and/or short-term problems into strategic issues that require comprehensive solutions.

Both the sales process and the skills essential to selling are learnable. Reading a book or taking a training workshop on the sales process is a powerful way to jump-start your development as a salesperson.  Ongoing sales coaching, however, is a way to ensure your success through planned action, skill refinement and accountability.  Working with a Sales Coach can also help you to intelligently customize your approach and adapt your sales process to meet the individual needs of your potential customers.

Planned Action

Sales coaching can occur one-on-one or within a group setting. In either case, you will work to identify written sales goals and then develop an action plan for achieving those goals. Your goals should be realistic and attainable. Each coaching session should be a review of the progress you are making and the identification of strategies for dealing with any and all challenges you are facing.  

Skill Refinement

During your coaching sessions, your sales coach will empower you and develop your skills as a salesperson through skills training, role play, and performance feedback. Special emphasis should be placed on helping you develop your:

• Resiliency skills through positive self-talk and your explanatory style or the way you interpret and explain your sales experiences.
• Relationship skills through your interpersonal attributes and skills including your personality style, rapport building abilities, self-disclosure, and listening.
• Reframing skills through your ability to identify problems and define them as strategic opportunities requiring solutions that match your products, services or program offerings.

Accountability

During your coaching sessions, your sales coach will also ask you to report on your sales activities and assess your results. A significant part of the sales process is tracking, monitoring and assessing the movement of your sales leads through the closing of the sale.  As you work with your coach, you will develop systems for tracking your leads and metrics for measuring your sales performance.

Customizing Your Sales Approach

A sales coach can also help you to adapt your sales process and approach based on the unique communication needs of your clients or customers.  People communicate in preferred modes or styles that fall within two main continuums:

1. Direct versus indirect communication
2. Conceptual versus relationship

As you work with your sales coach, he or she can help you to understand your own style of communication and how it affects your sales process. Your coach can also help you to assess and understand the different communication styles of your customers and adapt your sales presentation to their communication needs.

They say, “knowledge is power.”  The power comes however in applying what you know.  A sales coach empowers you to do just that! A sales coach will help you to step up your sales result through planned action, skill refinement, and accountability.  Working with a sales coach can also help you to adapt and modify your sales process to meet the individual needs of your potential customers.

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About the Author

Laureen Quick is a Business Coach & Consultant for The Transformational Journey operating out of Boise, Idaho. In this role, Laureen works with small business owners to transform themselves, their lives and their businesses.

As a Coach, Laureen guides her clients through the process of personal transformation using the metaphor of the Hero’s Journey as a roadmap.  She believes that life is a series of transformations and that the process of transformation can be a joyful experience. As a Business Consultant, Laureen works with small business owners to transform their businesses through branding, engagement marketing and the leadership fundamentals of running a business (i.e. strategy, financial management, business development, etc). She is committed to helping her clients build a successful and profitable business that can become a legacy to their families for generations to come.

Contact Information

Laureen Quick

T: +1 208 761 1812

E-mail: [email protected]

Website: http://thetransformationaljourney.com/