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You have new salespeople in the field, or a few
people you wish could be stronger. You've been planning to spend more time with
them calling on customers, but you're needed in the home office and can't get
away. You've also thought about sending out seasoned reps to make calls with the
new people, but that will just take their time and energy away from their own
territories.
What can you do for your sales reps who need help -- without leaving your
office or tying up one of your major producers?
One of the newest tools for coaching field salespeople is your corporate
e-mail system. E-mail has become a major communication tool for businesses
everywhere. You use it to send messages to your reps. Your reps use it to talk
with their customers. It's everywhere. And why?
- It's fast: Through e-mail, you can send a message instantly and get an
answer almost as quickly.
- It's accessible: People find it easy to send and receive messages whether
they're in their offices, at home or on the road.
- It's appealing: People just seem to find e-mail a comfortable way to
communicate.
Setting Up An E-Mail Dialog For Coaching
If you think about the basic elements of coaching, it's a conversation about
a skill or strategy that happens just before or after a sales call. It's an
opportunity for you to help the rep develop a plan of action and then provide
feedback. Through a series of such conversations, your sales reps will enhance
their ability to think through specific sales situations on their own and
require less input from you.
Coaching is an activity that easily translates itself to a format that works
in e-mail. Through e-mail, you and your rep can send messages to each other and
talk through the major details in an upcoming sales call:
- The rep can provide you with the basic information about the call, such
as:
- The type of person he or she will be meeting with
- Some of the issues that are likely to come up
- The sales goal for the conversation
- Then the rep can outline for you what type of assistance is needed, or ask
a specific question on how to proceed.
- Through e-mail, you can then offer your opinion based on your experience,
or guide the rep to figure out the best strategy before proceeding.
Coaching before a sales call
A few days before a scheduled call, your rep might send you an e-mail like this:
I'm meeting with the purchasing manager of Big
Corporation tomorrow to discuss how our X-14 might be used in their
manufacturing process. The purchasing manager said that he's satisfied with
the product of our competitor but is willing to talk with me because the plant
manager was impressed with our product at the trade show in New York.
I've only got a few minutes to talk to the purchasing
manager. My goal for this meeting is to find out enough about Big's needs to
prepare a proposal and then get approval to present it.
How do I figure out what to ask the purchasing
manager?
This is the perfect coaching situation. You can respond to the rep with a few
critical questions in your own e-mail message, such as:
What did you learn from the plant manager that might
be important in talking with the purchasing manager?
What do you know about their operation that would
affect how our product is used?
The rep can further respond by writing out the details you have asked for.
This gives you a perfect chance now to respond with one more question --
something like:
Based upon what we have discussed (repeat key points
from the rep's last communication to you), what is your strategy for the
meeting?
You have helped your sales rep build a strategy for the upcoming meeting with
the purchasing manager.
Coaching after a sales call
To complete the process, your rep should send you an e-mail message after the
call that recaps:
- Here's what actually happened on the call.
- This is my next step with this account.
- Here's what I learned that I can apply to other accounts.
You may then respond with additional advice for this account or mention
overall skills the rep needs to develop.
Benefits Of E-Mail For Coaching
E-mail coaching can be a very effective tool for you for several reasons:
- You don't have to travel to coach every salesperson who needs assistance.
This lets you be much more efficient with your own time.
- You can coach each rep just before his next sales action, the most
effective time for a coaching session. Reps are more likely to benefit from
the coaching when the ideas they can use are fresh in their heads.
- You can be coaching several reps on their own sales activity. In more
traditional coaching, if you are helping one rep with a sales call, there
are often several more who are waiting for your attention.
- You can call on other resources if specialized information is needed to
assist in a specific situation. For example, you can forward the e-mail to a
product specialist for some additional relevant information, then have that
information sent to the rep.
Some Suggestions For E-Mail Coaching
If you want to make e-mail work for you as a way to coach your sales rep,
follow these suggestions:
- Schedule e-mail coaching with each rep on a regular basis. Have your
salespeople get used to the idea of this type of assistance. You'll find it
easier to add to your own activities if e-mail coaching becomes part of your
regular pattern.
- Publish guidelines for your reps, telling them how the e-mail coaching
will work, how often you want to conduct a coaching session with each of
them and the kinds of information you expect them to provide, such as:
- Account name
- Products being sold, dollar value, etc. (if you don't already know
this)
- Key decision maker(s) or influencer(s) to be seen on this call and
their major issues
- When the call will take place (so you can respond in time)
- The rep's objectives for this call, including expected next steps
- The kinds of help/advice the rep needs from you
- Keep each section of your e-mail dialog brief. Have your rep give you
details on one aspect of the upcoming call at a time. Ask one or two
questions of your rep. Offer one or two options for the next step. By
keeping each e-mail brief, you help each other focus more clearly on the
current part of the discussion.
- Make each coaching session a single e-mail. Each time you replay to your
rep, add your response or your next inquiry to the existing e-mail. At the
end, both you and the rep should have a complete version of the dialog.
- Focus your part of the dialog on asking good open-ended questions of the
rep as often as possible. That way, the rep has to do the majority of the
work. Furthermore, by responding to your questions, you are helping the rep
think through his own strategies.
- Ask the rep for immediate feedback after he or she has met with the
prospect or customer. That way, you'll be able to refine the rep's technique
or strategy.
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