The number one thing that makes a successful salesperson is unequivocally coachability. Salespeople who can take feedback and are open to a different way to do it, get better. They transform into a successful A-Player Sales Person.
Coachable salespeople don’t allow their feelings to get hurt or get upset about feedback. They are cooperative, take the feedback, and self-reflect and then. adapt to it. They move forward. This is how successful salespeople get better.
Making the leap from the B-play group to the A-player group requires you to do these things very well.
When Engaged in a Coaching Session:
- Compartmentalize: This is the hard one. Compartmentalizing happens on the subconscious level. This means you have to consciously make an effort to impact change. The way you affect this is to remember the feedback is about the action, not the person. Reminding yourself that the feedback is about an action, you can reduce or eliminate the anxiety and discomfort of the feedback. This is when your mind becomes open.
- Learn from it: Learn what went well and what could have been done differently. Learn why it could have been done differently. Develop an overall understanding of the skill that is being improved. Ask questions to clarify and summarize your understanding. Take notes!
- Apply it: Practice is key because it takes time to change something you’ve been doing for a while. Then demonstrate the more refined approach by asking to roleplay or record yourself and review it with your coach.
- Move on: Consistency is key, move on with the new practices, and seek out the next area to be coached on.
Your Personal Role in the Coaching Process:
Look back on sales appointments lost and ask yourself how you could have done better. Reflect on that last deal that slipped away and identify where it fractured. Think about where you could have improved in each step of the process.
This isn’t something that you keep in your head. Write it down, create a journal, blog about your findings. Post to your social network and ask for suggestions. Doing these things every day will enable you to do a little bit better than you did the day before. And that is the definition of an A-player.
Be receptive and engaged in your sales coaching session. Practice and reflect during your downtime. Genuinely crave, seek, embrace, and start using the feedback and you will improve as a salesperson in these 3 areas:
- Getting that meeting
- Closing that deal
- Potentially make that the deal a little bit bigger.
Coachability and self-reflection are skills that exceptional salespeople have mastered. They have the need and desire to adapt to become better. Being overly sensitive or touchy about the feedback you get will likely keep you in the B-Player club.
Look for and crave that feedback and become the A-Player you are meant to be.
Become a better salesperson by taking feedback and implementing it. Embrace it and remember it isn’t a personal attack. Develop your mental fortitude to take the feedback, to truly self-reflect. Start asking for feedback frequently and then when you get it to accept, practice and adapt it.
Last updated on July 12th, 2020 at 06:50 am
