Coaching low performing reps is often a tricky conundrum for sales leaders. Overseeing a team of reps with different personalities, abilities and levels of motivation is tough. Balancing individual sales rep management and sales team management requires a strategic approach to ensure your sales team is consistently performing to their maximum potential.
The truth is, only 46% of Sales reps globally reach quota (Sales Hacker), and coaching low performing reps presents a unique challenge. But through targeted efforts, you can make a significant impact on their results. Based on extensive research into top-performing sales organisations, here's a comprehensive guide to effectively coach and turn around underperforming reps.
Lets dive in!
Start by Understanding their Motivations
The first step in sales rep management is to find out their 'why' and reignite the rep's passion for the job. Sometimes they lose sight of their motivations amidst all the struggles and stresses that come with working in sales.
Schedule in-depth discussions to understand what initially drew them to a career in sales and what continues to drive them, both professionally and personally. Make detailed notes of these drivers and motivations, you may need to reference them later if you need to boost their morale.
Getting to the heart of each rep's internal motivations and understanding what makes them tick is key to tailoring your sales rep management approach for maximum impact.
If you want to learn more about boosting your teams performance by understanding their motivations, we have an article on Sales team incentive here.
Analyse their Systems and Routines
Next, examine the rep's daily and weekly routines and habits through a sales rep management lens. Evaluate how they prioritise tasks, schedule their time, and manage productivity.
- How are they prioritising tasks?
- Are they using their productive time blocks effectively?
Provide Targeted Execution Support
The next step is to review the rep's sales processes, call recordings, presentations, and client interactions in detail. Let them know you’re committed to working with them regularly to analyse their actions and find better solutions. Provide constructive feedback and coaching, increasing the frequency of these sessions based on their individual needs.
For reps struggling with objections, focus the coaching on practicing various handling techniques. For those losing engagement during demos, identify ways to make the presentations more impactful.
Listen And Critique Sales Calls
Have your rep listen back to their recent sales calls and conversations, encouraging self-critique. This exercise can highlight areas where they might not be performing as well as they thought, leading to personal insights and improvements. The more they can self-diagnose, the more likely they will change.
- Active Listening: Encourage them to focus on their tone, clarity, and responsiveness during calls. This helps them understand how they’re perceived and identify areas for improvement.
- Identify Patterns: Ask them to spot recurring patterns in their calls. Are there common objections they struggle with? Do they lose prospect’s attention or engagement at specific points in calls? Recognising these patterns is the first step to developing new strategies.
- Role-Playing: Conduct role-playing sessions where they can practice handling difficult situations. Get them working on asking higher impact lines of questioning. This builds confidence and improves real-life performance.
Guide the rep through a thorough self-critique process, not just of overall performance but a minute-level evaluation of their own recorded interactions. Have them identify subtle habits or sticking points themselves, figure out their own weaknesses and set themselves new goals.
We have an article on how to best coach sales discovery calls here.
Analyse Lost Deals
Dive into the rep's lost deals to uncover valuable sales rep management insights. Have them document every stage of the lost opportunities, the key interactions, and the decision factors. Interview stakeholders to gather outside perspectives.
Get The Rep to Create a "Loss Report"
Get them to create a "loss report" for a couple of recent deals they didn’t win. Reflecting on these losses can help them understand the impact of their actions on their results.
- Detailed Post-Mortems: Encourage them to analyse lost deals in detail. What were the key turning points? This provides valuable lessons for future opportunities.
- Customer Feedback: If possible, get feedback from the clients involved in the lost deals. This external perspective can offer insights they might not have considered.
- Document Learnings: Have them document their findings and create a personal guide for future reference. This serves as a reminder of lessons learned and helps avoid repeating mistakes.
- Win Stories: Get others in the team having more success to share a couple of stories from deals they recently won. What trends can they share about the profile of prospect, what was uncovered in the sales process, and how they ran the deal end-to-end? This is valuable insight to inspire someone struggling into replicating a winning formula.
Analyse the loss reports in group sessions, exploring alternative approaches the rep could have taken. Maintain these loss reports to evaluate their progress over time.
Set Realistic, Meaningful Goals Tailored To The Rep
The time a rep is deemed low-performing before considering a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) depends on several factors: their tenure, previous performance, job function, and sales cycle length.
Set realistic and meaningful goals with the rep. Progress can be measured by increased activity, generating more pipeline, or improving discovery calls, not just closed deals or hitting targets. Focus on the seller demonstrating they are making meaningful progress. Work closely with the rep to create these specific, measurable, and attainable goals within their individualised sales rep management framework.
These should consider their strengths and development areas, with both qualitative and quantitative progress factors. Maintain an open communication and adjust goals as needed based on their progress. Celebrate any wins to boost their motivation.
Strategically Invest Coaching Time
Firms where salespeople use the company’s methodology and get consistent coaching see 73% quota attainment. (Spotio)
For reps demonstrating motivation and potential, over-invest coaching time through additional one-on-ones, role-plays etc can be beneficial. However, also realistically evaluate their internal drive and commitment to change.
Prioritise time with reps actively implementing feedback and working towards their goals. For those not showing any sign of improvement after individualised sales rep management, it may be better to shift your focus elsewhere and prioritise those who have a greater growth potential.
Maintain a Balanced Team Approach
While it is important to achieve a balance of fair attention and individualised attention for those who need more support, ensure you also focus your energy on top performers. This is really important for sales team management. Even small gains in performance here can yield to significant gains in quota attainment. Focus on those who demonstrate motivation and promise.
Conduct regular team-wide training and individual coaching. Recognise reps demonstrating best practices to motivate others. Maintain a supportive yet competitive environment, balancing individual and team management strategies.
Optimise Through Data and Testing
The key to effective sales rep management is to continually evaluate the effectiveness of your approach. Track goal progress, call metrics, deal pipeline, and closing rates. Analyse which techniques correlate most strongly with improvement.
Pilot new strategies and incorporate feedback systems to understand the reps' experience. Data-driven optimisation ensures the most impactful use of your time and resources.
By following these steps, sales leaders can provide targeted support to low performing reps, helping them realign their motivations, improve their routines, and ultimately enhance their performance. Remember, the key to successful coaching lies in understanding, support, and realistic goal setting.
Find out more about MySalesCoach
At MySalesCoach, we help busy sales managers and ambitious reps reach their potential with expert, consistent, personally matched one to one sales coaching.
To find out more about how we can compliment your internal coaching and drive team performance, book a call with us today.
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