Sales Coach: Building Blocks for Success

When it comes to defining and making distinctions between sales and marketing, are the roles and the language used clear to everyone in your organization? Marketing is responsible for exposing a brand product (could be tangible or non-tangible) to the marketplace. Sales is responsible for converting leads to prospects and then to customers. With this simple distinction we may not know who is responsible for lead generation. 

So, who is? Is it marketing, sales, or is it the entire company? Some companies will have more marketing and less sales, others will have the reverse. There is no right answer when it comes to distinguishing sales from marketing and each area’s responsibilities. Over time, a given organization may change these distinctions to impact processes and results. Most importantly, is the structure and its function clear to those who must deliver and act on that understanding?

When it comes to positions in sales, clarity about what an organization wants and needs in a sales position will set the stage for a successful hire. Will it be new sales (hunter), repeat sales (farmer), account manager, or a customer support role/position? What are the expectations for this position? Will the person in this role be responsible for prospecting, making cold calls, building a pipeline, and closing opportunities at a certain pace (quota/goal)? Will they be required to function in a CRM? From a marketing perspective, will the position open a new territory or build out an existing one – vertical vs. horizontal market penetration?

Once the role, expectations, and desired results for a sales position are clear, we can turn to thinking about the kind of candidate that might be suitable for this position. Hiring a customer- and service-oriented person for a new business sales position will likely fail. So, what characteristics should a great candidate for your position have? How will you recognize a good candidate from one that would be a poor fit?

Read how a sales coach can help on our website!

Get Started with an Experienced Southeast Michigan Sales Coach

Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form to receive a sample sales candidate assessment report! Together, we can assess how your company is doing, what potential it has, how to realize this potential, how long it will take along with expected gains. We are here to help you determine the best way to achieve your goals.

To find out how a sales coach can work with your company to help you achieve success, contact us today!

A Sales Coach for Your Southeast Michigan Sales Team

In the day-to-day operation of a small business, it’s easy to become short sighted. You begin to take for granted that the way things are is the way they have to be, or always will be. It often takes an experienced outsider to remind us that we really can change things for the better.

As business and sales coaches in Southeast Michigan, we’ve helped many local businesses get their sales efforts on track. If you’re not happy with how your organization’s sales function is doing, sales coaching can be a great option.

We work with sales leaders, managers, teams, individual salespeople, and their organizations.  With both our standard offerings and our customized coaching and consulting engagements, we focus on the gap areas to drive better sales results. Our work varies in length from just one quarter to multi-year engagements depending upon the size of the organization and needs.

In some cases, we operate as a Fractional Sales Leader and other times we coach with an existing Sales Manager and sales team. We often work at all levels of the organization to help build a Sales Focused Organization - leadership, strategic direction, systems, management, departments, and individual contributors. We also assist in the recruiting and evaluation of “Qualified, New Business” Sales representatives.

Read more about the sales coaching process here!

Are you ready to begin your journey?

Are you ready to build a sales-focused organization with a high performing sales team and an effective sales management solution? Whether you’re satisfied with the effort, focus, and results of your sales team, many people we speak with have been hesitant to act – simply because they don’t know where to begin. If you’re open to a brief call, let us know and we can take the first step together.

Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form to receive a sample sales candidate assessment report! Together, we can assess how your company is doing, what potential it has, how to realize this potential, how long it will take along with expected gains. We are here to help you determine the best way to achieve your goals.

What Can a Sales Coach in Southeast Michigan Do for You?

As founders of Open Book Selling, we’ve been business coaches in Southeast Michigan and Greater Detroit area for many years. In this time, we’ve realized there’s a surprising amount of confusion about what Sales Coaches actually do.

Many businesses and their teams could benefit from sales coaching, but only know about consultants, are embarrassed to ask for help, or might not even know what their options are. Think about all the instances of where a coach is a given, for example individual and team sports. When the stakes are higher such as in professional sports, many coaches may be employed to impact the performance of a single player!

So, let’s go over what sales coaching really is, what it isn’t, and what a real story of successful business sales coaching looks like!

What Sales Coaching Is

Sales coaching is fundamentally about developing sales leaders, sales management, and their sales team members. We work directly with all levels of the organization.

This can take many forms based on your situation, but the end goal is always to transform you, your leaders, your managers, and team members into strong performers equipped with the tools and skills needed to meet any challenge today and in the future.

This often involves digging into some deeper questions—questions that may be tough to answer, and ones that get at key areas that once addressed, can open up pathways to greater success. We may examine motivators, support, and expectations that once met lead to success.

Read more about sales coaching on our website!

Are you ready to begin your sales coaching journey?

Are you ready to build a sales-focused organization with a high performing sales team and an effective sales management solution? Whether you’re satisfied with the effort, focus, and results of your sales team, many people we speak with have been hesitant to act – simply because they don’t know where to begin. If you’re open to a brief call, let us know and we can take the first step together.

Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form to receive a sample sales candidate assessment report! Together, we can assess how your company is doing, what potential it has, how to realize this potential, how long it will take along with expected gains. We are here to help you determine the best way to achieve your goals.