“Are you asking too many “What” questions as a sales coach?”
What kinds of questions are you asking your sales team? Are you focusing on only asking about expected results (asking “WHAT” focused questions), or are you also focusing on how they’re achieving their selling processes (asking “HOW” questions)?
Most sales coaches tend to only ask “WHAT” questions. “What are you going to close this month?” “What’s going to happen next?” These are accountability or action-focused questions. They get you, the manager, answers, but don’t help your rep figure out how to change so they can increase their sales. Asking a lot of “WHAT” questions that only focus on the results wanted just tends to increase the stress levels of your reps (and lower their performance).
Effective sales coaches don’t focus on the sales results, they focus on the selling processes that will generate the desired results. If we focus on improving their processes, we’ll tend to get the results we want.
Reps need to understand the processes of selling so they can implement the ideas being offered and can do something about it. We need coaches asking more how-to questions so you generate new behaviors in your reps. “How are you going to go after that account?” “How come you’re not calling on the head of their accounting department?” “How come you haven’t toured their facility yet?”
Join me as I share how asking more “HOW TO” questions (instead of so many “WHAT” questions) can help your team sell even more!