How effective are you at delivering negative feedback to your sales team? This is a major challenge to any sales leader, especially when dealing with your most senior reps.
Make sure you offer ideas in a positive way of wanting to help them improve and enhance their behaviors. Focus on the tasks and actions you’re critiquing, not just on them as a person.
You need to make sure they don’t take your comments personally. You never want to say “I have a problem with how you’re behaving” or “I don’t think you have the right attitude.” Those are both personal critiques and will rarely be seen as you being positive and trying to help.
Stay focused on the function, the challenges or the specifics of your concerns. And make sure at least part of your conversation is talking about what they’re doing positive, even if the only positive you can say is “I know you’re trying hard.” Really any kind of positive statement to help reinforce and balance the negatives.
And when finished giving feedback, be sure to offer very specific steps or actions you want them taking and when they will report on their progress. What can you do to offer more balanced positive-to-negative feedback so your ideas and suggestions actually get heard?
Join me as I share how you can strengthen your ability to give feedback and improvement suggestions to your sales team as you coach and lead them to improved results…bet it might help them sell even more!