Jan
11

By CommenceCRM

Sales Best Practice #26 – Seek opportunities to be coached and mentored

A best practice for sales people by guest poster Dave Kahle, author and leading sales educator.

Coaching

There is, in the world of professional salespeople, a significant group of salespeople who cringe at the prospect of someone working with them, and who shun every such opportunity.  These salespeople are more comfortable in anonymity.  They want to exist under the radar screen of those who could help them improve.  I believe that they understand, somewhere deep within their psyche, that they are far from the best at their jobs, and they realize that someone working with them will quickly see their deficiencies.  To hang onto their job, they avoid exposure at all costs.

Fortunately, that’s not the mind set of the sales masters.  They believe just the opposite – that there is always something to learn from someone else, and that people who can coach and mentor them are to be sought after and nurtured.

That’s why this is a best practice – a consistent effort of the best salespeople.  They seek opportunities to be coached and mentored.

Coaching, in all professions and walks of life, is a growing phenomenon.  It’s easy enough to understand.  As the demand for productivity grows and the pressures to do more, be more, and accomplish more mount, thoughtful and serious people understand that someone else can often see things in their performance that they can not see themselves.   That’s why Tiger Woods has a swing coach, for example.

It is why even those who are at the top of their profession need an outside observer to detect their flaws and unintentional lapses from time to time.  The greatest athletics would not attain the height of their achievement without their coaches.  So true of the world class performers in any endeavor. Actors, musicians, athletes, CEOs, and yes, even salespeople, can attain higher levels of achievement and performance by availing themselves of a coach.

There is not one field of human endeavor where the practitioner can’t be helped by a coach.

The best salespeople understand that, and continually seek out opportunities to be coached and mentored.  It’s one of the characteristics of the best.

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If you are serious about improving your productivity, you need to learn how to do that.  Consider The Sales Resource Center ® where we have best practice assessments, and 455 learning units, all delivered 24/7 on-line, and designed to help you sell better, manage better and lead better.

Copyright MMXII by Dave Kahle
All Rights Reserved

Image “Coaching” by Sarah.E.Binder on Flickr under Creative Commons license.

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