Essential Tools for Sales Coaching in Virtual Selling Environments
Best Practices for Sales Coaching in Virtual Selling Environments
Most sales teams have embraced learning the skills and adopting the tools needed to sell virtually.
Yet, many sales leaders have not leveraged virtual selling tools to enhance sales coaching outcomes and improve sales performance.
In the office or during in-person sales calls, coaching opportunities usually present themselves. Coaching motions pre-pandemic by design support in-person interactions.
However, coaching in virtual selling environments requires the effective use of virtual selling tools and a fresh approach to preparing for coaching sessions.
Here are a few ways sales managers can meet the challenges of coaching salespersons consistently and more effectively.
Essential Tools for Sales Coaching in Virtual Selling Environments
Two (2) tools are a must for improved virtual coaching outcomes:
- Collaboration software (Teams, Zoom, etc.) that allows the salesperson to video record a sales call or internal meeting
- An artificial intelligence (AI) notetaker application (Fireflies.ai, Otter.ai, etc.) that transcribes the sales call or internal meeting.
Sales leaders must use the recommended tools in conjunction for the simple reason that a sales leader does not have the time to listen to every recording a salesperson may share.
AI notetaking applications provide sales leaders the capability, for example, to search for keywords or questions asked by the salesperson, client, or internal team members.
Clicking on a search result advances directly to the recording’s location where the question was asked and answered. The sales leader can read the question and answer and then listen to the recording for nuances in tone and demeanor.
If portions of the recording appear tenuous or essential, the sales leader can access the specific part of the video recording for additional detail.
The approach of using the ai notetaker and the recorded call enables sales leaders to review sales calls in a fraction of the time it would take to listen to a video recording. Our experience shows that it takes 15 minutes to review a one hour call with these tools.
Essential Sales Leader Motions For Sales Coaching In A Virtual Selling Environment
1. Help the Sales Team Embrace Technology
Collaboration tools (Zoom, Teams, etc.) have multiple features to help with virtual selling and coaching. Whiteboarding, annotation, and polls are a few of the tools that enhance sales coaching interactions.
The more often sales leaders use virtual coaching tools, the more salespeople will use them in selling situations. It’s always best to practice with new tools internally before applying them to a customer situation.
2. Help the Salesperson Help Themselves
With video recording and notetaking ai tools, salespersons should now conduct their own debrief.
The sales leader should ask the salesperson to review current recorded selling situations and prepare for their subsequent coaching sessions with their assessment of how the calls went. This approach encourages participation, increases commitment, and provide salespeople an opportunity to improve on their own.
Our take is that sales coaching took a backseat as organizations shifted to virtual selling in 2020. Salespeople are adapting to virtual selling, and the need for coaching has grown. However, sales leaders have been slower to leverage selling technology to enhance coaching interactions and outcomes.