What makes your high performing sales professionals more successful than others?

Perhaps they are great at cold calling or securing meetings with prospects. Maybe they have a high track record for upselling clients or closing new deals.

Sales executives love high performers because they don’t require as much oversight as their lower performing peers.

Despite their success, even the best sales professionals have room to improve upon their influence.

Consider this: Tom Brady has six Super Bowl rings and a total of 236 career wins. He is the winningest quarterback in NFL history.

Even with his record-breaking success, Brady requires ongoing coaching to continually improve. He admits that without deliberate coaching, what made him successful up until this point may not be enough to guarantee future success.

For your high performing sales professionals, every day is game day.

Without deliberate coaching, the influence they have today may not be enough to close deals tomorrow.

Imagine how much more influence they could have in a prospect’s buying decisions, and how much more their success would improve your bottom line.

Three tips to coach your highest performing sales professionals to continually improve their level of influence.

1. Get comfortable being uncomfortable.

When successful salespeople get overly comfortable with cold calls and prospect meetings, their techniques tend to become stale and pitches sound scripted.

They risk coming across as inauthentic and robotic.

Push your sales professionals to fine-tune their communication skills. Have them record interactions with prospects and clients.

Then, review the playback with them and discuss what you both agree needs development.

Does their body language convey confidence or arrogance? Do their words have purpose and land every time, or do they tend to over-explain or ramble?

Focusing on the small details of communication skills will improve their delivery and increase their influence.

2. Commit to their development.

Don’t just say you value your sales professional’s development, commit to making it happen.

Commit to at least one day each month to connect in a way that specifically focuses on their development.

Be specific and set up a standing meeting, such as the first Monday of every month at 10am. This gives them the opportunity to practice in between your coaching sessions and demonstrate the accountability you expect each time.

Encourage your sales professional to enlist the help of an accountability partner between your monthly meetings.

3. Take your own advice to demonstrate influence.

If you’re coaching your team on how to increase their profits by influencing their buyer’s decisions, make sure you’re leading by example.

We have spoken with many sales professionals who admit their own sales leader fails to communicate with influence.

When you fail to consistently demonstrate influence, it becomes a challenge for sales personal to willingly act upon your ideas and suggestions you share.

Take your own advice. Whatever you ask your sales professional to do to improve, expect the same from yourself.

Record your interactions and immediately watch or listen to the playback. Write down areas you see need improvement.

Seek an accountability partner who will hold you to the same standards and expectations you expect from your team.

If you are ready for your high performing sales professionals to go further than imagined, commit to their ongoing coaching. Your efforts will lead to greater success, putting more money in everyone’s pocket.

Bridge the Gap: Breakthrough Communication Tools to Transform Work Relationships From Challenging to Collaborative

Check out our Research on Influence in conjunction with the University of Northern Colorado HERE.

Influence Research

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