WHAT DRIVES REVENUE? PROBOS Perspective #4
Stop Coaching the Deal & Start Coaching the Seller.
Are your sales managers building better salespeople, or simply helping them close the next opportunity?
I've worked with some exceptional sales leaders over the years, commercially astute, customer focused, brilliant negotiators and fantastic at spotting opportunities and yet, I've also seen how easily those same strengths can become a limitation when they move into leadership.
Being brilliant at selling doesn't automatically make you brilliant at developing salespeople and I believe this is one of the most overlooked challenges in sales enablement.
The Sales Manager Trap
Picture a typical sales one to one- a salesperson brings an opportunity that's stuck, the customer isn't responding, the deal has slipped and there's pressure to close before quarter end.
The manager asks a few questions, spots the problem and immediately offers a solution.
"Here's what I'd do."
"Get me into the next meeting."
"Let's restructure the proposal."
"I know their Commercial Director. I'll make a call."
....and often, it works.
The opportunity moves forward.
The manager feels useful.
The salesperson feels supported.
The forecast looks healthier.
....but here's my question.
Who actually got better at selling?...because solving the problem for someone isn't necessarily the same as developing their ability to solve it themselves.
The Difference Between Helping and Developing
There's absolutely a place for directing, advising and stepping into deals, particularly when the stakes are high, time is limited or the customer relationship needs senior involvement, but if that's the default leadership response, we create a dependency. The salesperson learns that when things get difficult, the manager will provide the answer and the manager becomes increasingly involved in the deals that matter most. Before long, they're not leading a sales team. They're carrying one.
The real question isn't whether the manager can improve the outcome of this opportunity, it's whether the salesperson will be more capable when the next opportunity comes along.
Coaching Changes the Conversation
Imagine the same stalled deal. Instead of immediately providing the solution, the manager asks:
"What do you think is really happening here?"
"What have you learned about the customer's decision process?"
"What assumptions might you be making?"
"What haven't you asked yet?"
"If you were the customer, what would concern you about moving forward?"
"What options do you see?"
....and perhaps most importantly:
"What would you do differently if you could have that conversation again?"
Now we're doing something different. We're developing commercial judgement, critical thinking, confidence, ownership, the ability to diagnose a situation rather than simply react to it and those capabilities transfer to the next opportunity ( and the one after that).
Coaching Isn't Just Asking Questions
I also think we've created a misconception that good coaching means never giving somebody the answer. It doesn't.
Sometimes people need direction.
Sometimes they need to observe an expert.
Sometimes they need feedback.
Sometimes they need to practise.
Sometimes they need challenge.
And sometimes they need reassurance.
Great sales leadership is knowing which intervention someone needs, and when.
A new salesperson may need structure and guidance.
An experienced seller may need someone to challenge their assumptions.
A high performer may need help navigating a more complex stakeholder environment.
Someone struggling with confidence may need an opportunity to rehearse before a difficult customer conversation.
The skill is adapting your approach without taking away ownership.
The Hidden Cost of Always Being the Expert
There's another leadership behaviour worth examining. Many sales managers were promoted because they were the best at what they did. Their identity was built around being commercially successful- being the person with the answers & the one who could rescue a deal but leadership requires a different source of satisfaction.
Your success is no longer measured by how well you sell. It's measured by how effectively you enable others to sell. That transition isn't always easy, because coaching requires patience.
It requires resisting the urge to jump in, it requires allowing people to think, experiment and sometimes get things wrong and it requires confidence in your own leadership to let somebody else find an answer that might be different from yours.
What Are We Actually Developing?
If we want sustainable revenue growth, sales coaching needs to go beyond deal updates.
We should be developing the capabilities that influence commercial performance:
Understanding customer problems.
Creating and articulating value.
Commercial curiosity.
Stakeholder engagement.
Negotiation.
Confidence to challenge.
Decision making.
Opportunity qualification.
And the judgement to know when to pursue an opportunity and when to walk away.
But here's the interesting part.
If your sales managers aren't coaching these behaviours, who is?
A two day sales training programme might introduce the skills but the manager determines whether those skills are practised, reinforced and embedded. Which is why, at PROBOS, we believe sales enablement and sales leadership development need to work together.
Sometimes the intervention is seller capability.
Sometimes it's manager coaching.
Sometimes it's leadership behaviours, accountability or the wider commercial environment.
Often, it's a combination.
Training introduces capability. Coaching helps turn it into consistent behaviour.
And consistent behaviour is what ultimately influences commercial performance.
Leadership Reflection
If your sales managers stepped away from their teams for a month, would your salespeople be more capable because of the coaching they've received, or would they struggle because they've become dependent on their manager's expertise?
Revenue follows behaviour.
And perhaps one of the most valuable things a sales leader can do isn't to help someone win the next deal. It's to develop someone who can win the next ten.
Find what's getting in the way of your number. Then fix the right things.
We work with commercial leaders to identify the behaviours, capabilities, leadership practices and organisational barriers affecting revenue performance.
Then we build the right intervention around the problem, combining training, coaching, leadership development and change support where it's needed.
Not training for training's sake. Commercial development designed around the outcome you're trying to achieve.
Explore how PROBOS can help
Every challenge is different. Explore the related areas of our work to see how we can help you move forward.
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