On average, 84 percent of sales training content is lost after 90 days. Seems crazy, right? The thousands of dollars we invest in developing the skills of our sales team essentially go to waste. Unless, that is, the training gets reinforced on a regular basis with formal sales coaching.
I’m not talking about chatting with reps once or twice a week about what’s closing this month. Here’s how CSO Insights defines formal sales coaching in the 2017 Sales Manager Enablement Report: “Coaching areas and the coaching process are defined and implemented. Sales managers are expected to coach accordingly, and there is a formal effort to develop their skills. Periodic reviews help optimize processes and guidelines.”
Implementing a formal coaching process may seem like a lot of work, but the benefits of consistent coaching are measurable. (And the consequences of not coaching are detrimental). If you don’t believe me, check out these stats.
Sales coaching statistics that sales leaders should know
- 74 percent of leading companies cite sales coaching and mentoring of sales reps as the most important role frontline sales managers play. (Source)
- Less than 20 percent of the average manager’s time is spent on proactive sales coaching. (Source)
- Effective sales coaching can drastically win rates – in some companies, by as much as 25 percent. (Source)
- No other productivity investment improves rep performance better than sales coaching. (Source
- 31 percent of sales leaders coach each of their reps for less than 30 minutes each week. (Source)
- Overall quota attainment for a company with an informal coaching process is 84.7 percent. But companies with a formal coaching process see 91.2 percent of overall quota attainment. (Source)
- Companies with reps who receive less than 30 minutes of coaching a week have a win rate of 43 percent. But companies where reps are coached more than 2 hours a week have a win rate of 56 percent. (Source)
- The win rate for forecast deals is 8.2 percent higher for companies whose managers spent more time on coaching than selling, and overall revenue attainment is 5.2 percent higher. (Source)
- A 5% shift in productivity across the core (middle 60%) would yield greater than 70% more revenue than the same shift in top-tier productivity. (Source)
- A formal or even dynamic coaching process helps more salespeople achieve their quota (by 10%), and win rates can be improved even more. (Source)
- Almost 75% of sales organizations waste resources due to random and informal coaching approaches, and only about one-quarter leverage the huge performance potential of formal and dynamic coaching. (Source)
Do you have a formal sales coaching process? If so, let us know in the comments below.
