We received an email from an old friend who is a sales leader at a medical device company. We had worked together closely over many years and traded many emails. In one of them, he closed by saying, “I often use your question: ‘When would that not be true?’ when salespeople come up with ideas that are not quite as good as they think.”
Over the years, we’ve shared with sales leaders how effective coaching is not so much about teaching people as it is about helping them to learn. That’s why top sales leaders ask more than tell. And in general, when coaching, they ask questions beginning with who, what, when, or how. What about why? Why questions can be accusatory when you start out with them. However, they do work when they are used as a follow-up question.
But that sales leader’s comment got us thinking about specific questions we’ve shared with sales leaders over the years that tend to work well in sales coaching situations.
Building off the “When would that not be true?” question, here are ten more:
What did you try that didn’t work?
What did you do that worked?
What would you consider doing differently?
Calls have a beginning, middle and an end. In yours, which of those pieces worked best?
Which part of the call didn’t go as well? How would you improve on it?
What did you plan to do that you didn’t do?
What would you do to hit a home run if you were to do the call again?
What did the customer do that you didn’t anticipate?
How could you have gotten the call back on track?
Did you leave the call with one of the advances you planned?