It is another thing (and mediated by completely different systems in the brain) for your sales professionals to have the people skills, the intuition if you will, to know how <\/em>to deliver the pitch, how to display the appropriate body language, and how to handle a broad range of situations. Although a cognitive understanding \u2013 an understanding of the \u201cwhat\u201d – is useful, it is people skills \u2013 the \u201chow\u201d – that closes the deal.<\/p>\n Here is an example that all sales managers can relate to: A new sales rep is trained on your product and services. He or she has a deep understanding of the sales process and is well-versed in responding to objections and answering questions. He or she meets with the client on more than one occasion, seemingly with positive feedback, yet fails to win the deal. As a manager, you are left to wonder, why?<\/p>\n In follow up discussions, you come to realize that although your rep answered the prospect\u2019s questions and objections correctly, they missed the subtle messages coming through \u2013 perhaps lack of eye contact by the client, lack of follow up questioning or relaxed banter. Missing the signs of disinterest \u2013 they fail to turn the call around and engage. This example speaks to the difference between cognitive and behavioral skills \u2013 both of which are needed for successful selling.<\/p>\n People skills are about behavior. They are about knowing the \u201chow\u201d. The sales professional with strong people skills seems to say the right thing, in the right way, under the right conditions with ease. But in reality, it is often experience and a learned process of behaviors that get them there and wins the day.<\/p>\n Although many sales coaching tools claim to target behavior change, they often focus more on a cognitive understanding (the \u201cwhat\u201d) and less on a behavioral understanding (the \u201chow\u201d).<\/p>\n As I have elaborated in detail in other research reports, there are distinct learning systems<\/a> in the brain. Each system is optimally tuned to specific types of learning, and critically, the training tools<\/a> that most effectively recruit each learning system are different.<\/p>\n People skills are central to success in sales. People skills are behavioral skills. They are about what we \u201cdo\u201d, \u201chow\u201d we do it, and our \u201cintent\u201d. The best sales coaching solutions target these skills.<\/p>\n The best sales coaching requires real-time, interactive feedback training<\/strong>. This is why in-person or virtual role play with real-time interaction and corrective feedback is often the best. Unfortunately, this approach is not scalable. Scalable solutions with true interactivity will likely require further advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning. In the meantime, although the majority of sales coaching platforms are not truly interactive, many are still quite effective. The most common approach is to use video-based sales coaching.<\/p>\n If you are shopping for a sales coaching tool, we at Amalgam urge you to consider vendors with video-based training tools that allow a broad array of feedback<\/strong> that includes open-ended commentary from managers and peers, as well as ratings on standardized rubrics.<\/p>\n If a vendor touts the use of artificial intelligence or machine learning, don\u2019t be wowed by the buzzwords<\/strong> \u2013 get a common-sense description of the details being offered.<\/p>\n Pay special attention to vendors offering time-stamped feedback or point-in-time feedback<\/strong> as they have the greatest potential for behavior change. Talk with the vendor about their roadmap and whether they are actively conducting research and development that is exploring true real-time, interactive feedback options. Vendors that argue against the importance of real-time and interactivity should be abandoned in favor of those who recognize and embrace what neuroscience makes clear. The field is moving quickly and artificial intelligence and machine learning are getting ever closer to embodying real-time interactivity. That is your ultimate goal and should be the ultimate goal of sales coaching vendors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s About the How, Not the What As any sales manager will tell you, one of the most challenging aspects of his or her job is sales coaching. It is one thing for your sales professionals to have a cognitive understanding of what to say during a pitch \u2013 the words to use, the appropriate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-data-science"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amalgaminsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amalgaminsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amalgaminsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amalgaminsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amalgaminsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2518"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/amalgaminsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13310,"href":"https:\/\/amalgaminsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2518\/revisions\/13310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amalgaminsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amalgaminsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amalgaminsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.amalgaminsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/toddmaddoxheadshop150RES-271x300.jpg\")
As any sales manager will tell you, one of the most challenging aspects of his or her job is sales coaching. It is one thing for your sales professionals to have a cognitive understanding of what<\/em><\/strong> to say during a pitch \u2013 the words to use, the appropriate script, what body language to display and which tactics to utilize when handling objections or other nuanced situations.<\/p>\n\n