Articles & Tips

A collection of articles which address various fundamentals of coaching effectiveness and driving execution through your sales team. Read these, print them, share them with your team, and forward them to your colleagues!

5 Great Sales Coaching Thoughts

We are always determining how what we hear applies to producing sales results. Here are a few of our favorites and how we believe they fit to the challenges of sales management...

A Most Costly Mistake

When is the last time you said to yourself, "how did that person get picked for the job?" It's not uncommon for management to make poor hiring decisions when filling critical jobs. The price is high and the consequences significant...

Bringing out the Best in Your People

Organizational expectations continue to raise the issues of: getting more sales, satisfying more customers, and becoming more profitable. More is continually being added to the plate, and people are expected to do it all, and do it well - no excuses accepted. In this demanding environment, employees either...

Change, Coaching & Sales Results

The sales managers who thrive in today's marketplace are adept at sales change management. Sales change management is defined as the ability to continuously drive results through others in a dynamic, ever changing environment...

Coaching - Making "Hard" Easier!

These days it seems as if every business is telling managers to be good coaches. It is the right thing to be emphasizing, but one has to ponder if business leaders really understand what they are asking managers to do. A coach has to be chairman of the board, a regular person, confidant, taskmaster...

Coaching or Performance Coaching

Everyone says they "coach," but what are the RESULTS? Sixteen years ago Business Efficacy started to "coach" sales and this was a new idea. Today coaching is considered the "in thing." Why do some coaches enhance improvement and productivity, while others do not make a difference...

Getting a Return on a Sales Training Investment

Organizations make tremendous investments in training each year. They buy or create programs and tools that teach sales skills, product knowledge, sales process, customer acumen, technology tools, and other topics perceived as vital to generating sales success...

Lost Opportunity

Why don't sales managers follow up and follow through on meetings and training their people have attended? Is it because they are too busy? Is it because they are sending people to mandatory meetings and training not believed to be relevant? Perhaps it is because they feel it is someone else's job...

Meaningful Moments

Improving the quality of a sales manager's individualized coaching is a critical success factor. Business Efficacy's experience with managers leads to the conclusion that it doesn't have to take significantly more time to do this. Unfortunately, when most sales organizations attempt to improve their sales...

Sales Execution Made Simple

Much is being said these days about "execution." Everyone believes at some level what Business Efficacy espouses, "talk is cheap, intent is useless, and execution is everything." Although people possess the desire to execute, it is the belief about what it takes to execute that impedes the process...

The 3 P's of Performance

Over the years the quest to determine what separates the best from the rest, regardless of industry and job level, has been fascinating. Countless individual coaching and group facilitation sessions have helped us draw the conclusion that there are three characteristics that exceptional sales, service, and...

Want to Move the Top Line? Stick to the Fundamentals!

It's easy to be confused about what needs to change in order to improve your team's sales productivity. Most managers, when we first begin working with them, spend too much time locked up in strategies and tactics rather than improving the fundamentals of their team members each day. But, how do you know what's a tactic and what's fundamental?

What Does it Take to be a Great Coach?

"Coaching" or being a "coach" in the business world today is in popular favor. Many organizations are attempting to develop coaches or assigning individuals to coaching roles. Courses such as "how to be a coach" or "improve coaching effectiveness" are readily available...