Training Specifically for First Line Sales Manager

Coaching Skills – Introduction & Advanced Levels

Interviewing & Selection Skills

Leadership Skills Training – Building & Managing Teams

Managing Self

Core capabilities for performance measurement

Coaching Skills – Introduction & Advanced Levels

If you are looking to foster a coaching environment then this could be a key area for your organisation.  The objective here is to train the individual(s) how to coach others themselves. 

Introduction to Coaching

This practical programme would explore the coaching model theory and its practical uses.  The theory would explore;

• The purpose and definitions of coaching
  
• The benefits coaching can bring
  
• How to introduce coaching
  
• The coaching contract
  
• The coaching model
  
• Overcoming barriers to coaching
  

This would be a very interactive programme and would enable the recipients the opportunity to practice the application of the coaching mode.  This programme is tailored specifically to meet your needs so for example the practical element would be very specific to the scenario’s you currently face as a business within the industry in which you work.  The theory would also reflect this. 

The coaching programme can vary in depth depending upon your needs.  So for example the expanded programmes can encompass those area’s that can influence the coach such as;

• Attitude; the self actualisation cycle
  
• How people are motivated
  
• Self-image and beliefs
  
• Creating empowering beliefs
  
• Creating the right mindset
  

This form of training can be provided for both first line sales managers and trainers to enable them to coach their respective teams.  This can also be beneficial for sales representatives to enhance self-coaching and help them with creating the right mindset, which can encourage the sales teams to foster a peak performance mentality and strive to improve and develop with or without the absence of the manager.

Advanced Coaching

Interviewing & Selection Skills

• Basic Interviewing; Where a sales vacancy requires a quick recruitment process in the absence of a manager, Rachael can conduct interviews, providing completed reports and recommendations in line with the process already in place and will therefore ensure consistency within your business.

• Development of Interviewing & Recruitment Processes; For those businesses requiring an interview process, be it standard interviewing questions to reflect an existing set of business capabilities, or where the introduction of a new capability set is required against which to recruit. See the capability section for further details.

• Training of Interviewing Skills; The depth of these training days would be dependent upon the experience and needs of the sales recruiting managers.  Training can include basic interviewing skills such as;

  • Building rapport quickly with the candidates
    
  • Reading body language
    
  • Developing question skills to extract further information from the candidate and probe further for clarification
    
  • Controlling time within the interview
    
  • Hints and tips on note taking to form accurate final reports that best reflect the candidate and information give

• Assessment Centres; Following an initial interviewing stage, it is standard practice in many larger sales organisations to run assessments centres, allowing the candidates capabilities to be assessed and observed across different activities.  Support can be provided here as an assessor on an assessment centre already in place.  Alternatively Rachael is able to design and deliver assessment centres to specifically meet your needs.  These would include a variety of activities such as group assessments, presentations and role-plays all designed to measure a set of capabilities in different scenario’s which are a firm indicator of the consistency of a candidate.  Assessment centres are ideal for new recruits within a business or for existing employee’s moving into new roles.  Where an assessment centre is being managed for existing employees, it is recommended that the centre is accompanied with development and training needs analysis reports to support candidates in their future development.  Training can also be provided to those individuals requiring support as an assessor for the first time hence being new to this process.

• Succession Development Centres & Talent Management; Where your organisation is looking to pro-actively develop talented individuals from within the organisation and want to look at the future potential for individuals, a talent management programme can be put into place.  This can be a one-off development centre followed by a structured development programme to encourage the future leaders within the organisation.  Rachael is able to offer support and programme design within this field.

Leadership Skills Training – Building & Managing Teams

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• Stages of team development; Building an understanding of the different stages through which a team will naturally progress. To understand how to recognise each stage through the observable behaviours within the team and to understand how to progress and potentially accelerate the team through these stages to ensure the team are operating at the more productive stage of “performance”.  As the team dynamics constantly change and resource turnover is always going to have an effect, the stages of team development will be a continual cycle and hence if one understands this and understands the interventions that will help shape the team, there becomes a greater opportunity for the team to be delivering within the performance stage and hence delivering their peak performance.  This training can also raise the self-awareness levels of the team as to where they currently operate as a team, where their current strengths lie and where they want to be. This will build self-awareness and team cohesion as they progress towards their shared goal or reaching the peak performance stage;

• Team Roles; Theory suggests there are number of different roles that an individual would have a natural tendency to emanate.  By understanding the individuals within the team and which roles they would best fit, one is able to understand the contributions they can make.  This also enables to manager to understand the areas for development or accompanying weakness so is then better placed to support this.

• Creating Team Ethos & Culture; vision, goals, beliefs & values; As a business manager, how easy is it to get carried away with the immediate implementation of the tactics in order to hit the sales targets as quickly as possible?  It is easy for first line sales managers to fall into this trap as there is always a pressure to deliver quickly.  Very often, the time for reflection and reviewing the bigger picture can be deemed as a “nice to have” but time pressures can put limitations upon this.  A high performing team is one where there is clear focus upon a set of understood and joint goals.  Performing teams will have a shared vision of where they want to be operating and how they want to be perceived, there will be a sense of self empowerment borne from their personal and team beliefs and the team will operate well as a result of their shared and agreed values.  Sounds ideal?  This is a team environment that can be adopted and fostered through the creation of a team ethos & culture. This can have real long-term benefits in helping the team to remain focussed and to help with team dynamics and cohesion. Through effective training and elements of coaching, the team together, will create their own team vision and their own goals to provide a focussed route for them to achieve their peak performance.  Through identifying their own-shared values as a team and creating empowering beliefs, this can foster a sense of being proud and gain better understanding of one another.  Developing and fostering a team culture is not just a one off training experience.  Successful implementation will take a few sessions and can be delivered across a few days, or delivered in modules.  Adopting a new culture and team ethos can prove successful in sustaining team motivation which will drive the delivery of business goals.

This training area is vast, and hence it is important to identify your specific needs and a recommended proposal can be produced as to how best your needs can be met with appropriate training.

• Motivating & Rewarding Teams; This will explore the longer term challenges of ensuring motivation is maintained within the sales team.  The sessions are best linked with the previous training sessions and will explore how the new team ethos and culture can be nurtured and developed into every day activities to help motivate the teams and keep the energy live. Alternative ideas for rewards will be explored and what constitutes those behaviours requiring a reward will be considered.   The manager will be coached to consider how recognition is currently being managed within the team, and how this can be further enhanced for the future.

• Managing Change; This is designed to help support the first line sales manager when implementing change within their team.  This will consider the barriers to change, and the underlying reasons that drive this resistance. This practical course will look at, how the manager is able to overcome these barriers through coaching and supporting their team, and how the desire and need for change can be created within the team to create a positive and empowering team environment.

Managing Self

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Core capabilities for performance measurement

This programme would be ideally suited to the new sales manager, or those managers who are new to working with capabilities or just want to further strengthen their confidence within this area. This programme would also be beneficial to any individual or team working within a capability framework, which require a deeper understanding or further support.  Depending upon the experience and needs of the individual(s), the programme will consider;

• How to work with core capabilities
  
• Understanding the behaviours to demonstrate the different levels
  
• Capturing observable behaviour
  
• Ensuring consistency in core capability assessment
  
• Preparing evidence for core capability assessments
  
• The role out of new capability sets
  
• Incorporating core capabilities into every day working
  

 
Support can also be provided to businesses where a new or initial capability framework is required or where an existing capability set requires reviewing and updating.