How critique from a coach can help you get better, faster
As much as we may hate to admit it, the reality is that learning doesn’t happen when we do everything right the first time around. In fact, research has shown that self-correction and taking in new information after making mistakes not only plays an important role in learning, but it also helps us build memory. That’s why feedback—whether it comes from others or from ourselves—is essential to the learning process, especially in skills-based learning, and especially when it comes to building impactful revenue teams.
So regardless of how you get feedback—by personal introspection, one-on-one coaching, or even an automated system with guidelines in place—getting that critique is critical to growing your knowledge base. Here are six ways that coaching or instructional feedback can help your sales team be better in the long run.
1 Motivates you to get better
One of the best ways to learn something new is to have someone who has mastered it critique your performance, and for salespeople—who are naturally highly motivated and competitive—a constant focus on improvement is always beneficial. Whether you’re trying to refine a project for work or building your sales readiness, having a coach who knows the subject intimately can help motivate you to keep getting better. In many cases, simply hearing some constructive criticism from a seasoned sales leader who has been successful can give you just enough motivation and information to keep learning on your own.
2 Creates higher performing teams.
Just as you can quickly tell a difference between a salesperson who has had extensive coaching in their sales development and one that hasn’t, you can just as quickly identify teams who have been considerably prepared. From perfecting their pitch, knowing each product or service that they are selling intimately, or being able to talk freely about what you can offer over your competitors—well-prepared, sales-ready teams are the ones who are able to close sales quickly and efficiently.
3 Lets you know you’re on the right track
When you’re learning a new skill, process, or script, it can be hard to know where you stand in your progress. What were your strengths? Which skills did you need more practice with? Having someone else take a look at your work and offer feedback helps keep you on track. When they explain what they liked and didn’t like about your presentation, it’s easy to make adjustments and improve future efforts. And when you get feedback from people outside of your usual circle—former colleagues, friends, experts in the field—you can benefit from their perspectives that might otherwise be lost on you.
The end goal, after all, is that all of the feedback and coaching offered to your revenue teams will have a real and determinable result—that it will change the way they talk about a product or value proposition, building them into an impactful sales machine. Letting your revenue builders know where they stand along the way is the first step to having a truly great sales team.
4 Provides a clear path forward
When you have a well-defined process for coaching and feedback, your sales representatives are enabled to truly hone in on their own skill development, and play a more significant part in their own professional growth. In the end, they’ll feel confident about their own skillset and learning trajectory, and be able to put them into action for better relationship building and success closing deals.
5 Establishes trust with a team
One of the main reasons for feedback is to build a trusting relationship between trainer and trainee, and in corporate education this can be a vital part of building an effective and unified team. Even if much of your training process is automated or online, having feedback that informs both sides of the next phase of learning can be important, and offer a reason for deeper communication and interaction. Without communicating effectively, it can become difficult for an instructor or mentor and trainee or apprentice to develop strong bonds, which has significant implications on learning outcomes.
6 Provides clarity for future assignments
In any line of work, there are always a few things you can learn in hindsight—things you wish you had known before. But that only happens when there is honest feedback on your performance—and not just positive feedback. Every aspect of training and coaching helps provide clarity for future assignments, preparing students for what lies ahead and maximizing their performance when it counts most. Without feedback, businesses and executives aren’t able to grow—which means that those who don’t take coaching seriously might miss out on opportunities for success down the road.
How can I provide feedback to large sales teams?
Realizing that feedback and training evaluation affects many areas of the learning process, you may want to institute strong critique and assessment processes within your own team or company for professional development growth. But for those groups with tens or even hundreds of employees needing review and feedback, it can be difficult to provide valuable insights that will help them grow effectively.
In this instance, finding a solution that will help you scale your L&D efforts by providing automated feedback based on previously-set parameters. At Bongo, we provide video-based assessment and feedback solutions that can not only help you scale your efforts, but can offer seamless integration between trainer and trainee for just about any learning situation. For a demo of the software’s full range of capabilities, visit go.bongolearn.com/software to schedule a demo.
