Coaching Sales Professionals

Posted on December 10, 2021 by Keith White, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.

White Paper: Coaching for Sales Professionals
By
Richard Keith White MA, BCC, CPC

Executive Summary:
In January of 2015, a research study was conducted on a large, multi-location automobile dealership. This research involved a review of the existing literature, an examination of the organization, a reliable and consistent survey, a statistical analysis, and the cooperation of top-level managers. The results of the research suggest coaching offers organizations a comparative advantage, especially for the emerging millennial generation.

This research focused on:
• The role of the coaching leader
• Affective commitment and self-efficacy
• The contrast between Managerial coaching and professional coaching
The research found:
• Coaching, at the appropriate time, increases retention
• Outside coaching, as opposed to managerial coaching is more beneficial
• Managerial leaders have a dual focus

Current Literature:
Previous literature notes coaching emerged from similar practices, such as therapy, self-help, and organizational leadership. The practice of coaching has progressed where firm evidence has lagged far behind. The coaching paradigm is troublesome to define because of the specific coaching niches, coaching methods, similar practices, such as, therapy, mentoring, teaching, and managerial coaching. Coaching’s move from fad to profession requires a foundation based on evidence and a working definition.
Leading as a coach is evident throughout history. Early philosophers, such as Aristotle, Plato, and Jesus of Nazareth shared a message to their followers or apprentices. Greek philosophers asked questions to transfer understanding where Jesus utilized story-telling and parable. This approach led a deeper understanding of the original message which their followers spread.
Academic literature in the 1950’s described coaching as a part-time, managerial activity. Coaching was generally viewed as a manager using soft skills. The soft-skills were utilized, on occasion, but only when the traditional processes were exhausted. Current popular literature offers a distinction between managerial coaching and personal coaching. In popular literature, the external coach or personal develops people focusing on the client’s agenda and values, whereas the internal- managerial coach has a dual focus. This dual focus is a blend of the client’s values and agenda and the organizations values and agenda.
The exact definition of coaching is troublesome because of the numerous paradigms and psychological paradigms, from which, it is derived. Coaching borrows from behaviorism which insists behavior can be changed by setting and meeting short-term goals. Coaching borrows from humanism which argues men seek change and achieve self-actualization. Coaching borrows from cognitive behavioral therapy which focuses on reframing mental processes. Finally, coaching borrows from positive psychology’s focus on the future and strengths, as opposed, to the past and weaknesses.
Literature suggests that traditional managerial structures are ineffective. The leaders of today’s organizations should value and develop their people as resources; instead of treating them as disposable items. This research proposes coaching followers offers a comparative advantage for the organization. Growing followers is more cost effective than constantly hiring and retraining new-hires.

The Method of Research
This research utilized three reliable, proven assessment tools. The tools measured the coaching relationship, affective commitment, and general self-efficacy. The measure of the coaching relationship involves four dimensions: genuineness and comfort of the relationship, facilitating development, and finally effective communication. Affective organization commitment is the emotional bond a person has with an organization. Previous work found a strong, positive relationship between affective commitment and the employee’s intent to stay or leave the organization and job satisfaction. Finally, self-efficacy is the inner belief that a person can get the job done. For this research, the measure of self-efficacy focuses on general behaviors; thus, it is a measure of the overall belief in one’s ability to succeed, as opposed to success on an individual task.
In this research, the scales were found to be reliable and consistent; thus, the scales measured what they were designed to measure. The surveys were distributed to the various locations in a timely manner, the response rate was 73% of the population.
Figure 1: Length of Employment and the Scales

Findings
• Affective commitment, self-efficacy, and coaching were found to have a statistical, significant positive relationship
• To be effective as a coach, Managers must be competent in all coaching dimensions.
• Affective commitment, self-efficacy and the coaching relationship was consistent throughout the generations
• Growing self-efficacy depends on building a comfortable, genuine relationship and role-modeling
• Self-efficacy is not developed when the manager offers a rationale, such as, “that’s just the way we do things,” because this inhibits effective communication
• The lowest scores for all three measures: the coaching relationship, self-efficacy and affective commitment were found between six months and one year. Thus, in this six-month to 1-year stage of employment the employee’s intent to leave is increased and job satisfaction is decreased.
• Coaching is effective an effective tool is this critical stage.
• Managers think they are good coaches but their followers do not agree.
• Managers have a dual focus- they walk a tight rope- they must balance the companies needs and the needs of the sales professionals

Suggestion for Upper Management
This research found a significant-statistical relationship between managerial coaching, affective organizational commitment, and self-efficacy.

The research suggests:
• Sales professionals perform better when they are coached
• Job satisfaction improves when sales professionals are coached
• Coaching increases employee retention
• Additional training-coaching is needed between 6 months and the 1st year for sales professionals for employee retention
• Outside coaching is more beneficial than managerial coaching.

Human Resource Departments should revisit their training processes, especially when it comes to training schedules. The research confirms that additional training, specifically, a coaching approach is needed when an employee’s affective commitment and self-efficacy decreases. During the first six months of employment the sales professional’s affective commitment and self-efficacy tends to decrease and reaches their lowest scores between six months and one year. This suggests additional training or sales coaching is crucial at this point of the employee’s career. This finding was consistent regardless of the employee’s age.

The results of this research suggest:
• The importance of hiring professional coaches
• The importance of coaching between 6months and the 1st year of employment

It cannot be overstated that coaching is more than the managerial use of soft skills. In fact, there is a distinction between ‘personal coaching’ and managerial coaching’ Traditional Command and Control Management is directive, where coaching is guidance. Managing tends to retain the ‘status quo’ where coaching leads to change. The results of this research posit effective coaching, especially when it comes to affective commitment and self-efficacy, requires a competent, well-rounded, coach who is trained as a coach. In fact, most managers believe they are good coaches, but the evidence demonstrates that they are not proficient coaches. After all, as aforementioned, coaching is more than using soft skills. Coaching is developing better people where management is built to sustain what had already been developed.
A new generation, the information age, and a post-industrial age are changing the way people look at work and the workplace. The organization that best incorporates the emerging workforce and their new view of work will have a comparative advantage over other organizations. The leader who coaches will be a more effective leader for the emerging workforce. 
Appendix A: The following graphs are not statistically significant, but they offer insight about the various locations.

• HIGHER SCORES IN AFFECTIVE COMMITMENT SUGGEST BETTER RETENTION AND JOB SATISFACTION
• HIGHER SCORES IN SELF-EFFICACY SUGGEST LONG-TERM FEELING OF SUCCESS OR COMPETENCE
• HIGHER SCORES IN COACHING SUGGEST BETTER PERFORMANCE AND A HEALTHY WORKING RELATIONSHIP
• AT THE TOYOTA STORE, TWO EMPLOYEES OFFERED CONSISTENTLY LOW SCORES, AND THIS SKEWED THE RESULTS