Just about any business leader or entrepreneur needs sales coaching to enhance their skills and expertise. However, most people don't know what to pinpoint when selecting the optimal coach for their business. 

When I started my sales career, I may not have been the country's highest-producing home services sales representative. Still, I became a top producer in every organization I sold for and have coached and trained many of them as clients. From that vantage point, I can tell you that your goal should not be to find the "best salesperson" to train your reps and leaders. Much like professional sports, the best coaches weren't the best players. They just knew the game better than anyone else.

A sales leader who just had a great year would be interesting to talk to but is not necessarily the right person to hire as a coach.

Sales Coaching Versus Sales Mentoring

One thing that confuses roofing contractors when choosing the right coach is that many confuse sales coaching with mentoring or training. The reality is that they’re different fields that cater to specific and targeted requirements of different salespeople within an organization.

Most coaches have never been taught their craft, but coaching is very different from mentoring or training. Coaching, mentoring, and training are three different things. If an organization needs coaching, it needs someone to ask them questions and extract helpful information. If it needs mentoring, it needs advice on what to do next. If it needs training, it needs instruction on a certain subject or procedure.

Actual coaching is not someone sitting for an hour and giving their ideas to the business owner, the leader, and the sales rep; it's pulling the information that they know out of them to make it work for their benefit.

One Size Does Not Fit All

No one out there can coach you in all fields, be it HR, accounting, or sales. Everybody has a specialty. If you want a coach, you want somebody at a very high level. 

You need to be informed because there are coaches on every corner, just like there are roofers on every corner. There are good ones, and there are poor ones. Some are great, and some are not so great. We see a lot of people who have hired poor coaches because their prices were lower. Then, when their companies have gone through the cheaper options and are in a lot of trouble, they come to us. 

We want to pull organizations out of this poor coaching hamster wheel. We'd like to get them when they are just exploring the idea of coaching so they can get the specialized help they need.

First and foremost, know that you need a coach and be willing to do what a coach tells you to do. Many coaches, mentors, or trainers will tell you what you want to hear because they want you to keep spending money. But those who genuinely understand what needs to happen and can help you are willing to tell you things you don't want to hear. They're willing to give you the good, the bad, and the ugly.

As a case in point, 2021-2023 were the biggest years in home services. Those years also produced a large number of ‘coaches.’ Everyone had great years during that time and felt like they were the best because of achieving those results, so they suddenly decided to become coaches. Most of those coaches did not know how to train a company’s trainers and are no longer coaching today.

Do you want to pay a coach over the next couple of years to do what your sales manager is supposed to be doing, or do you want someone to train your sales manager to do what they're supposed to do at a high level?

Rec League Versus Pro Coach

From the start, you have to decide whether you’re going to be a rec league team or a professional team and who you work with. Do you work with an experienced coach who makes professional results possible? Who is held accountable for what they do?

Before hiring a coach, you need to ask yourself a few other questions: 

• What type of coach are you expecting?
• Do you want them to come in with information, or do you want them to come in and genuinely guide you in your specific line of work?
• Are you seeking someone to help you level up in your field?

Understand what you expect and what you will get from a coach. I have a coach right now who used to sell alarms, but he specializes in sales questions. I'm using his coaching for a specific reason: I want to know what those sales questions are, and I'm willing to pay him to teach me something I don't know.

Rec league coaches tell you what you want to hear. However, professional coaches have systems. The difference is telling. Often, people feel like they are ready to coach others but find themselves working with companies that have already passed their level of coaching.

A great coach isn't a politician who changes things to justify their position or job.

Know What You Need

Roofing contractors need to share expectations with a potential coach. It’s what we expect from our clients. If someone says they can't give you answers to your questions, find somebody who can. Also, be ready to temper those expectations. We often get clients who’d like to be at $50 million (in revenue). I have to break it to them and give them a dose of reality, and any good coach will. 

Make sure that you know what you're getting into. Some coaches will lie to you and say, “Yeah, we can get you there,” because they don't know what that production level looks like.

Most people do not interview coaches before they hire them. Often, they buy the coaching system after being hooked by marketing. However, they end up complaining about the system — the problem may not be with it; the system may be very good. The problem may be in that system's poor implementation and accountability with the team.

A good coach should be open to sitting down and having an interview like they're being hired for a job. 

Have a Zoom call with them to get to know them and learn about their accomplishments. Very few actual professionals provide coaching for in-home services.

Business leaders should continue to ask question after question when interviewing prospective coaches. This is where we want to go; how will you take us there? They should have answers for you. If you can tell them what you're doing now and where you want to go, they should be able to show you examples of what they're planning on doing.

Trapped by Training Platforms

Training platforms are excellent if used correctly, but 90% of the time, they’re not. If you’re going to invest in a platform, first know: 

• What do you expect from this platform, and do you have someone who can train people while they are learning from the platform?
• The platform should be used 25% of the time
• A trainer should be working with the people 75% of the time

When I train clients using a training platform, I send them homework. I tell them I want them to watch a video and send them the link inside the email. We have a training email with everything we talked about today, and their homework for tonight is to role-play everything that we learned today and watch this set of videos to prepare them for tomorrow. That way, when we start training on that, they already know the basics of discussing it. It's not their first time hearing it, but I am training them. You don’t want to get to the end of the video training platform and then wonder why your people still have no idea what to do.

Don’t get trapped. These trainings should be used as a tool to help train their people, not to take the place of a trainer. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. Video training is still a good idea, but it must be used in tandem with actual in-person or Zoom training. Then, the trainees must be tested for mastery.

The Close

Knowing and understanding who's coaching you and why you have chosen them to coach you is just as important as what they're coaching you on.

If people don’t follow this advice, they may spend a lot of money and get nothing in return. They may end up with a lot of significant documents that they'll never do anything with. Many coaches will shove all these documents down your throat and then wish you the best of luck. 

Making the right decision regarding training and coaching is extremely important because it can take you from good to great faster. The right coach will be able to dig deep into the subject with you and coach, mentor, and train you for success on that subject. If you find the right coach and are willing to do what they ask, it's your shortcut from good to great. It’s your elevator to the top.