Coaching Conversations with Tim Hagen, where we teach leaders and managers how to coach their employees. This is the ideal podcast for leaders, managers, and aspiring leaders to improve their coaching and leadership skills to create a more positive coaching culture within their teams. In 2025, we're doing weekly podcasts on various coaching topics and strategies that will rotate throughout the month, as opposed to 2024 where the weekly episodes featured a monthly theme. Coaching Conversations will continue to have four episodes per month and we're going to sprinkle in masterclasses, which will be lengthier, workshop-style formats.
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Are you ready for a revolution in your sales approach? Brace yourself as we navigate the dynamic landscape of sales in the era of artificial intelligence. We explore how technology is transforming the industry while emphasizing the timeless importance of human connection. Hear about our innovative concept at Progress Coaching - the sales coaching loop; a model designed to challenge conventional sales coaching methods and advocate for a more sustainable, effective approach.
WANT MORE INFO ON THE SALES COACHING LOOP: CLICK HERE
Join the conversation as we delve into the discrepancies between selling realities and the data logged into CRM systems. We spotlight the critical role of weekly micro lessons and the need for real-world data. Tune in as we dissect the tiers of learning and underline the significance of knowledge sets in improving skill sets. Discover the pivotal role of practice and positive reinforcement in building confidence. By the end of this episode, you'll be equipped to revolutionize your company's sales approach with a coaching loop of your own.
Welcome to Coaching Conversations
We have created a NEW and Innovative line of books called Workplace Coaching Books. These books use QR codes with embedded audio and video lessons speaking directly to the reader. Each book comes with assessments and journal based coaching pages where they document what they've learned and what they've applied. In addition each book comes with the self analysis link that prompts them to share what they've learned and what they've put into action leading to greater learner application a
Progress Coaching 360 is a dynamic leadership development system that equips managers and teams with powerful coaching skills through a blend of training, real-time practice, peer learning, and feedback. It combines expert-led instruction, a train-the-trainer model, group coaching certification, and monthly coaching pods where leaders practice, share wins, and tackle challenges. With built-in accountability and hands-on application using Coaching Cards and best practice sessions, Progress Coaching 360 turns coaching from theory into action—building a sustainable culture of growth, feedback, and performance.
Progress Coaching 360 teaches leaders how to coach and employees how to develop coachability skills. This unique combination helps build great workplace cultures.
You know, with everything going on in the world right now, especially with artificial intelligence and I would even say coaching, there's so many tools out there. And when I think about companies like LandEye, who's building out a tool that allows you, in a few prompts, to build out a whole video based LMS course, I think about companies like beautifulai, where you give it a few prompts and it builds you out and I mean, a beautiful slide deck and PowerPoint. So the world is changing. Yet when I think about sales and I think about what this does to the sales industry, I still think it's to be seen what how it's going to affect how people buy, how people sell. Yet I go back to the fundamentals of people. When technology goes up, when technology goes up, so does the need in the craving for human connection. So how is this going to impact the sales world? I think about something we do here at Progress Coaching called the sales coaching loop. Now, when somebody goes out and for those of you who are in sales, you might take a little bit of offense to this, yet if you're in sales management, I think you're really going to love this here's why when a sales rep goes out and they meet with a particular client or prospect. They come back and they typically log what happened into a CRM. What essentially happens at that moment is we are dependent upon what the rep puts into the CRM system. Now we all hear the same thing, right, we promote sales leaders and they become sales managers, and what they typically do is gravitate to. Well, here's what I would do if I were you and they draw upon what worked for them as sales reps. That is not coaching. That is sharing what worked for them. Now, there's nothing wrong with that per se, yet it doesn't really drive sustainable, positive change long term. The statistics are also in our favor. For years, there were companies like Sales Management Association, cso Insights with Jim Dickey. They talked about the trends in the selling industry, where 48 to 52% of sales reps never hit their quota One out of two people every year. It's been like that for years.
Speaker 1:
So what I think about with the sales coaching loop is having a weekly micro lesson that goes out to sales reps and in that platform you ask coaching questions. Now think about the fundamental of this. What's an objection you're experiencing right now that you cannot overcome? Now, what do most reps say? Oh no, I can't think of anything, things are pretty good. The problem with that is then they also just admitted is or adhered to. I'm going to hit my numbers. See, the funny thing about salespeople is when they go out, they never come back and say you know what? I was terrible at needs-based selling. I interrupted a lot, my active listening was non-existent and I did not represent our products from an expertise standpoint very well. Now I bet you're laughing. Yeah, think about that.
Speaker 1:
And what the sales coaching loop is is the ability to send out a weekly micro lesson that motivates, inspires, educates, provides learning. And then the questions are what did you learn? What are you going to successfully apply? Give me the following five what was the top objection that you experienced this week? And what that does is it provides real world data to what's actually going on in the selling world. Now, once we get that information, what do we do with it? We coach to it. Now, when you coach to things, we encourage and we work with leaders on the tiers of learning.
Speaker 1:
So I go back to let's use a very simple example of a competitor price objection. The knowledge question is Mr and Mrs Sales Rep, in that moment, what did you say and what did you do. Please hear this. What most sales reps want to do is shoot from the hip, just like they do in front of the customer, and they want to narrate what they did. Well, what happened was no. I'm asking you very specifically what did you say or do? Sometimes, most of the time, they'll say you know, I really don't remember in the moment, and what that means is they're shooting from the hip. They don't have the knowledge. Now let me give you an example. Now, this is something we used to teach when we did sales training. You embrace it. Well, first of all, thanks a lot, but let me ask you what do you like about that company? And the reason you ask that question is you now know what not to ask them to change? If you can help it, if you had your way, what are two things you would change? That's a competitor price objection.
Speaker 1:
Start of a handling technique, the point being I'm well rehearsed, I'm well prepared, I've got the knowledge. It doesn't mean that's the right way to do it for every selling situation. Yet you cannot improve skill sets without knowledge sets. So if you don't know how to do a stand up speech or handle a price objection, or to negotiate, how are you going to be skillful at it? So first we have to ask a knowledge question. What do you do and say in that moment Skill, are you facilitating practice?
Speaker 1:
The behavioral component, confidence, comes from two things repetition and practice and positive reinforcement. Now, how often do your sales teams practice? See, when we don't practice, we don't arbitrarily get better because we're talking about numbers. Isn't that hilarious when leaders sit down and say well, I want to go through your numbers. You know, julie, we got to get your numbers up to the end of the quarters coming. I just heard this at one of our client sites. I just cringed, doesn't she know that?
Speaker 1:
So, the point being, we have to be very conscientious, very conscientious of really understanding where reps are situationally negotiation skills, price objection, stall objection. We're already working with some of the objection, no, budget objection, whatever it is that they're faced with. Situationally Knowledge, do they know what to do and say Skill, have they practiced it? Behavioral, are they confident in handling it? That's why, when you build a loop and you send out lessons that inspire and motivate, you're also coaching people and you're ascertaining. You're ascertaining what's actually going on versus being dependent on what they want to share. Make sure it's your company, you build a coaching loop.
