Coaching Conversations in 2024
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 2024 we're going to be going to monthly themes and I would also encourage you to check out our new podcast Coaching Youth Today for Tomorrow. Coaching Conversations will continue to have monthly themes with four episodes per month and we're going to sprinkle in masterclasses, which will be lengthier, workshop-style formats.
Coaching Conversations in 2024
Transformative Sales Leadership: Lessons from the Milwaukee Brewers Sales Organization
Discover how to revolutionize your sales leadership approach with insights from the Milwaukee Brewers sales organization. Our encounter with Jim Bavey challenges the conventional methods of static sales training, revealing the transformative power of customized staff development. Hear firsthand how creating a culture of feedback and coaching among team members drives significant and lasting change, setting the Brewers apart from more traditional organizations. This episode promises to equip you with the tools to foster an ego-free environment where collective learning and adaptation flourish, ensuring your team can overcome even the toughest sales challenges.
Join us as we spotlight the importance of vulnerability and open-mindedness in leadership through personal stories that highlight real-life transformative moments. By focusing on strengths rather than weaknesses, leaders like Jim Beatty have forged genuine connections with their teams, cultivating positive workplace cultures and driving consistent performance. Learn how overcoming ego and embracing a willingness to learn can be the key to thriving sales leadership. This episode offers invaluable insights for anyone looking to build a thriving and cohesive organizational environment, where motivation and collaboration are at the forefront.
Welcome to Coaching Conversations
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Check out our Approachability & Coachability series, a webinar-based coaching approach that encourages all leaders and their employees to become approachable and coachable through specific, actionable techniques and strategies. This leads to better teamwork for leadership and creates a positive coaching culture within an organization.
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For years I've worked with the Milwaukee Brewers sales organization and I'll never forget my first meeting with the brewers and Jim Bavey. I had a great ex-employee, jennifer, who set up the meeting, and it was really interesting because when I met with Jim, I would tell you that it wasn't hugs and kisses. When we met each other, I could tell something was on his mind and he asked me a really tough question. Yet I look back and thought you know what? It's one of the most fair questions I ever had. He said are you going to come in with a static program every year? And he kind of started to describe his frustration with something. I'm thinking hey pal, I just met you, what are you mad at me for? And I finally said to him I said so what happened? He said well, you know we've worked with people and they come in with the same program. I said no, everything I do is customized, but I hate training. He goes what do you mean? You hate training? I go. Development of staff has to come from within the organization. One, two, three, five days with me one time a year will never get you where you want to go. He said what are you talking about?
Speaker 1:I said you know, in sales, one of the greatest gifts we can have is to learn from each other, but most sales organizations have what Salespeople that think about themselves. You know, I often think about the word ego. Ego is at the forefront of salespeople's brains, and it should be. The industry is filled with a lot of rejection, a lot of rejection, and at the same time, that very ego gets in the way of learning opportunities. I cannot tell you how many times I've had people say, well, do you have any experience in our industry? And I say no and they go oh really, and you want to help us? Your sales are down, you do need help. I've had people 20 to 30% down literally say to me well, it's a tough economy, I go. Well, you only sell in good economies. Think about training and coaching.
Speaker 1:In 2008 to 2011, during the Great Recession, my company thrived. It wasn't easy. I don't want to profess that. So when I met with Jim that first year, we started to implement what we call feedback progressions, giving each other feedback. We didn't start with. Here's what you did wrong. We started with. Here are the three things you did pretty well in that practice session and during the session, jim comes up to me and he said so when do we get to the constructive stuff? I said day two. We're warming people up, we're earning trust, we're building conversational skills. Right now it's going to take time. The first couple of years it was clunky. It's a little choppy, no doubt about it.
Speaker 1:18 years later, and I would even say 16 years later, a couple of years ago, one of the executives came in and watched the session and asked somebody in the session, I think asked Billy Freeze, who's leading the session. And Billy pointed to me and the guy said he hasn't moved. He's been sitting over in the corner for two hours. How much are we paying this guy? And it's funny because it's the greatest compliment he could have given me.
Speaker 1:See, I'm a fan of training. I'm not a fan of training by itself, especially with sales. When you think about stalls, gatekeepers objections, price objections, stall objections let me think about it objections. Could you do it for less price? Could you throw in a free game? All the stuff we go through as sales professionals, present, company included. You cannot improve what you don't practice. It just doesn't work. And so the gentleman looked at me and I just sat in the corner for two hours and he said, man, everybody's coaching each other. And they said, well, yeah, that's what we do.
Speaker 1:Now I'll give some constructive feedback towards the Milwaukee Brewery Sales Organization. I think their greatest aha moments are when people leave. When there are people who have left, who have gone on to start their own real estate companies. They've gone on to be CEOs of companies. They'll look back and say, man, I wish I could get that culture at my own organization. I wish I could still participate in that. And the reason I say that's constructive feedback. Sometimes, when I share with my friends at the Brewers how unique their culture is, I think sometimes it falls on deaf ears. I think they trust me, yet they live it so much they don't understand why other people don't do it.
Speaker 1:Now let me give you case in point. I was at an organization and I told this story this year at a wealth management company for one of our clients. It's a division of one of our financial service clients and the president asked me to sit in and he asked me to just observe. As I sat in the meeting, the vice president of sales turned to me and he said well, tell me a little bit about your company. And I thought that was such an awkward transition because I was there to observe, I wasn't there to participate. And I told him and he said well, do you have much experience in wealth management? I said no, I don't. And he began to laugh at me, literally laugh at me. He goes okay, well, I guess we can hear your sales pitch and I want to stop there. I wasn't there for a sales pitch.
Speaker 1:I was asked by the president of the division who liked me, trusted me, found my stuff to be valuable for whatever reason, and literally he looked dismayed and I said oh, I said do you mind if I share something with you? The vice president said sure, and he's smirking at me. I go, I'm not here for a sales presentation. I didn't call this meeting, he did, and I pointed to the president. I was just asked to observe. I can leave. I'd love to ask you a couple questions. He said sure, now, I think the president knew this was going to happen and I looked at the vice president and I said do you have experience in wealth management? He said you're darn right, I do 22 years. And I said I have two more questions and that's it and then I can leave. And he said okay, and he's still laughing and smirking at me.
Speaker 1:I said are your sales up or down? Before you answer, I know the answer. So, while that's kind of a tough question, you know to answer no, it's not. I said are your sales up or down? The president looked at him and said tell him. He said well, we're a little down. See, here's the tough thing. Everybody I teach something called Ryer, and what we do when things are tough is we change the story so we feel better about it. And I looked at him and I said they're down 17 points. He said yeah, that's about right.
Speaker 1:Now his voice is softer, the ego has left the room, the confidence is now gone, and I look at him and I go, and you're the one with the experience Packed up my backpack, walked out. Later the president asked me to sit down with him, which I did, of course, and I sat down and I said I don't know where that came from. He goes, look, I owe you an apology. And I said I don't know where that came from. He goes, look, I owe you an apology. And I said no, that's okay. I said we all make mistakes and I said can I just give you some really good advice? He said sure, I said I don't think I'm always right, but I know one thing when you're vulnerable and open to getting better, don't let your ego get in the way, because ego stands for eroding growth opportunities. And his jaw dropped and it kind of hit him. I think it was an aha moment. I said be vulnerable, tell your people you're improving, because then they'll improve.
Speaker 1:See, one of the things I hear all the time is it's all about the numbers, bullshit. It's all about the numbers and hit your numbers every damn time. It's about the people who produce the numbers. And when you have leaders like Jim Beatty at the Mocky Brewers and Billy Freeze and Dan Wilkerman and Jake Mensch and Chris Kimball and Jason Fry and Chris Rothwell and Joe Robinson, these people connect with their people. They meet them with where they're at and they help them where they want to go.
Speaker 1:The motivation's never been higher ever. I've never had a down year there In 18 years. I've never seen non-participation. That, my friends, is not a reflection of my company. That's a reflection of the culture they've created. So when you think about building a culture, train your leaders to coach, facilitate, practice comfortably. Focus on the good things people are doing. They know they need to improve. They're not dumb. Just don't dwell on it because it wears people down. So when people say, is this possible? The Milwaukee Brewery Sales Organization is absolute proof that coaching cultures that are highly collaborative, low turnover, high performance, improvement is possible every day.