Continual learning is a basic necessity to professional improvement. In many cases, it’s other people who help sales reps advance. But they must be open to coaching.
Sam Parker, founder and publisher of GiveMore.com and SellMore.com, says being coachable means to be…
• Approachable
• Attentive
• Receptive
• Curious
• Objective
• Trusting
• Shapeable
• Confident
“It means you must listen with the intent to learn rather than to show what you know (not coincidentally, exactly the type of listening required in the sales process). To be coachable means to lack arrogance and defensiveness — to minimize pride and ego. Completely teachable. Completely trainable. Completely malleable.”
To need no more training or coaching is to stagnate or die — and in many cases, to be dismissed, adds Parker.
He asks sales managers, how much development attention are you giving to your team? If only 20 percent of your week is devoted to development, that would be a full day. Bump that to 40 percent and you would spend two full days, beginning to end, on training.
