Tips on how to coach using data…
Knowing where and when to coach is often the biggest thing holding front line managers back from coaching their teams on a regular basis.
It can feel like either groundhog day or a game of whack-a-mole with little or no guidance or direction to a) know where to focus and b) know if its working or not.
That’s where data comes in.
But data can be either fantastically valuable or it can be scary as hell!
If data doesn’t point to insight or action then it’s about as useful as a chocolate teapot!
I’m here to show how you can shake that data phobia and make data not only your friend but your valued partner in your coaching conversations with your team.
Let’s start by framing your data. To be valuable in this context it needs to be:
Available - nobody wants to have to go digging for the right data ready for a coaching convo - it’s needs to be right there when you need it!
Benchmarked - When you have a lot of data to run through, you need to know what to look for. Benchmarking gives you that immediate flag on a potential area of focus.
Aligned - If it’s not aligned to the elements that influence it then it’s difficult to bridge from the pure data to the coaching conversation that’s going to impact it in the right direction.
Now we have done the pre-work, I’d like to share how I have data driven coaching conversations with my team…
GROW
I like to broadly follow the G.R.O.W coaching method - I finds it gives me a journey to follow with data being my trusty Sherpa.
If you are not familiar with GROW:
G stands for GOAL
R is for reality
O is for options
W is for the will to do it
Goal
We’re in sales - which means you sadly don’t get to run away from the company driven goals you’ve been given but its important you don’t forget to dig deeper to understand the goal of your team.
It’s the personal goals of the individual that will turbo power any coaching outcomes.
I like to spend a lot of time here and I’d recommend you do too.
Take Annie here…
She’s got some ambitious plans. It’s been a while since she’s seen her Brother in Oz, she wants to buy a house and she’s looking for her next step up in terms of promotion.
We can also see really clearly how that translates into both her company given goal AND the personal goal she’s set herself to achieve what she wants.
Now that I understand what Annie is looking for and had a good old conversation to truly get to the bottom of her goals, I need to dig a little deeper into the reality of where she is against them. I need to identify the gaps and blockages that could prevent her from achieving her goals. Annie and I need to examine Annie’s reality…
Reality
Oh boy is data your friend here…
You need to explore the reality of any given situation. It’s no good looking through rose tinted glasses. If someone wants a career move, but they’ve been sitting well below others in the team on pipeline generation for the last 6 months, you need to be aware of this (both Manager and rep) so you can address it in coaching. I often find the data gives me the confidence to tackle tricky conversations here.
Let’s explore Annie’s data…
By using a standard set of leading indicators that signpost success for Annie’s role, we can both explore Annie’s reality with objectivity,
Here, I’ve chosen to look at Annie’s indicators from last Quarter.
This is where benchmarking comes in really handy as it gives context to the data I’m looking at.
We are benchmarking this data against others in Annie’s team who have the same role.
What I can see at a glance here is that Annie is leading the way on meetings.
But, there looks like there’s a blockage in converting those meetings to opportunities and then ultimately to closed won business. Annie’s way behind her peers on those conversion metrics.
The beauty of the data is that there’s no denying it. You can absolutely dig into it and have a discussion about it, even look back at the history to review any trends, but it is undeniable.
But as I said right at the beginning of this, if data doesn’t point to insight or action then it’s about as useful as a chocolate teapot!
So, now I’ve identified the potential gap that could prevent Annie from reaching her goal, we can begin to explore what options Annie has to address the gap…
Options
This is where your fabulous sales competency framework comes in {more on that here…]
This helps you transition to the skills or behaviours you need to work on together to influence the outcomes…
Annie and I both agree that we need to start by focusing on the conversion of meetings to opportunities.
This is where that all important alignment comes in.
With Annie, I can hop straight from the data to the focus skills and behaviours that impact it the most. in this case: Objection Handling | Problem Discovery | Solution Understanding.
I can see where we’ve chosen to focus before and I know where Annie’s strengths and weaknesses lie, so I immediately avoid the groundhog day trap.
Instead, after discussion, we can easily zone in on Annie’s ‘Solution Understanding’ skill area and focus our coaching there.
We now have a really clear area of focus for our coaching. But a single coaching conversation is unlikely to move the needle and that’s why we have to establish Annie’s Will to drive change.
Will
The icing on the cake that will deliver the outcomes you are looking for is in the action phase. What is Annie actually going to DO to improve in her ‘Solution Understanding’. Because let’s reiterate the journey. If she improves her skill, this in turn will impact her ability to create more opportunities from the meetings she’s having, which in turn will enable her to hit her metric goals which in turn will enable her to visit her brother, buy a new house and set her in a good position for a promotion!
So what will Annie do?
Based on our discussions, Annie and I have agreed that she’s going to review one of Kelly’s demos. We selected it together during our session based on good examples showing this skill (handy when you have everything indexed against your competency matrix!).
Annie is going to record her own version before our coaching session next week.
I can then provide structured feedback on what worked, what didn’t and anything that was missing.
Based on the fact this is now flagged as a focus skill, Annie and I can continue to review her conversion metrics to see the impact our work together is having.
Now the beauty of using this consistent approach using a clear set of indicators, benchmarked and aligned to the right skills and behaviours means that:
I have little or no prep to do each time I have a 1-2-1 with Annie
Annie can easily see where she is and what she’s working on
We can pick up where we left off without repeats or overlap
There is full transparency to the process
Now you understand how to coach using data, go ahead and try it yourself!
If you want to know how to streamline and scale this, just give us a shout.