How to Be a Sales Mentor
How to Be a Sales Mentor
I began working for Tony Robbins in September of 1988. The manager of the sales team was Michael “Hutch” Hutchison. Almost twenty years later, he is still a mentor and one of my closest friends. Here are a few ideas to make a difference in your role as a mentor. If you choose to become a one, the first question you will ask yourself is why?
Usually a mentor has achieved great success and is a role model other look up to. Sometimes the mentor is in later career stages and can sometimes become disengaged and switched off. Mentoring provides a way to reengage the mentor and get them switched back on. For example, in the act of teaching someone else, the mentor may begin to see a new role for contributing to the firm he or she may "catch" some of the protégé’s enthusiasm, and be reenergized him/herself. They will be motivated to set a strong example and challenge themselves to get back to executing the disciplines that got them to the top in the first place.
A good mentor should put their new protégé at ease and let them know they did not learn the business overnight. Anything worth doing well, is also worth doing poorly. You do not master anything worthwhile quickly. They must know you do not expect perfection. Your expectation should be consistent progress. They must be allowed to learn by doing and doing means making mistakes and learning from that experience.
1. Often the protégé is in the enthusiastic beginner stage where they can be easily crushed with too much criticism. Look out for areas of specific improvement and praise them. Find the right opportunities to tell them you see greatness in them. Instead of always telling them what they should do differently, ask them how they could have improved in a given situation.
2. Keep them focused with a specific plan off attack. Explain the three to five key daily activities that will drive their performance and create a scorecard for a goal to attain and their actual results. You can track their progress daily or weekly, but stay in touch. As a mentor, you can not coach them on what you can not measure.
3. Get them a Journal as a gift. Encourage them to not trust their memory and to write down what they are learning and enjoying. Tony gave me my first Journal and I now have 18 valuable editions. It is a great way to capture moments that you would normally forget. You can use it as a scrapbook of accomplishments and lessons.
4. How they “tell the story” of what you and your firm does for clients is critical. For a mentor to conduct role modeling on a sales call, the protégé must be invited to watch as often as possible. Get permission to record the sales call from the client or prospect and tell them you would like to use it for training purposes for your protégé. Repeatedly listening to you and others at their best will cut the learning curve dramatically.
5. It is tempting to solve their problems. This is not mentoring. By solving their problems you take away their opportunity to become educated, and their ability to solve problems for themselves. People learn best when they face new challenges, in addition, they gain the skills to solve other, more difficult, problems. It builds self esteem and the belief they can handle any situation once they are on their own.
Being a successful mentor is a tremendous experience and delivers a great feeling of satisfaction. Being able to drastically cut the learning curve for someone is a great gift and of course a cost savings. You get the person up to speed quicker and cut the failure rate too. It can even be an informal relationship over the phone. Keep these five points in mind to make you even more successful.
Chip Eichelberger
A peak performance strategist and motivational dynamo, Chip is positively great at making your next convention unforgettable. Former Tony Robbins international point-man, Chip has a magical ability to generate enthusiasm, contagious energy and results that will last well beyond the presentation. His clients include Ernst & Young, Tommy Hilfiger, ADP, Century 21 and Bank of America. Toll – Free 866-224-1393, Chip@GetSwitchedOn.com – Sign up for his monthly ezine at www.GetSwitchedOn.com
How to Be a Sales Mentor - To learn more about this author, visit Chip Eichelberger's Website.
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Almost every successful sales person I know can point to one or a few people who were instrumental to their success. They can name the mentors who encouraged them, showed them the error of their ways and helped them over the humps. I began my sales career with Jantzen Sportswear. I had an apprenticeship with one of their top reps, Kent McCreight in Minneapolis for ten months before taking over my first sales territory. That experience with Kent was invaluable. He was a seasoned pro who took the time with me a served as an excellent role model. My next mentor Tom Hopkins, was a virtual mentor. I purchased two of his tape series on sales and success and listened over and over while driving thousands of miles in my territory.
I began working for Tony Robbins in September of 1988. The manager of the sales team was Michael “Hutch” Hutchison. Almost twenty years later, he is still a mentor and one of my closest friends. Here are a few ideas to make a difference in your role as a mentor. If you choose to become a one, the first question you will ask yourself is why?
Usually a mentor has achieved great success and is a role model other look up to. Sometimes the mentor is in later career stages and can sometimes become disengaged and switched off. Mentoring provides a way to reengage the mentor and get them switched back on. For example, in the act of teaching someone else, the mentor may begin to see a new role for contributing to the firm he or she may "catch" some of the protégé’s enthusiasm, and be reenergized him/herself. They will be motivated to set a strong example and challenge themselves to get back to executing the disciplines that got them to the top in the first place.
A good mentor should put their new protégé at ease and let them know they did not learn the business overnight. Anything worth doing well, is also worth doing poorly. You do not master anything worthwhile quickly. They must know you do not expect perfection. Your expectation should be consistent progress. They must be allowed to learn by doing and doing means making mistakes and learning from that experience.
1. Often the protégé is in the enthusiastic beginner stage where they can be easily crushed with too much criticism. Look out for areas of specific improvement and praise them. Find the right opportunities to tell them you see greatness in them. Instead of always telling them what they should do differently, ask them how they could have improved in a given situation.
2. Keep them focused with a specific plan off attack. Explain the three to five key daily activities that will drive their performance and create a scorecard for a goal to attain and their actual results. You can track their progress daily or weekly, but stay in touch. As a mentor, you can not coach them on what you can not measure.
3. Get them a Journal as a gift. Encourage them to not trust their memory and to write down what they are learning and enjoying. Tony gave me my first Journal and I now have 18 valuable editions. It is a great way to capture moments that you would normally forget. You can use it as a scrapbook of accomplishments and lessons.
4. How they “tell the story” of what you and your firm does for clients is critical. For a mentor to conduct role modeling on a sales call, the protégé must be invited to watch as often as possible. Get permission to record the sales call from the client or prospect and tell them you would like to use it for training purposes for your protégé. Repeatedly listening to you and others at their best will cut the learning curve dramatically.
5. It is tempting to solve their problems. This is not mentoring. By solving their problems you take away their opportunity to become educated, and their ability to solve problems for themselves. People learn best when they face new challenges, in addition, they gain the skills to solve other, more difficult, problems. It builds self esteem and the belief they can handle any situation once they are on their own.
Being a successful mentor is a tremendous experience and delivers a great feeling of satisfaction. Being able to drastically cut the learning curve for someone is a great gift and of course a cost savings. You get the person up to speed quicker and cut the failure rate too. It can even be an informal relationship over the phone. Keep these five points in mind to make you even more successful.
Chip Eichelberger
A peak performance strategist and motivational dynamo, Chip is positively great at making your next convention unforgettable. Former Tony Robbins international point-man, Chip has a magical ability to generate enthusiasm, contagious energy and results that will last well beyond the presentation. His clients include Ernst & Young, Tommy Hilfiger, ADP, Century 21 and Bank of America. Toll – Free 866-224-1393, Chip@GetSwitchedOn.com – Sign up for his monthly ezine at www.GetSwitchedOn.com
How to Be a Sales Mentor - To learn more about this author, visit Chip Eichelberger's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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 Chip Eichelberger (Visit Chip's Website) Chip Eichelberger gets his audiences to say WOW! His action on stage translates to excitement in the audience, and his customized keynotes and seminars produce results for every meeting. He entertains with his natural humor and a relevant message that consistently captivates audiences. Formally Tony Robbins international point-man, Chip can challenge, enlighten, and motivate. Meeting planners find his accessibility and attention to detail refreshing. Chip does not do a one-way keynote address, but creates an interactive experience. If he opens or closes your meeting, your event goes from good to great! A peak performance strategist and motivational dynamo, Chip is positively great at making your next convention unforgettable. He has a magical ability to generate enthusiasm, contagious energy and results that will last well beyond the presentation. His clients include Ernst & Young, Tommy Hilfiger, ADP, Century 21 and Bank of America. Toll – Free 866-224-1393, Chip@ GetSwitchedOn.com – www.GetSwitc hedOn.com
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