Sales coaching like a basketball coach would

As the NCAA men’s basketball tournament enters the Sweet 16, I can’t help but think how hard basketball coaching would be from the sidelines. You are not the one actually playing, and you have to leave the game in your players’ hands. Your team has worked so hard all season and now as the excitement builds, it is time to prove decisively that you are the best and bring home the trophy!  You’ve practiced and analyzed the competition, but is the team ready for that critical moment in the game?

Although maybe not as glamorous, it is much the same in sales.  You’ve worked hard and often it comes down to the final conversation for winning the sale.   You’ve given the salespeople the skills and information to be successful, but are they ready to close the deal?

Basketball coaches do have a few advantages over sales managers when it comes to coaching, though.  First, they are at the same place.  In the heat of competition, a coach can talk to his/her players.  The coach can yell instructions and remind players of critical points right there in the moment.  Basketball coaches also have the luxury of time-outs to stop the play so the coach can provide instruction to the players.Sales coaching

Virtual Coaching

While implementing time-outs into the sales process is unlikely to happen, sales managers can enjoy the advantages of in the moment coaching that basketball coaches enjoy.  Using technology to augment regular one-on-one coaching with virtual coaching has the same benefit as live coaching in basketball.  Sales managers can provide in the moment tips, reinforce desired sales behaviors and even pump up the confidence of a sales rep before that critical sales meeting.  Technology allows it to happen thousands of miles away and at any time on any device.

There are long term benefits to coaching on a regular basis too.  In a study from the Sales Executive Counsel, companies who had quality sales coaching programs saw a 19% sustained improvement in sales rep performance.  A Sales Performance International study found that when sales managers reinforced sales training with coaching knowledge retention increased by 63%.  Coaching in the business environment is just like athletics.  It isn’t just telling your team what play to run next, but also knowing why it is successful and how it should be done, so it becomes a natural, instinctive behavior all of the time.

So as you settle down to hopefully watch your team march to the Final Four, watch the coaches and ask yourself if you are coaching in the moment enough, just like they do.

 

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Veelo to Present at Oregon Angel Fund “OAFlympics”

Veelo™ A Feature Presenter at Oregon Angel Fund’s “OAFlympics”

March 8, 2016 – Portland, Ore. – Veelo, an award-winning sales and marketing effectiveness technology leader, announced that it will be one of three companies that will be a featured presenter at Oregon Angel Fund’s (OAF) annual meeting on March 9, 2016.  This year the meeting’s theme is the “OAFlympics,” and in addition to Veelo and two other OAF portfolio companies Olympians Mariel Zagunis and Nick Symmonds, will also be speaking.Oregon Angel Fund

2015 was a high growth year for Veelo.  The company achieved 400% year over year growth and has recently brought on some big enterprise customers such as Siemens, TE Connectivity and Qorvo.  “The sales enablement technology market has seen tremendous growth as sales enablement has become a ‘must-have’ function for many organizations,” explained CEO, Chanin Ballance.  “Organizations are investing more into sales enablement are using technology to improve sales performance. Veelo is designed exactly for that purpose.  To increase sales performance.” 

The Veelo platform utilizes a machine learning algorithm to recommend marketing content, coaching and job aids to sellers, in context for the specific sales opportunity at hand.  Veelo also is uniquely built using learning science principles:  proven ways to increase knowledge retention.  Over the past few years, Veelo has been using these unique attributes to improve the sales performance at companies like Xerox, Google and ESI.

 

Veelo helps companies improve selling effectiveness and marketing ROI with tools for developing and delivering sales content and support.  Based on an exclusive brain science approach, Veelo is the only system that helps organizations create and deliver content based on the way sellers learn, retain and apply information. The Veelo Guided Selling™ product uses a proprietary machine-learning algorithm that automatically suggests dynamic content and support based on the sales stage, prospect type and preferences of sellers and managers, resulting in exceptional customer experiences.

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