Sales coaching is ideal for skill development but often falls short when unrelated or non-skill problems arise.  That’s where counseling comes in to handle attitude, behavior, and motivation problems that impact a person’s performance. Counseling can be helpful when a salesperson fails to improve skills in spite of coaching, or provides challenges like a bad attitude, insufficient motivation, poor work ethic, etc.

In this course, the participant learns the difference between coaching and counseling, when to use counseling, and we will discover the process and pitfalls that make counseling an effective sales management tool.

Counseling is a private and sensitive skill and needs to be planned carefully.  Identifying a counseling problem is only the beginning and must be followed by careful documentation and preparation. One of the key concepts is developing an opening statement to share your concern and to set the stage for a productive counseling session. In addition, participants learn to plan questions to gain agreement, identify the cause, and solicit input for improving the situation.

Effective counseling will generate a jointly-created action plan for improvement, monitored by the sales manager.  Finally, if counseling fails, the participant will learn about possible next steps, discipline and termination.