Sales Advice from Jack Nicklaus
With few exceptions, the best professional golfers employ coaches. And, they pay up to $20,000 per day for their advice so they clearly believe in the value of sound coaching. (This is Dave Pelz’s fee and 11 of his professional students have won a total of 21 Major golf championships.)
There are numerous examples of coaches being employed to manage athletes in order to produce superior results. Such is the case with both team (basketball, football, soccer, baseball and hockey) and individual (tennis, ice skating, and gymnastics) sports.
Similarly, you provide coaching (perhaps you call it “management”) for your salespeople. While it may not cost you $20,000 per day, it’s absolutely critical that it’s effective in helping your team produce superior results. If not, your competitors win, your business stops growing and…..well, you know the rest.
What is good sales coaching? We can learn a lot about this from a great golfer, Jack Nicklaus, who described 2 of the best coaches, Bob Toski and Jack Grout, as follows:
“They both had the gift of imparting to their students the ability to believe in themselves. They wanted you not just to develop your skill, technically, but to understand who you are, what your abilities are, and be able to identify and fix your flaws without them by your side.” (From “Do tour pros really need swing coaches, anyway?” by Jaime Diaz, Golfworld, February 27, 2017.)
How are your salespeople being coached? Do they believe in themselves? Are they able to identify and fix their flaws without you by their side? If there is room for improvement, please let me know. I’d be happy to help you identify the gaps in your coaching and find ways to close them so your sales team can consistently produce superior results.
