Coaching Sales Reps to Improve Performance: Insights from the 2024 B2B Sales Benchmark Report

In today’s competitive B2B landscape, sales leaders play a crucial role in developing their sales teams. Coaching Sales Reps’ performance can help exceed average metrics.

According to the EBSTA 2024 B2B Sales Benchmark Report, top performers exhibit significant advantages in several key areas, including pipeline generation, qualification methodologies, handling objections, relationship management, and deal management.

Below, we explore each of these metrics and offer practical sales coaching tips for sales leaders to help their reps go from data and insights, to improved team performance.

1. Pipeline Generation

The report highlights that top performers experienced a remarkable +488% improvement in velocity with the best-performing personas. Additionally, high-intent accounts closed at a 3.4x greater velocity compared to others.

Coaching Tips:

As a sales leader, it’s essential to encourage your reps to identify and prioritise high-intent and Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) accounts. Challenge them on how much time they allocate to pursuing strong-fit accounts versus those that are merely “OK.”

A practical approach is to have your sales reps present a prospecting list of strong accounts for your review. Together, you can refine this list, focusing on fewer, high-quality prospects. Remember, less can be more; directing more time and effort towards a smaller number of profiles with proven higher conversion ratios will yield better results.

2. Qualification Methodologies

Top performers are 588% more likely to follow a qualification methodology effectively and 366% more likely to close an opportunity at the Discovery stage.

Coaching Tips:

To ensure consistency in methodology usage, reinforce the importance of qualification methods daily. Consider integrating qualification scorecards into your call review process to foster accountability. The repetition from this practice will help embed these methodologies into your reps’ routines.

During pipeline reviews, ask your salespeople targeted questions about their post-discovery deals, such as:

• What’s the problem?
• How significant is the problem?
• Is the prospect dedicating time and resources to solve it now?
• Do they agree that we are well-positioned to solve it?

These questions can help your reps discern which deals are genuinely viable and which are based on hope. This coaching dialogue not only helps them qualify deals more effectively but also prompts them to identify missing information needed for the next steps in their sales process.

3. Handling Objections

The data indicates that top performers are 843% more likely to overcome objections compared to their peers.

Coaching Tips:

Invest time in listening to calls where high performers successfully handle objections. Use these sessions to coach your reps by discussing their observations and how they can replicate successful strategies in their conversations.

Next, practice these techniques with them in role-play scenarios. Observing and hearing your salespeople in action is crucial to ensuring they can handle objections competently.

4. Relationship Management

Successful deals involved an average of 9 contacts engaged by the time the solution was presented, while lost deals typically involved only 2 contacts.

Coaching Tips:

During deal reviews, ask your reps to discuss how many contacts are involved in their deals. If they report low numbers, prompt them to identify key stakeholders on platforms like LinkedIn. Encourage them to outline their next steps in involving these stakeholders. If they encounter challenges in progressing, share tactical approaches to enhance their efforts.

For instance, suggest sending a low-pressure video message to a contact that summarizes “the story so far” and highlights one key value point experienced by others in similar roles. Another effective tactic is to ask the primary contact if they would connect you with other relevant contacts, emphasizing the importance of inclusive decision-making in the process.

5. Deal Management

Top performers are 412% more likely to define a next step or meeting after every stage of the sales process.

Coaching Tips:

To gauge how your sellers are defining next steps, listen to their calls to observe how they are doing this. Some reps may set vague next steps or shy away from doing so diligently due to concerns about annoying their prospects.

Spend time understanding the root of this discomfort in your coaching sessions; it could stem from a lack of confidence or internal obstacles. Additionally, identify instances where your reps set next steps for deals with little chance of closing.

Challenge them by asking what they hope to achieve in their next interactions and the compelling reasons for the prospect to buy. If they struggle to articulate these points, it will help refocus their efforts on establishing next steps for more promising deals.

Summary of Coaching Sales Reps Performance

By implementing these coaching strategies based on the insights from the 2024 B2B Sales Benchmark Report, sales leaders can empower their reps to enhance their performance metrics significantly. The key lies in fostering an environment of accountability, continuous learning, and strategic focus on high-quality prospects and effective methodologies. 

With the right coaching and support, your sales reps can develop the skills and insights necessary to thrive in the evolving B2B sales landscape. By prioritizing high-intent accounts, adhering to qualification methodologies, effectively handling objections, managing relationships, and setting clear next steps, sales leaders can cultivate a team that not only meets but exceeds expectations.

---

This blog was written by Richard Smith – Head of Growth at MySalesCoach. MySalesCoach is the leading Sales Coaching Marketplace, expertly matching sales teams and individuals to their perfect sales coach. Whether it be providing organizations with ongoing and regular ‘in the moment’ access to top class coaching, or tackling the root cause of missed quota, we arm revenue teams with the essential skills, tactics and behaviors, through highly curated experts.