Sales Coach Job Description, Skills, and Salary
Get to know about the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and skills requirements of a sales coach. Feel free to use our sales coach job description template to produce your own. We also provide you with information about the salary you can earn as a sales coach.
Who is a Sales Coach?
Sales coaching is a management method that helps managers to support their sales teams to increase overall performance and sell more products. Sales coaching aims to inspire sales reps to work hard, ask questions, and be motivated. Managers don’t have to give orders, but they can use sales coaching techniques to help their team members achieve self-improvement.
Sales coaches make a proactive investment to improve the skills, productivity, as well as performance of each sales rep. They organize coaching sessions to equip sales reps with the knowledge and tools they need to chart their course to self-improvement.
It is important to be clear that both the manager and coach have essential roles. Sales leaders need to be aware that neither one is better than the other and should not choose one over the other.
The sales coach’s primary purpose is to motivate, empower and draw from the inside of the sales rep the ability for self-assessment, self-direct, and self-improvement.
A sales coach can help reps achieve:
- Recognize, refine, and adopt the behaviors that make sales conversations more productive
- Replace or correct behaviors that have a negative or minimal impact on sales.
- To help them reach their goals, unleash their potential
Sales coaching should encourage the seller to look within. The coach does not have the responsibility to say or demonstrate anything. Instead, the coach must ask questions and participate in conversations that enable sales reps to identify, improve, and optimize themselves.
Sales Coach Job Description
Below are the sales coach job description examples you can use to develop your resume or write a sales coach job description for your employee. Employers can also use it to sieve out job seekers when choosing candidates for interviews.
The duties and responsibilities of a sales coach include the following:
- Monitoring all sales handlers’ performance and finding areas for improvement.
- Establishing a rapport with your sales team so that it is easy for them to share their ideas and problems.
- Training and onboarding new hires.
- Setting learning and financial goals for the sales team
- Creating learning materials for sales personnel.
- Designing coaching sessions and training courses
- Establishing training needs through observation of sales interactions, reviewing sales performance, and reporting
- Getting feedback on training programs.
- Giving an estimate of your budget for training programs.
- Preparing and presenting reports for the Sales Manager.
- Keeping up to date with current market trends and corporate sales requirements
- Preparing new sales reps by providing orientation to the sales process.
- Developing individual coaching plans offers resources and assistance for senior representatives.
- Conducting exercises for current and new sales employees.
- Assisting trainees in observing sales interactions and collecting feedback, results, and performance data after each session.
- Collaborating with other sales trainers or managers.
- Meeting financial goals with structured training plans.
- Participating in professional publications and educational opportunities to update job knowledge.
- Learning sales strategies and researching company objectives
- Developing new curriculum based on market needs
- Facilitating communication between sales and trainers
- Evaluating performance using a variety of methods (formal interviews and on-the-job observation, etc.).
- Keeping current records and documentation
- Keeping a score database and conducting performance reviews one-on-one with Sales Associates
- Conducting sales associate evaluations
- Identifying and bridging gaps between individual and team performance, productivity, and quality.
- Participating in educational opportunities to update your leadership skills and knowledge.
The following are other important tasks:
- Defining goals and strategies
Sales coaches assist sellers in defining goals and strategies that will help them achieve their purpose. This will lead to increased sales energy, focus, and engagement.
Selling success is dependent on setting clear goals and strategies. Sellers will feel strong enough to achieve their goals and purpose will motivate them to succeed.
A sales coach can identify the motivation of a seller and can then help them develop action plans, overcome obstacles, and take responsibility for achieving their goals.
- Execute
Sales coaches assist sellers in developing habits that allow them to achieve their goals and get the most out of their time. They also help sellers keep current written and public action plans.
Sometimes it feels impossible to change habits and develop new ones. Sales coaches should meet regularly and frequently with sellers to address this issue. Sellers will stay on task if they know that their behavior is being monitored.
Sales coaches can also help sellers make connections between actions, goals, and action plans. These action plans help sellers determine what they will and won’t do. This allows them to make the most of their time and get the best results.
- Making recommendations
Sales coaches offer guidance, asking sellers exploratory questions to help them find the answers. However, they also know when to give direct advice about specific opportunities.
The trick is to deliver the advice in the right way. A coach can decide whether to be more direct or more facilitative. This depends on the seller’s expertise. More directive advice is more helpful for sellers who are less experienced. A facilitated approach is more effective for sellers who are more experienced.
- Motivate
Sales coaches can identify the motivations of each seller and then take steps to maximize them.
Sales leaders often believe that a quota or compensation plan is enough to motivate their salespeople. This is simply not true. Motivation is not always about money. It’s the job of the sales coach to decide what motivates a seller from another.
Coaches who operate at peak motivation are challenged to reach their full potential. They stay focused on their sales goals and remain positive. A coach can provide motivation support to help sellers maintain high levels of energy, action, and focus for longer periods.
Qualifications
- BS/Bachelors Degree in Human Resource, Marketing, or Other Related Fields
- 2 years experience working as a sales coach or trainer
- Professional certifications in sales training such as Certified Inside Sales Professional (CISP), Certified Sales & Marketing Professional are preferred.
- A solid understanding of the sales process and its best practices.
- Familiarity with high-performance management techniques.
- Great presentation skills and coaching abilities.
- Must possess good leadership and management skills
- Be familiar with e-learning platforms, role-playing activities, and other online learning tools.
Essential Skills
- Strategy-focused
A sales coach must be able to determine the strategy that the team will use. He must recognize the goals of their team and create a plan to achieve them. This involves constantly researching data to find the best strategies and refining them to make the team more effective. To ensure that the strategy is understood and clear, they coach and mentor their employees.
They must also be able to manage others on the team so that they do their best work and get the best results.
- Flexibility
Although the sales coach may have already created the sales guide, it is up to them to identify when it doesn’t work. The company’s long-term goals for sales are part of their responsibility and they must use all tools available to them. They must be flexible and willing to change as needed.
This flexibility is also helpful when mentoring and coaching their sales rep. A coaching strategy that works for all sales reps may not work. Sales coaches should use different strategies to achieve the best results for their sales rep.
- Empathy
The sales coach must have the ability to inspire their team towards success. To do this, the coach must ensure that their team members can understand the sales guide’s vision on an individual basis. This can be achieved by empathizing with the needs and styles of their team members. The sales coach must recognize and nurture the unique talents of each member to strengthen the entire team.
- Listening Skills
Sometimes, members of the team may not be satisfied with their work or feel that the expectations are too high. Sales coaches should be able to listen and build trust with their team, as well as encourage them to share their concerns. Good leaders listen to their team members and address any issues that may hinder their success.
- Goal-driven
A sales coach who is effective doesn’t just set the goals for their team, but actively drives them to achieve and exceed them. Every aspect of the work of a sales coach must be focused on the end goal. It is the coach’s responsibility to ensure that these goals are always within reach. Then, they should use the strategies they have defined to achieve them.
- Inspirational
Each goal should be a motivator for the whole team. This is something every sales manager and person must understand. The sales coach must ensure that each member of the team achieves this success through coaching and mentoring.
- Strong supervision skills
Sales coaches who are the best keep their fingers on the pulse of their teams by constantly monitoring their progress and making adjustments as needed. By coaching sales managers and their team members, they ensure that their team knows what to expect. To keep their team on track and reach their sales goals, they must provide consistent coaching.
- Leadership
A sales coach who is effective teaches their team by not only writing and coaching but also following the vision and culture that they have created. The team can see the work ethic and codes of conduct of the sales coach.
- Care
Sales coaches who win are passionate about their direct reports’ success. They can establish good relationships with their direct reports and show empathy. Each individual feels valued and cared for by their coaches.
- Give people a sense of purpose
They can share their vision frequently and give people direction and motivation to work hard. They can positively motivate people and are decisive. The best coaches are always looking for ways to improve and can use emotion and facts to get buy-in from people and drive them to take action.
- Decision-Making skills
Great coaches can see ahead and anticipate events. They can use their business sense but also rely on data and measurements to make the right long-term decisions. Before committing to any plan, they always weigh the consequences. They can solve problems and are willing to assist their direct reports. They are very results-oriented and focus on Key Performance Indicators to confirm their success.
How to Become a Sales Coach
If you want to be a sales coach, there are many skills and qualities that you need, such as customer service skills, computer proficiency, and communication expertise. A college degree, certification voluntary, and experience in sales are all required for sales coordinators at large companies.
To determine the best markets and stores to sell their products, sales coaches do extensive market research. A sales coach must be proficient in the use of the internet and must be able to communicate well. They should be able to communicate clearly and present products in a friendly manner. Friendly demeanors can make all the difference in securing long-term customers or not introducing even one product to stores. Sales coaches are expected to present a professional appearance when teaching the members of their team.
Although there are no specific educational requirements for sales coaches, many professionals opt to earn associate degrees or higher to be better prepared. Students who wish to become sales coaches usually major in accounting, business administration, public relations, communications, and/or business administration. For an individual to understand successful customer service and research strategies, they should take courses in history, statistics, sociology, economics, and sociology.
To further enhance their skills, potential sales coaches find it useful to seek certification from private organizations. For example, the Manufacturers’ Representatives Educational Research Foundation (MRERF) offers certification exams, training, membership, and formal training to American sales coordinators. The MRERF awards Certified Sales Professional certifications to those who complete the exams and courses. Employers prefer sales coaches with certification. Some companies also require that workers pursue certification before they can work independently.
Instead of hiring outside sales professionals, many companies prefer to promote their employees internally to sales coaching positions. Managers and coordinating assistants may be able to become sales coaches if they have demonstrated their work ethic, knowledge of the job, as well as a desire to expand the company’s distribution market.
Where to Work
Sales coaches work in offices with desks. Sales coaches typically work full-time in an office where they teach and trains sales rep on how to improve their knowledge and skills.
Sales Coach Salary Scale
In the United States, the average annual salary for a sales coach is $53,569.