Self-coaching is the practise of leading yourself to success through unlocking awareness of your own performance. It’s a powerful way of understanding where you’re excelling and where you need to direct your energy to improve. Sales reps that practise self-coaching will regularly listen to their own sales meetings and sales calls and learn from the activity of those around them.
Sales reps that embrace self-coaching will reap the benefits, as will leaders who have ‘self- coachers’ in their team. Let's explore what those benefits are:
They achieve higher performance levels
48% of the coaching activity we see on our Jiminny platform is sales reps listening back to their own sales calls. The most impressive part of that statistic is that it can be tied back to results.
Reps who invest in 3-4 hours listening back to sales calls each month, are winning 5.5 % more sales deals than those reps who are not self-coaching.
It’s a powerful indicator of how much sales reps want to learn and how often they’ll put serious effort into it. Reps who self-coach take responsibility for their development. They empower their leaders to guide and coach (not manage) them making the best use of time and resources.
They are more receptive to feedback from others
Sales reps who self-coach are tuned into listening to their own feedback. When you’re in the habit of using your inner voice to encourage, critique and support yourself, feedback is necessary. Sales reps who are well-practised at listening to themselves are naturally less defensive and more open to the feedback and guidance of those around them.
They’re more resilient when facing knock backs
Reps who self-coach are more likely to have a growth mindset, meaning they’re focused on continuous improvement. They’re used to separating the emotion tied to results with performance. This gives them the ability to remain calm and offer a clear perspective when things aren’t going to plan. Reps who focus on growth recognise the progress they’re making each day: their worth isn’t dependent on a target they may or may not reach.
They’re humble
The very nature of self-coaching requires a belief that you’re a ‘work in progress’. Such a way of thinking fuels a passion to learn and develop. ‘Self-coachers’ are therefore humble in their character, they are willing to admit when they’re wrong and view failure as opportunities to learn rather than setbacks. No matter how high they are up the leaderboard, their humility makes them a likeable member of the team, often one from whom others can learn.
They’re more independent
We have more conversations with ourselves than we do with anyone else. Of course we do; we spend more time with ourselves than with anyone else. Those sales reps who take responsibility for their inner voice, who use it to guide themselves, pick themselves up, and focus on what's important, are far more likely to show higher levels of independence. They might look to their manager, close friend or parent for guidance, but they are their own ‘head coach’.
They’re more empathetic
Empathy is an important skill for any sales rep and self-coaching is an excellent opportunity for reps to walk a mile in the customer’s shoes . Reps who self-coach become an audience member of their own performance and are able to tune into the prospects engagement and watch how they respond, it provides the chance to understand the customer voice, adapt messaging and build empathy.
They inspire performance in others
Reps who self-coach operate in the moment, rather than the rear-view mirror. They learn faster and that usually means results that get noticed. Salespeople are competitive by their nature, so their peers respond and pretty quickly recognise the ‘self-coachers’ are doing something different. It produces a wonderful result: other reps will want to know how they do it, they’ll seek advice and they’ll start coaching each other. Togetherness like that has a significant impact. Not just on performance, but also on productivity and it takes demand away from sales leaders too.
If you want to support your team with how to 'self-coach', check out this video where sales coach Shelley Lavery shares how to :
•Create a coaching mindset
• Distancing yourself from your sales calls to gain perspective
• Learn to live with listening to your own voice
• Practice empathy to hear the call from the clients perspective
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