The Biblical Sales Force Part 2 – On Boarding and Coaching Salespeople

As I wrote in September, I’m reading the Bible from beginning to end for the first time.  I created an analogy for my first article when I wrote about scaling, hiring and firing salespeople, based on what I read in Genesis.  Today’s article is about on boarding and coaching salespeople, an analogy I created from what I read so far in Exodus.

Early in Exodus, we are introduced to Moses, whose people have been slaves to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for hundreds of years.  God appears to Moses and commands him to approach Pharaoh and persuade him to release the Israelites so they can freely worship their God.  Moses lacks confidence in his ability to articulate the request, and questions God’s direction.  He wonders if there might be someone better to handle this important assignment.

God had to build Moses’ confidence, and properly prepare him for the conversation he will have with Pharaoh.  This is the equivalent to pre-call strategizing, one of several methods we teach for coaching salespeople.  God needed to provide Moses with talking points sufficient to give him gravitas with Pharaoh, so he provided Moses with the God-like ability to turn his staff into a snake. Sales leaders accomplish the same thing when they prepare a salesperson with powerful messaging and talking points.

Moses failed on his first attempt to persuade Pharaoh because Pharaoh’s wise men, sorcerers, and magicians were also able to turn their staffs into snakes.  Moses returned to God and spoke of this obstacle, or in sales terms, objection:  There was internal competition!

When Moses reported back to God, God debriefed Moses and then coached him again. In sales we would call this post-call debriefing and we would role-play what the next conversation should sound like.  God role-played with Moses again, and prepared him for the next big demonstration of his Godly powers – turning the Nile River into blood.

There were many follow-up coaching sessions between God and Moses and they went on for many days and weeks, preparing Moses to demonstrate even greater powers.  The first few demonstrations of power included the Nile River, and then the Frogs, both of which the internal competition was able to replicate.  But God and Moses gained the upper hand when it came to gnats, flies, Locusts, disease, and plagues. Unfortunately, Pharaoh lied  about letting the Israelites go free each time, much as prospects often lie to salespeople.

Through it all, Moses was gaining confidence and Pharaoh had no doubt that Moses had the ability to bring down fire and brimstone. God coached Moses once again when they worked out the proper messaging to warn that every first-born in Egypt would die but the Israelites would live.  This would be the original Passover that Jews continue to celebrate to this day.  Moses was finally strong enough to show his leverage.

Finally, Pharaoh said Moses and the Israelites could leave but it took God parting the Red Sea to bring it to fruition.  The Red Sea miracle is similar to when a sales leader arrives at the 11th hour to close the big deal for the salesperson. I’m not a fan of that approach but sometimes there is no other way.

God coaching Moses is the analogy for what sales leaders must do with their new salespeople each and every day. They must prepare them for their sales calls, provide them with direction, support and confidence, pre-call strategize the conversations to come, and debrief their failures after they occur.  As with God and Moses, both sales coaching methods should have a role-play component.

For those who sell by phone, technology has made it possible for sales leaders to listen to any sales call at any time, and to identify the moments, messages, timing, and missed opportunities from sales conversations.  Then they can review the call together with their salespeople and coach them to improve.  And to think God had that ability 5,000 years ago!  To effectively coach field salespeople, it requires joint sales calls and post-call debriefs.

God coached Moses repeatedly to return to Pharaoh, a sales scenario that could only happen if you build space ships and NASA is your only prospect.  But the strategy applies equally well if the salesperson calls on two dozen different prospects and needs to improve incrementally after each call.

Obviously, the concept of coaching salespeople isn’t a new one, but most sales leaders don’t do it consistently or effectively.  Statistics from Objective Management Group’s nearly 2.5 million sales and sales management assessments show that when sales managers consistently coach their salespeople they experience a 28% bump in revenue, and when they coach both consistently and effectively, the bump is almost 50%!

Shouldn’t you take a page from the Bible and pledge to formalize your sales onboarding, pre-call strategizing, post-call debriefing, and joint sales calls?

If you’re not from a company where we could provide training for a large sales leadership team, you can learn on your own by enrolling in one or both of our two self-directed sales leadership courses:

Sales Leadership Intensive – approximately 18 hours of content (mostly on coaching)

Master Sales Coaching – How to use role plays to coach salespeople – examples from approximately 30 unscripted role plays recorded live.  

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