Master The Art
of Sales Coaching
As a sales leader, your job is to find top talent and people that are going to help you move the organization forward. It starts by being as effective as possible in your day-to-day job. But how do you perform at your best when you wear so many different hats: manager, coach, and mentor, to name a few?
Chapter 1: Coach to Drive Better Results
If you’re trying to decide whether to make coaching part of your modus operandi, this should convince you.

We rolled out sales coaching to all LinkedIn sales managers globally, and saw our coached reps attain quota at an average of 22% - 26% higher rates than their non-coached peers.

Research suggests that sales coaching initiatives typically result in anywhere from a 5%-20% increase in quota attainment.
Simply put, coached reps outperform their non-coached peers. We’ve seen it ourselves.

Moreover, our top 10 managers in North America coached more than other managers and drove higher impact from both their top and middle-performing reps. In fact, their top reps saw an approximately 32% improvement in quota attainment over top reps in the region who weren’t coached.
60% of surveyed reps agree that they could use more coaching today than they receive from their manager
Chapter 2: Understand Your Manager Personas
As a manager, you have many demands on your time. And you may not feel you have enough time to invest in your team the way you’d like. But to be a transformational manager and leader you need to always be there for your reps. So, you need a strategy to free up the necessary time. First understand what you spend your time on each day. Then figure out what isn’t about teaching and coaching your reps.

Teacher
Demonstrating ideal behavior and showing reps how to get the job done.

Relationship builder
Facilitating connections and bringing in the “badge-to-badge”support (such as by introducing your manager to a prospect’s exec-level manager).

Sales coach
Keenly and silently observing in support of your sales reps.

Sales driver
Helping reps—especially new hires— take opportunities to the next level and even close the deal.

Sales Support
Adding commentary during calls.
Chapter 3: Get Clear on Teaching vs. Mentoring vs. Coaching
Before we dive into the most effective ways to coach, let’s clarify the differences between coaching, teaching and mentoring:

Teaching (or training) focuses on imparting new knowledgeand developing the knowledge and skills necessary to do a job.

Mentoring is about developing a rep’s skills over time by building a close, trusted relationship between you and the rep. You’ll likely find that mentoring is characterized by meaningful moments that often occur during effective sales coaching sessions

Coaching is performance-driven, observation-based, and focuses on developing one skill or behavior at a time to help drive better overall performance. When you coach, you inspire reps to see and take the necessary next steps for their own improvement, rather than prescribe what they should do.
This Pocket Guide shares tips from the best sales managers invested in coaching at LinkedIn. Read on for best practices you can apply to effectively balance your roles and make the most impact.
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