Why coaching might require losing a sale

- Have you ever been in a situation…when you were making a sales call and it wasn't going well…and your boss jumped in and said the very thing…you were about to say?…You don't want to be that guy.…It's demoralizing to your rep,…and while it might win the deal in the short term,…it never pays off in the long term.…Sometimes being a good coach…means being willing to watch your rep lose a deal.…It's painful, but I learned this lesson…from my first sales coach at Proctor and Gamble.…

It was a guy named Dave Hinderliter.…I was a 23-year-old newbie,…and I was trying to close a sale…with a grocery store manager,…and the call was going south.…Now, Dave saw it was going badly long before I did.…I was just blathering on about features and benefits…and I didn't realize I had lost it…until the customer actually said no.…I was surprised, and I was embarrassed.…When we got in the car afterwards Dave said,…"Well, how do you think it went?"…I said, "Well obviously it didn't go very well."…Dave asked me, "Where do you think it started to go wrong…