7 Solution Focused Sales Coaching Techniques That Elevate Sales

When you incorporate solution-focused coaching techniques into your management style, you’ll be surprised by how much more autonomous your sales team will become. In this video, I share some powerful questions you could ask that will help your sales team overcome day-to-day challenges and find their own solutions.

Read Our Guide To Sales Enablement Strategies

It wasn’t the first time. I was delivering a program for the Government Sales Unit of a national telecommunications company about selling in price-conscious markets. When quoting Socrates who said, “I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think”, there were some sceptical looks among the Account Managers. “We need to learn how to qualify leads!”, I imagined them thinking. Maybe you’re thinking the same thing.

I elaborated, “It might be more helpful if you thought through this situation rather than me giving you a solution, because what works for me (and other sales professionals) may not work for you. Let me help you think this through.” Then, I had the unit working together in a group exercise and they experienced the benefits of solutions focused sales coaching. Your sales team can experience these benefits too.

Here are some powerful questions you could ask that will help your sales team overcome day-to-day challenges and find their own solutions.

Also read:

• Sales Coaching Techniques – How Leaders Can Coach Their Sales Teams to Maximise Results
• Building a High-Performance Sales Team
• 7 Popular Sales Coaching Models All Managers Need To Know & Use

What is Solution-Focused Sales Coaching?

The solution-focused sales coaching model focuses on exploring solutions with the sales rep rather than discussing the intricacies of the problems encountered. The overall idea is that these techniques help the sales rep to visualise the end destination so that they can construct a guide for the journey to that point. 

This goal is achieved by sales coaches heavily using “present tense” language that frames the goal in a way that it already been completed. Conversely, sales coaches use “past-tense” language when focusing on the problem as it helps to frame the sales reps perspective as the issue has already been solved. 

Overall, the solution-focused sales coaching model relies on three essential components: 

Powerful questioning: Helps sales reps to look “backwards” as if they had already obtained the goal

Scaling: Analysing where the sales rep is now and differentiating it with where they want to be.

Imagination: Sales coaches encourage sales reps to envision what would be different if they achieved the goal. 

Why is sales coaching important?

Sales coaching is an essential part of any sales managers role for various reasons. Not only does it help sales teams improve their performance by receiving valuable guidance, feedback and practice, but it also allows sales managers to improve their sales process by identifying areas of weakness in their teams.

Also read: What Makes A Winning Sales Coach? 11 Great Sales Coach Traits

Solution-Focused Sales Coaching Techniques

1. Platform

You start with building the platform, which is where your sales team is now (not qualifying leads). For example, you could ask: “What do you want to achieve? What would be the payoff for solving this problem?” How will you know that we’ve made some progress?

2. The ‘Future Perfect’

You can use these questions to help your sales team see how the future will be different when the problem is no longer there. For example, you could ask: “What if this problem went away overnight? How would you know? What will you be doing? What would be the first small signs?

3. Counters

These help your sales team start seeing the strengths they already possess, that will help them move towards the solution. For example, you could ask: “When does this solution happen already? What are examples of the solution happening already, complete or in part? Which parts of your ‘future perfect’ happen at the moment? What are you already doing that’s helping? What’s working for you?”

4. Affirm

Even the most challenging situations with your sales team have positive examples of coping that can be drawn out and affirmed. For example, you could say: “I’m impressed with how you reached the decision-maker.” You could then ask: “How did you do that? When you’ve faced situations with gatekeepers before, how have you handled them?”

5. Scaling

Scaling questions can help measure how close your sales team is to their desired goals. The ends of a scale range from the “worst the problem has ever been” (zero) to “the best things could ever possibly be” (ten). For example, you could ask: “On a scale of 0 to 10, if 10 is the ‘future perfect’ and 0 is the complete opposite, where would you put yourself now? What tells you that you are a at ‘n’ on the scale rather than a 0? What is the highest you’ve ever been on that scale? When was that? How did you do that?”

6. Small Actions

The goal is for your sales team to repeat what has worked in the past and to help them gain confidence in making improvements in the future. For example, you could ask: “Suppose you were one point higher on the scale. How would you know you were one point higher? What would you be doing more of, less of, or differently? What’s the next small step for you to take?”

7. Review

Asking your sales team to summarise their action plan will result in greater accountability and ownership. For example, you could ask: “What actions will you take as a result of our conversation? How can you stay on track?” Reassure them that by sticking to the plan, you are positive they are going to succeed!

In my work with sales leaders and sales professionals, I’ve noticed that solutions-focused sales coaching helps teams focus on what’s working, and results in more autonomous, proactive and high performing sales teams.

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