We often make our best sales people our sales managers, assuming both professions require the same skill sets. They do NOT.

          It is obvious that sales managers, who have been successful in sales, recognize what makes a good sales person. But recognizing or practicing those traits does not automatically qualify a manager to train and coach those skills.

          While I can’t turn you into a professional trainer with one short SoundManagement tip, I can give you a heads-up to one important skill the best trainers have mastered.

          It’s the skill of helping others to discover that they have the solutions to most problems within them, rather than pontificating about your solutions.

          Managers who have not been trained to train often try to train by saying “This is the way I did it.” Frankly seniors who feel they are already successful don’t care how you did it. And skeptical young rookies are thinking, ‘but that was in the old days, Pops.’

          The best way to train is through a guided discovery process. Plan ahead to develop thought-provoking questions and exercises to help your people to discover ideas and answers themselves.

          This guided discovery approach has the added advantage of staff taking ownership of the ideas and solutions they feel are theirs, rather than yours.

          Craft your sales meetings and training sessions to allow senior sellers the opportunity to share their experiences with newer sellers. This is a great ego boost for seniors, reminds them what works for them and allows less experienced reps to learn from their peers.

          In addition, you can bolster the confidence levels of your rookies by encouraging them to share their thoughts and ideas. Very often they will discover that they have the answers to sales problems within themselves if they are given the opportunity to think creatively about solutions.

          And occasionally they’ll come up with a great idea that you, and your seniors, have never thought of!