Coach Your Sales Team with the Right Data
The most elite sales teams in the world wouldn’t be where they are without a confident coach to lead the way. Many of those coaches turn to data to inform decisions, but how do they know what the right data is to focus on to grow their teams? ContractorCoachPro’s Head Coach, Jim Johnson, shares how his background led him to the world of coaching and how you too can use the data you already have to make every rep your best rep.
Ingage: ContractorCoachPro has quickly become one of the top sales coaching companies in the industry, what led you down this path?
Jim Johnson: It all started when I was 14 and opened my first business mowing lawns in my neighborhood. I sold off the business when I left for college with the goal of getting into pro baseball, but after a career-ending injury, I got into the health and fitness industry. After helping a fitness company grow from 5 to 40 locations as the VP of sales, I pivoted again to home inspection. That’s when all of my sales skills plus my passion for analytics clicked into place.
I started by aiming to beat the basic metrics, selling 19 jobs per week. When I succeeded at that, I became a sales coach, helping the team go from 3.9MM in revenue to 41MM in just a year. After a few more years of this continued success, I decided to start ContractorCoachPro where we help hundreds of contractors across the country build revenue while also coaching stronger teams.
Ingage: How would you describe your sales methodology?
Jim: We’re more like Business Strategy Coaches rather than coaches of a sales methodology. That’s because we help contractors build a blueprint for their business and lay out our 6-part strategy to help them start growing. The strategy is based on actual patterns I’ve seen in contractors, so we know that when you put it into place to solve some of those major problem areas, it really works. For those that are curious, the 6-parts are leadership, culture, process, HR or team performance, finance and accountability. You need to go through them like a sequence because each one is like a part of a company’s DNA. You can’t jump to solving your finance issues if you don’t have strong leadership just like you can’t ensure accountability without an HR system put in place.
Ingage: How do analytics play a role in how you measure the success of the business blueprints you create?
Jim: I’m a firm believer that if something can be measured, then it can be managed and improved. When you measure your business past the simple financials, you’ll actually understand what’s going on. Some things to consider would be velocity, as in how fast something is happening and how much you should adapt to it and activity, which tells you which activities produce the best results. You also need to be tracking how well your sales team is performing which is where Ingage comes in.
I love Ingage because it tells me exactly what happened in the field without me having to ride along with every single rep. Plus, I can control the visual aspects of what’s being shown and understand which pages reps are breezing past and which ones they are spending maybe a little too long on. We also rely on Rillavoice to fill in the audio aspect of the sales pitch. I may know what the rep is presenting, but I don’t know how it’s being presented unless I use Rillavoice. They provide in-depth analysis of the entire audio aspect of the presentation in a way that allows me to fully coach reps to success.
Ingage: It’s great that you found a way to combine the audio and visual aspects of sales analytics. With that in mind, do you think there are pieces of analytics that some sales leaders might be overlooking?
Jim: Unfortunately, I think a lot of sales leaders tend to focus on the wrong numbers, like revenue instead of profit or the number of closed deals instead of what activities led to that deal closing in the first place. It all comes back to how you coach; you don’t coach a result, you coach a process. That process involves finding the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that will get you to your end goal. A lot of KPIs come from the activities that are happening throughout the customer appointment, like how they introduce a product or make their final pitch. It can be a very manual process, which is why many sales leaders focus on the big picture data, but it can also provide a huge return on investment.
To be clear, it’s not about micromanaging, but rather automating the metrics and processes so that you can make informed decisions about your team. Using products like Ingage or Rillavoice can help sales managers access the information they truly need, rather than sifting through endless pages of data points that don’t make sense.
Ingage: With so many sales leaders weary of adopting analytics, is there a success story you can point to that might change their mind?
Jim: The team at Eldridge Roofs and Floors is one of my favorite companies to talk about because they really hit it out of the park. They attended one of our Top Rep events and learned about the blueprint system and how we work with Ingage. Not long after, they saw a 120% increase in their close rates! And this is a company whose main goal was to increase sales 25% but found a 100% increase in sales because of tools like ContractorCoachPro, Ingage, Rillavoice Voice and Leap. Plus, the owner continues to measure metrics and has been able to continue building on this success.
About
Jim Johnson is Head Coach of ContractorCoachPro where the team of expert coaches guide our clients through the 12 disciplines of the Contractor’s Blueprint -- a simple, step-by-step process. In the end, our clients have the systems and processes to take control of their business, experience explosive growth and achieve the freedom to pursue their dreams.
The Team at ContractorCoachPro is offering a special discount to anyone who reads this article: receive $100 off registration for Top Rep Philadelphia by using promo code INGAGE.