Follow-up and Reinforcement

In order to an effective training initiative, we believe it is important to leave a framework in place for coaching and reinforcement of training content. This post-training follow-up ensures that employees actually implement their learned skills and behavior in the workplace.

Field Coaching

The purpose of field coaching is twofold: (a) to inspect progress relative to the organization’s goals and for the culture change initiative underway, and (b) to provide on the spot assistance and feedback to field sales managers. The areas to be discussed during field coaching visits are agreed upon by the organization and the Schneider consultant prior to entering the field. The organization is provided with summary reporting of the findings along with recommendations to address areas of concern and identification of best practices.

Our General List of Field Coaching Topics

Sales Planning – How are 90 day action plans and weekly sales plans being used? How comfortable people are with the various parts of the plans? How much interaction and coaching around the plans is taking place?
Sales Meetings – What kind of meetings and huddles are taking place and how often? Are managers developing quality agendas and preplanning the meetings? How are managers and employees responding to the meetings?
Staff – How are people responding to what’s being asked of them? What motivates them? What are their individual strengths and weaknesses? What are their coaching needs?
Coaching – What coaching is occurring and with what frequency? How are people responding to the coaching sessions? What difficult coaching situations are managers encountering?
Competitors – Who are your key competitors and do sellers know their strengths and weaknesses? How are you clearly different than your key competitors? Do sellers have a 30 second infomercial or elevator speech?
Sales Strategy & Tactics – How are sellers executing prescribed sales tactics such as new customer/member on-boarding, high value client/member retention and growth, lead lists and marketing campaigns?
Outside Calling – What and how much is being done? How do sellers identify their call prospects? What does their pipeline of prospects look like? Any joint calls taking place and with whom?
Consequences – If an employee does something well what happens? If they make an error or perform below goal what happens?
Fun – Are managers making the sales environment fun through meetings, promotions, contests and recognition?