Coaching to Create Sales Accountability

Sales accountability is the cornerstone of a successful sales organization, driving consistent performance and fostering a culture of ownership among sales professionals. While this might not come as a surprise, execution isn't as simple.

The To-Do List vs. Accountability

Whether at work or home, we all have experience using a to-do list. Often, we find ourselves with a never-ending to-do list that leads to an uneventful routine. We find ourselves picking only our favorite tasks to complete. Task avoidance sets in and the trickier, time-heavy tasks fall to the bottom of our list.

This is where most people tend to reorganize their lists. They revise, add color coordination, and more details. Even after curating the most beautiful to-do list, progress hasn't moved. Why?

Because you're not holding yourself accountable for what you are going to deliver.

Shifting from Planning to Executing

Accountability is defined as "the fact of being responsible for what you do and able to give a satisfactory reason for it, or the degree to which this happens"

Here's an example of where accountability comes into play during a sales management process. Gina does the following to manage her team members:

• Holds weekly 1-2-1s with sales reps
• Holds Big Deal reviews to help identify and close gaps
• Holds coaching sessions, identifying gaps with her team members and what she can do to help fill them
• Has a detailed, color-coded spreadsheet with a different color section for each team member

Gina crosses things off her list, but progress has stalled. During her last big deal review, she replicated the previous one. The same deal, same gaps, and same actions.  Hence, no progress.

While Gina looked great at planning and executing, she wasn't holding her or her team responsible for the outcome. With no accountability, it became another thing added to the to-do list. They missed the “the degree to which this happens” part of the definition.

Keith Rosen, Author of “Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions” talks about the ‘accountability trap’. He states: “Writing down a long list of tasks or activities that are not scheduled and have no timelines or completion dates associated with them is another way to avoid accountability”. He goes on to say “Since you are keeping the timeline open-ended, you don’t have to be responsible for completing the tasks by any specific date. No schedule, no commitment."

This doesn't address the most important issue with accountability in sales though. To take it one step further, there is no point in a schedule if you cannot measure the purpose or outcome. When you schedule a task, you need to set expectations on what objectives you will achieve.

Creating SMART Sales Processes

To help keep yourself and your sales team accountable, set SMART objectives:

• Specific: Tasks should be concrete and tangible.
• Measurable: Tasks should have a quantifiable objective.
• Achievable: Tasks should be realistic with the resources and time available.
• Relevant: Tasks should be relevant to sales goals.
• Timebound: Tasks should have an end date or timeline.

In Big Deal review example, Gina needed to set SMART goals with her team. By applying a SMART objective to her salesperson and tracking it, she would have made progress by the next review.

Increasing sales accountability only occurs when the company embeds it in its culture. This means holding sales leaders and sales representatives accountable, ensuring you can track the completion of tasks and coaching activities using SMART objectives, and tracking the developmental progress of your teams. With the right sales coaching, you will motivate your sales team, creating more confident sellers.

Learn more about how to improve your sales performance with great coaching by reading our Sprint Coaching brochure here.