Sales coaching and sales mentoring are terms often used interchangeably in the sales industry; but they aren’t exactly the same thing. Some of the differences between mentoring and coaching are subtle, but in reality, the aims and outcomes of the training techniques are very different.
What is sales coaching?
Sales coaching involves monitoring a salesperson or team’s progress, highlighting areas for improvement and promoting behaviours which lead to business success.
The process is often based more in the short-term, with an aim to immediately improve the performance of a salesperson or team. A sales coach might be used to help overcome immediate challenges within sales, with an aim to solve a specific problem your sales team has both quickly and effectively.
What is sales mentoring?
Sales mentoring is the process of an experienced sales representative (the mentor) assisting a less experienced salesperson in improving their sales skills.
This often comes with a more long-term goal in mind, and it might take longer than sales coaching to see results. These results however, are much more likely to be consistent and reliable, as a sales mentor aims to slowly build solid foundations in a salesperson’s skillset.
What is the difference between a sales coach and a sales mentor?
The difference between a sales coach and a sales mentor comes in the type of support they provide. Whilst both types of trainers focus on improving the skills of a salesperson, a coach focuses on improving short term performance and skills, whereas a mentor undertakes a more permanent role.
A coach might focus on solidifying the basics, ensuring that any fundamental issues in a salesperson's behaviours are rectified, yet a mentor might take more time to understand the specific weaknesses and needs for improvement of the salesperson, and work with them over a longer period to solve them.
Sales coaching can be described as a more structured, program-based method of training, whilst mentoring styles and structure are much more reliant on the personalities and relationships between the mentor and mentee.
Examples of how a sales coach vs sales mentor work with a business
A sales coach might work with a business by providing training, teaching methods and techniques. They might also have a junior salesperson shadow them to learn alongside them, providing real-time constructive feedback and support.
Sales coaches often use techniques such as creating a competitive environment to drive instant revenue growth - sales coaching can be a differentiator for a thriving business.
A sales mentor could work with a business by offering guidance around relationship building with stakeholders, assisting in long term career growth. Similar to a coach, they may also provide feedback to a salesperson. However, this feedback is more likely to be actionable, possibly providing templates which the salesperson can implement and work on over time to improve in their role.
Pros and cons of sales coaching vs sales mentoring
To understand what your organisation needs, it is useful to consider the pros and cons of both sales training methods.
Coaching
Pros:
- Can increase productivity in salespeople/teams with a short turnaround time.
- Increase in job satisfaction due to sales coaching which can boost employee morale, and subsequently retention.
- Sales coaching can improve team morale - one common goal of coaching is to implement varying incentives and challenges to increase happiness within the team.
- Coaching can lead to better sales leadership within a team. Coaches are often able to teach managers to adopt more of a coaching role as part of their team. Not only does this provide a long-term in-house solution for sales coaching, but also equips managers to help their team improve faster.
Cons:
- Due to the nature of a sales coaching approach, a ‘one size fits all,’ method is often adopted. These techniques will likely be highly beneficial for some trainees, but for others, the focus of the coaching may not be what benefits them best.
- Sales coaching is better suited to medium to high performing sales representatives. However, a sales rep already struggling for confidence may not benefit from the approach of a sales coach. Coaches often critique the work of salespeople, and the inadvertent comparison between sales reps may be harmful.
Mentoring
Consider the advantages and disadvantages of sales mentoring, then determine whether this is the appropriate approach for your sales team.
Pros:
- Sales mentoring can benefit both the mentor and the mentee alike, accelerating the career progression of the mentee whilst consolidating skills and ideologies for the mentor.
- The more personal approach of mentoring facilitates a healthy relationship between the mentor and mentee. This is likely to result in increased employee satisfaction, as a mentee feels cared for, is able to ask judgement-free questions and learn without pressure.
At Mentor Group, we are passionate about increasing your employee satisfaction. This is not only because we care, but also because we know that increased satisfaction also means better results both business-wise and for the employees themselves. A win for everybody involved. - Sales mentoring aims to aid the career development of the mentee. This means that not only will their sales skills improve gradually over time, but also they will gain confidence and develop fundamental relationships in the business world due to the connections of their mentor.
- Mentoring is dependent on the personalities and strengths of both mentors and mentees. This means that mentoring is a very versatile training method and can be effective in almost any environment.
Cons:
Sales mentoring can take some time to see tangible results. If a mentor begins the process by getting to know the mentee and understand their strengths and weaknesses, they won’t be able to start offering serious advice immediately.
Which is more effective: sales coaching or mentoring?
Sales coaching and mentoring are both highly effective methods for improvement within a sales team. There is not necessarily a definitive answer as to which method is more effective overall, as this depends largely on the needs of the business at any given time.
If you are looking for quick and tangible results, a sales coaching approach may be preferable. A coach will quickly instil some fundamentals into your team which are likely to boost sales performance instantly.
If you are looking to develop your team over a long period of time, with emphasis on career development as well as building sales skills, then it is likely that sales mentoring is the better training approach for you.
To find out more about the transition between sales coaching and mentoring, read our dedicated blog which dives into this topic.
How do I know if my business needs sales coaching or sales mentoring?
The best way to determine whether your business needs sales coaching or sales mentoring is by defining internally what your goals are, both short and long term.
Once you understand your goals for business growth and direction, contact us at Mentor Group to discover which training method is best for you.
If you want to learn more about how Mentor Group can help your business adopt a revenue-centric strategy, and transform the revenue potential of your organisation in the process, visit our Contact Us Page or reach out directly to info@mentorgroup.com
