Training or Coaching. What Is The Difference?

Chuck: You know, I want to bring this back a little bit because people think that sales training is coaching. I'm like, no, that's, that's sales training. I mean if you're going to string uh, a bunch of sentences and give it to somebody that's training, you're, you're, you're, it's like you're preaching to somebody, you're lecturing. But really, what. And I could sit here and say it all day long, but I want to hear it from you. I want them to hear it from you. What is sales coaching?

Keith: Yeah, yeah. You know, if you, if you look at sales training, which is the traditional sense, which by the way hasn't changed in, gosh, 50 years, uh, the evolution to me of even sales training is sales coaching. So one thing that I'm even doing, and I know you're certainly an advocate of this, is it's not just about training, uh, salespeople on here's your process, here are your skills, here's your KPI, and here are your questions. And it's more about going deeper and transforming them into consultative coaches. Which is what we also want to do with our leaders, is transform them from the directive problem solving legion of managers into a world class elite coach that is empowering their people to be self accountable, motivated so they can achieve the results on their own. Because the one thing I've learned that managers would certainly agree with is you can't solve everyone's problems. And I'm sure we'll go deeper into that because you can't scale dependency.

Chuck: Yeah. And can you give a little bit more depth behind, you know, the coaching that you've done? Uh, you were actually in home improvement a long time ago. You actually, uh, you had a home improvement organization. People look at you and like, oh my gosh, she's in uh, he's in Google. He's in all these big, I mean you, you uh, you coach the, the uh, the Rangers, uh, sales teams. And, and I think if it's in New York, you've coached it, right?

Keith: Yep, yep, yep. So, so I'll take the credit as long as the team's doing well. Right. Nick's as well. So uh, I wish I could take credit for Michigan basketball. Go blue. So, uh, but, but in any case, uh, you know, there is one thing I want to dive back to Chuck, and I think it's an important distinction that I want to make sure your audience hears is sales training is a foundation. Sales coaching is what you do after the sales training is poured. If you look, for example, pick any sport, okay? Uh, rugby, soccer, you know, um, baseball, okay? Golf. Everyone is trained the same way. So if you had a, a, um, class of, let's say 10 students, and you have the teacher in front of you, the teacher is going to train everyone and the teacher is going to tell them what to do. Okay? Here's how you hold the club. Here's how you keep your head down. Here's how you, you know, here's your backswing. Here's how you follow through. That's training. Here are the rules of golf. Here's golf etiquette, okay? These are all the things you need to know. Training. I didn't have a baseline. Now I do. Okay, so now I go to my next lesson with my golf coach. Now, does he do the same thing that he did the last lesson?

Chuck: No.

Keith: This time he knows he poured the foundation on the last, uh, session. So what is he doing now? He's observing. The coaching kicks in. Okay, let's go to the driving range. Show me what you got. Hit some balls. Observing me, observing my style, observing my stance, observing my mindset. And then he'll say, let's go out, uh, to the, to the course and play a few holes. And he'll observe and ask questions. So why did you choose that club to hit that ball? And, you know, I noticed you were really frustrated on that last shot, which I'm sure no one who plays golf can feel that. What was your internal dialogue? So he was coaching me on skill and mindset. He's uncovering my gaps. He's observing me. So think of where the greatest, uh, sport coaches are during any game. They're on the sidelines. They're observing the players play. Because players can't self diagnose when they're playing. They're playing to win. They can't self diagnose and play to win at the same time. That's why the coach and the coach's team is on the sidelines, so they can share with them the blind spots that they can't see on their own. That's the coaching. So training, foundation, Coaching builds it and creates them as an individual champion. So even though everyone has poured that same foundation, just like any professional athlete, they all grow into their own style. And the one coaching tool that I can give every manager right now, how can I assess Keith if it's a training or coaching issue? By asking questions. Okay, how about these questions? So how much training have you had on or what was your experience the last time you handled this situation well? If they say, well, the last time I was in a situation like this, that means they had a foundation coaching conversation versus, well, Chuck, you know what? I'm a month in my new job. I have never been in a situation like this training.