Productivity Supplemental

Supplemental coaching can be done without in-person time. A struggling sales rep was coached by a top-performing rep who used a color folder system to manage his work. The struggling rep's productivity improved significantly. Peer-to-peer coaching, where someone lacking in a certain area learns from someone who excels in that area, can be very beneficial. When it comes to Supplemental Coaching, let me start off with a story, and I shared this in another lesson. And when you think about Supplemental Coaching, it doesn't take you, the coach, any in-person time. And I'll never forget, we had a sales rep at a client organization who was really struggling, not hitting his numbers, was frustrated, was working incredibly long hours, and I'll never forget it. I found out that the number one rep in the company, or one of the top three reps in the company, was about 150 reps. And he was always so calm, so I went up to him and said, look, I've got someone I'm coaching. What are you doing? Because you look so calm. And he started laughing. He goes, well, I'm not calm all the time. And he started to describe to me how he managed his work. Now, this is going to sound so funny and so over-the-top and so corny. He said, look, we have so many directions we have to manage our business. We have to prospect. We have to quote. We have to quote the right sizes and colors of the products we sell. And then we have to work with general contractors and subcontractors. All of those have different nuances and different requirements. And there are days you don't know where stuff is coming from, but it comes fast. I said, interesting. I said, well, how are you so calm? And he said, you know, I created something years ago, a color folder system for each one of the things I just mentioned to you. I said, really? And he said, look, you can put ticklers in your system. You can put stuff on your calendar. For me, it's just worked. I said, look, I'd love to have this guy sit down with you, review your system. I don't want to interrupt your day. And he said, no, no, I'm happy to do it. That person's sales that year skyrocketed. He was lacking productivity. His lack of productivity was an organizational system. Now, as the outsider, I was not the right person to prescribe a solution or prescribe something because I hadn't run that type of a business before, that type of a sales endeavor. And I'll never forget it. Here we are, 15 years later, both guys are still there. The one guy still a rep, the guy who's helpful is now a regional director, and he still laughs at that and how impactful it was. We pair people up, and we learn from one another, and it's called peer-to-peer coaching. If you have someone who's lacking follow-through, lacking finishing things on time, find somebody who does and have your person interview them to find out what they do from a productivity standpoint. It really will serve you well.