Data Driven Approach Improves Sales Coaching

Dheeraj Prasad: Good morning, good afternoon. Good evening to all the viewers. I have Stefan funk, who is the global lead for data-centered sales coaching at SAP. And I would like to say hello to him. And I know this is early morning for you, Stefan, you're based in Germany. So very good morning to you.

Stefan Funk: Thank you very much, Dheeraj and it's a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about data-driven coaching.

Dheeraj Prasad: Absolutely. So, Stefan, when I first came across your role, it really intrigued me a lot. And you know, the world has really changed to a more digital format. Tell us a little more about what data centered coaching is all about?

Stefan Funk: Yeah, sure, of course, more than happy Dheeraj. So we actually started data driven coaching here at SAP for our entire sales population. Five years back, approximately. So data driven coaching is all about combining the power of coaching. So that's something you might be already familiar with. But when we designed and created the program, we said, okay, we need to add an additional element to this in order to make this more impactful, especially for our sales target audience. And we decided to basically enhance the coaching aspect with the insights with performance insights for our sales executives, which basically means we are analyzing their CRM performance, we are analyzing their overall sales skills, performance, and feeding in this data in the coaching conversation. The reason is, we all know that sales folks are busy, they sometimes are not really preparing for any coaching conversation, and we simply wanted to take out the guesswork and really make it tangible and impactful for them to really focusing on those challenges, which attracts our sales folks, most. And it's all about performance. It's all about making numbers. And therefore, we decided to enhance the coaching aspects with the data insights on our way. And

Dheeraj Prasad: That's great. And I'm sure this is a lot different from the traditional training format. So how does this really help in terms of driving performance in addition to the training? And what are the unique elements that really coaching brings in more from the personalization of learning experience as far as the target audience is concerned?

Stefan Funk: Yeah, absolutely. So when you look at traditional learning, and I include here virtual formats, as well as face-to-face formats, microlearning and things like this. So coaching is a really personal thing, right? So coaching is a kind of one on one relationship between the coachee as well as the coach. And it's a kind of safe environment where the coachee, as well as the coach, can discuss and evaluate the current situation right. And together, come to certain solutions that will help ultimately, the sales rep auto sales executive to become better in the sales performance. As I already said, it's a safe environment. On our side, we are always ensuring that it's not a mandatory program. So people can simply sign up for this, as they feel it's kind of relevant to them, or it's kind of it will help them to get better on the job. What I also would like to stress is that I've mentioned that at the very beginning that we are really much focusing on performance data, right. However, what I always tell our sales colleagues is that once you are having your discussion with your coach, you can also discuss other things with them, right? Because the coaching conversation should always be flexible in terms of things that need to be discussed. Because sometimes performance issues are the obvious ones, right? Because numbers are not bright. They're lacking in terms of creating opportunities or tapping into a customer conversation and things like this that I'm always using, kind of image or picture of the iceberg, right? So A coaching conversation really deep Steiff and, and unfolds what is under the water right. And sometimes, it's not a performance issue that leads to a lack of closing opportunities. Sometimes it's simple things like time management problems or challenges with the manager with the direct manager. Sometimes it's a private challenge, right? We are living really in difficult times right now. And it's a type of challenging to really balance private life and business life. You have homeschooling. You need to take care of your kids. You are worried about your relatives. You cannot meet with friends. All these types of things are now coming down to you and might have an influence. And this is what coaching is all about to unfold, really the real challenge and working towards a solution that, at the end of the day, hopefully ultimately leads to better well-being and better performance.

Dheeraj Prasad: That's great, that's really great Stefan, I think it's really creating that safety net, that psychological safety, as well, through a highly trusted relationship. And that's what coaching is really all about. Which is, which goes a lot more underneath some of the visible issues, as you mentioned, I think, a great example that you're given of the iceberg. So that makes a lot of sense. And I do understand Stefan that, you know, this is a completely voluntary program as well, and, and you pair up coaches across SAP and they are not their image of manager. So what was that something consciously thought of as a part of the overall design of the coaching program?

Stefan Funk: Yeah, absolutely. So, we heavily thought about this, right. So, in an ideal world, coaching should already be happening between the sales manager and the teams and individual sales executives. So what we wanted to do differently, but then the data-driven coaching program, is that we wanted to pair our account executives up with experienced coaches within your organization, not necessarily within the sales area, right. So they can also come from from the development marketing department. So we are not really because coaching at the end of the day is all about asking the right question. So you, as a coach, do not necessarily need a deep understanding of how a sales process is working or how some of the key performance indicators are being calculated and stuff like this. So it's all about asking the right questions and empowering the coachee that you are engaging both to find their own solutions. The reason why we have decided not to include direct managers, of course, sales managers are coaching within our program, but we are ensuring that they are not coaching their direct employees is that it's a much safer environment for the coachee to discuss may be topics that are related to the sales manager or to their direct manager. So that's, that's one thing. So the safe environment aspect. There might be sometimes also other private stuff that they would like to talk about with the coach and maybe some folks are not feeling that comfortable discussing those with a direct manager. So again, it's really important to have them open up and speak openly about the challenges and as well as opportunities and solutions. Of course, we do not want to deny the other part. The other part of the coaching aspect is that, of course, sales managers should and need to continue coaching their teams. But we are providing an additional offering to maybe speak up a little bit more openly. And what we have also experienced by talking to the sales reps prior, we have designed this program. Sometimes there's the tendency from the sales manager. Of course, they are labeling this somehow with coaching that sometimes it's simply another forecast call that they're having. And they think, Hey, I have coached my team, which is definitely not the case. Because they are going through the numbers, they want to see how certainties are progressing, right? And it's not a real coaching session, per se, if you will. And that's why we decided to simply map them with coaches outside of the direct reporting line.

Dheeraj Prasad: Interesting. Stefan, do you also have a coach for the manager program by any chance at SAP?

Stefan Funk: Yes, we recently launched also a dedicated data-driven coaching program for sales leaders of first-line sales managers, how we call them within the organization. So, it's a kind of a similar approach. So we are also combining here the power of coaching both data insights, but with a little bit of a different flavor for sales leaders. Because, of course, sales leaders also need to have a look at the team's performance. So this type of aspect is also included in these kinds of data-driven coaching reports how we call them, but we are adding some additional things to this to support them to become better leaders, for their teams, better coaches. So we are also really much focusing on specific sales, leadership skills, like empathy, like coaching skills, leadership skills, emotional intelligence, how to create a kind of safe environment for the teams and things like this, because we feel that these kinds of add ons, if you will, to the pure data game is also important to empower sales leaders to become better leaders and real leaders, making their teams more powerful and more successful in their role.

Dheeraj Prasad: Absolutely, I really like the approach of creating role models, and then enabling the manager community and then building that culture for coaching across the organization. That's great. Stefan, there has been a lot of shifts that have happened in the way that buyers are looking to engage with sales reps in the last year ever since the pandemic as well. What has changed since then in terms of the needs of the reps for coaching, and how are you bringing some of those as areas of focus as a part of your coaching program.

Stefan Funk: So, a lot of things have changed, obviously. So if you consider the entire sales enablement function within SAP, we have moved everything from peer-to-peer and classroom training into a pure virtual vault. So that has been a major challenge for the entire team, also including the sales coaching team, to make this radical shift, right? Because normally, these kinds of training and conversations are really living from personal interactions, right? They're sitting in one classroom. They can meet each other, meet with each other. There's a kind of social aspect also attached to this. So this has been a major challenge. Considering coaching, yes, we have seen a major increase or major increase in the demand to receive coaching from our sales reps. Because it's not necessarily related to performance data, right, so this is something important, but people really would like to be coached. And this is not only true for sales reps. That’s true for our entire organization. Those people would like to have a kind of personal one on one conversation coaching conversation with an experienced coach to really talk through things, talk through challenges, talk through your roadblocks that people are currently seeing in various areas. I just mentioned a couple of those. Right. So and they are not necessarily job-related. So the majority of topics that people are right now discussing the coaching conversations are really private, are related. But as we have certified coaches within our program, everyone is really capable to also handle these kinds of difficult conversations. They are difficult, right? Because here, you are not talking about numbers and stuff like this really about facts and figures, you're really talking about stuff that is happening in the private environment of each and every one. So also for considering your entire organization, we have really much expanded our global SAP coaching practice over the last year, and now also providing additional services to really cope with pandemic and related issues that are coming across to the employees.

Dheeraj Prasad: That's great. This will dimensionalize this elemental bit in terms of the number of people who have been coached, how many coaches that you have across SAP globally. So can you just give some dimensions in terms of numbers here?

Stefan Funk: Yeah, of course. So it's really an impressive number. So and some other companies that we talked to are really jealous about this great program that we have here at SAP. So we have around 600 to 700 certified coaches within SAP. Yeah.

Dheeraj Prasad: Oh, that’s really great.

Stefan Funk: Yeah, and it's a large community. So, I think the accreditation or certification is one thing right? By Erickson coaching or by the ICF and other organizations that are providing coaching services or coaching certifications. So the important aspect for us is also to create a kind of community within this, these coaches to ensure that they stay connected, they are exchanging best practices, they also discussing kind of challenges that they have experienced or are experiencing during their coaching conversation. So this is an important aspect, right? To learn from each other and get to grow with each other within that coaching community, and that's really a benefit that we have seen over the last couple of years, that certification or accreditations as is one thing, but really coming together as one community is really an important aspect too. Yeah, to provide the best coaching services to all employees.

Dheeraj Prasad: Stefan, thank you so much. As you very rightly said, you know, this is really about creating that community and culture for coaching across SAP and it’s incredible, work that your team has done in SAP is doing right now. So, and I'm sure this is going to be of great value to a lot of other organizations as well. And learn from some of the practices that you've already put together. Thank you once again, Stefan and I look forward to staying in touch with you and sharing more of the innovation around coaching. Thank you.

Stefan Funk: Thank you so much. Dheeraj. My pleasure. Thank you.

Dheeraj Prasad: Thank you.