Creating a coaching culture across a global salesforce
This case study, printed in Strategic HR Magazine, illustrates how a coaching programme was designed and delivered within Microsoft Advertising to build a coaching culture across its global sales manager population.
Microsoft Advertising is a global leader in the provision of digital advertising platforms. The company's solutions enable other businesses to connect digitally with target consumers and optimise advertising impact. Their primary business mission is to build a large global base of highly satisfied, loyal consumers.
It became clear that in order to improve sales performance and maintain its competitive market position, one particular population within Microsoft Advertising was going to be key. A Sales Academy program, tailored specifically for sales people within the business, was already in place when feedback from the global Sales Managers identified a very specific need for coaching skills development. A needs assessment followed and confirmed this feedback.
In the fast-paced sales environment, Sales Managers felt that they didn't have the time to coach their employees and knew they could improve in the area of providing developmental feedback. They recognized they had a tendency for providing solutions to problems rather than enabling team members to deliver answers themselves. They became aware that rather than leading and empowering their teams, they were managing them.
To read the article in full please download the PDF below, from Strategic HR Magazine.
2011-10-25