Bringing on new sales reps is expensive. This is true no matter whether they’re SDRs, hunters, or account executives.
It takes a lot of time, money, and energy to get them to the level of competence and profitability that your organization needs. You have to hire them, train them, and then ramp them up through onboarding.
The cost of a sales mishire can be as much as $2 million. But what about after you hire them? If you don’t invest in developing your reps, how much money are you leaving on the table?
This is why both onboarding and continual coaching are so important.
But not all reps can (and should) becoached the same way. Each rep is different, with different styles, strengths, and shortcomings.
Try applying the approach you took to Rep A to Rep B, and you could end up making them worse, not better. So you need to tailor your coaching approach to each of the reps that you’re working with.
Generally speaking, there are four kinds of sales reps within any organization. Let’s walk through each of them and see which coaching approach will work best.
1. Cowboys
If you’ve worked in sales for any period of time, odds are you’ve encountered a Cowboy. They shoot from the hip and ask questions later.
You never have to worry about a Cowboy hitting their activity thresholds. They’re always making calls, sending emails, following up with prospects, etc. (Sometimes you may think that they’re too aggressive.)
But Cowboys don’t do a lot of research on their prospects, which means they usually have trouble answering the following questions:
- Why am I calling this person?
- Does this person fit our ideal customer profile (ICP)?
- What are this person’s key needs/pain points?
- Where does this person fit within the overall organization?
- How does this conversation strategically move the account forward?
When coaching a Cowboy, your main objective isn’t to get them to make more calls. It’s to help them make more intentional, strategic motions. They need to dial back their activity by probably 20-30%, and invest that time in researching and more intentionally understanding the customer.
2. Librarians
If Cowboys are high activity, low research, Librarians are the opposite: high research, low activity.
Unlike the Cowboy, Librarians can answer each of those questions we just listed, and then some. They’ve taken the time to map out the relationships within the account, develop a clear message and value prop, and know exactly what needs to happen to move the account forward.
But here’s the problem: they just don’t get on the damn phone.
When coaching Librarians, you need to take the exact opposite approach than the one you’re taking to the Cowboys. They don’t need to be more intentional, they need to light a fire under their ass and start making more calls.
Then the inevitable question comes up: is it better to have more Cowboys or more Librarians? The answer probably depends on your product or service.
If you’ve got a complicated offering, Librarians probably will be a stronger rep, since Cowboys will likely miss things or just won’t take the time to “get” the product. But if it’s a simpler product that anyone can understand, Cowboys are definitely the better choice.
If you’ve got a complicated offering, Librarians probably will be a stronger rep, since Cowboys will likely miss things or just won’t take the time to “get” the product. But if it’s a simpler product that anyone can understand, Cowboys are definitely the better choice.
3. Sloths
If you have a rep who’s got the worst of both worlds — low activity AND low research — then you’ve got what’s called a Sloth.
Generally speaking, Sloths get a bad rap. They’re perceived as lazy and not smart. But that’s not true at all.
The biggest issue with Sloths is that they don’t have a motor. They’re more reactive than proactive. They’re great with customers, and are friendly and helpful, but don’t have the drive to either dive into a customer’s needs or situation like a Librarian, or ramp up their calls like a Cowboy.
Usually the issue is that they’re miscast. Maybe they came in from customer support and thought they wanted to be in sales. But it turns out, they really aren’t cut out for it.
With Sloths, there’s generally only two solutions: move them to another team, or let them go. But barring some unforeseen miracle, they just aren’t going to contribute to your sales team. So you shouldn’t waste too many coaching calories on them.
4. Snipers
If there’s a type of rep who exemplifies what “good” looks like, it’s the Sniper.
In terms of activity, they’re just about average — less than Cowboys, but more than Librarians. And in terms of research, they don’t do an insane amount; just the information they need to move the account forward.
One of the tricks they use is the 3×3. That’s where you gather three pieces of information within three minutes. At that point, they’re ready to get on the phone.
Because Snipers can balance activity and research, they get about 150-200% of the results that the average rep will get.
Unfortunately, an inexperienced coach can take this outstanding performance and just ruin it. That’s because Snipers have lower activity levels. So you may look at their call volume and think they’re underperforming.
In reality, a Sniper can do more with one call than a Cowboy can with ten. So this is why it’s so important to look behind the numbers and judge reps primarily by whether they’re predictably hitting quota.
Conclusion
Odds are, all of these kinds of reps exist within your organization. While your preferred coaching approach might work for some, chances are it’s not going to work for all of them.
By tailoring your coaching approach to the rep, you can ensure that each one of them individually rises to their full potential. Ideally, you’ll turn them all into Snipers.
And when that happens, your entire organization is going to rise with them.