The Open Floor Coaching Method

I have coached over 100 salespeople in my career.

I can confidently say that the open floor coaching session is the most effective coaching method I have ever used.

I learned this process from my previous boss and now friend Mark, during my time at Cloudbeds.

Coaching is the most powerful tool available to any manager.

However, to be a great manager, you also need to be a great coach.

Otherwise, things can get complicated.

Sales representatives, by definition, are often reluctant to receive coaching.

This is not because they don’t understand coaching or don’t think it’s valuable.

Rather because they are so eager to improve that they have high expectations.

If you coach them but they don’t see the value, they may potentially disconnect.

The power of this coaching session lies in giving everyone on the team a voice and coaching them on one specific topic.

The ground rules are simple.

Everyone should have their camera and microphone on.

There is no hiding or reading from slides.

It’s an open floor session, and everyone must interact.

To pick a coaching topic, think about the most significant pain point you currently have and need your team to act on quickly.

Is it prospecting? Your demo? How your team runs discovery calls? Or how to manage closing or objections?

Pick just one topic.

Example: you might want to run an open floor coaching session on how to give a demo of your product.

Gather the team, book the meeting for a mid-week 4 o’clock-ish time and explain how it works and the ground rules.

If you don’t have a tool that records your demos or calls, you need one ASAP.

Hubspot has an integration with Google Meet that you can use in case you can’t afford Gong.

Start by screen-sharing a video and audio demo that you have recorded or do a role play where you are the salesperson, and another person is the prospect.

Review the demo together and pause whenever you see a crucial moment of miss or a moment when the person did well.

Ask the floor: “What did Matteo do here?”. “What could he have done instead?”

Pause until someone speaks.

This is where the magic happens - after some awkward silence, ideas will start to flow, and the coaching begins.

Give tips on how you would have done things, but make sure it’s the team voicing their feedback, not you.

Be the moderator of the conversation.

The goal is to ask great questions, not to give great answers.

Make sure to stop the recording every 2-3 minutes and go again with great questions.

The takeaways will be massive.

Most importantly, you have given voice to your team, and they have started learning from themselves.

The real power of coaching is to build a coaching culture.

Salespeople don’t learn if you tell them what to do, even if you are the Founder or the CEO.

They learn from a coaching environment, from their peers, and from the success they see around them.

As a leader is your goal to unlock this power from the beginning.