As sales professionals, we all have opportunities to engage in coaching conversations. Often they can be challenging. Therefore, communication skills are vital to a successful outcome, whether the discussion is in your professional or personal life, as a coach or coachee.

It can be perplexing to have several highly talented sales leaders executing the same strategy, with some receiving dramatically better results than others. How could that be? We discovered that sales leaders who consistently perform at the top of their game are collaborative coaches and outstanding communicators.

The coaching relationships and challenges are special situations that call for professionalized communication skills.

If you fail to understand your sales professional’s point of view, you stand little chance of winning them to your point of view.

If you fail to explicitly call attention to your sales professional’s strengths, progress, and successes, you squander opportunities to encourage more positive behavior.

If you shrink from clearly and directly expressing disagreement or calling out counter-productive behavior or performance, you deny your sales professionals the information they need to make progress.

On the other hand, if you can establish and maintain collaborative coaching relationships with your salespeople, you can help them to flourish.

Here is the good news: We will focus on only four skills, and each has just a few simple steps. Now, for the tricky part: Because you have been communicating your entire life, you will face constant temptation to revert to old habits; it will be up to you to set new standards and monitor the professionalism of your communication even when you aren't coaching.