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What I Heard Listening to 100s of Coaching Calls
I've been listening to a lot of sales coaching calls this week, and I keep hearing the same blind spot from managers over and over again. There are two distinct things you have to address when you're coaching someone — the person and the process — and most coaches are only doing one. In this episode, I break down why the process-only coach runs an informational boot camp that nobody acts on, and why the people-only coach just gets their team fired up to execute the wrong things with maximum enthusiasm. The real skill isn't just knowing both levers — it's knowing which one to pull with the right person at the right moment.
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Welcome to The Ray J. Green Show, your destination for tips on sales, strategy, and self-mastery from an operator, not a guru.
About Ray:
→ Former Managing Director of National Small & Midsize Business at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he doubled revenue per sale in fundraising, led the first increase in SMB membership, co-built a national Mid-Market sales channel, and more.
→ Former CEO operator for several investor groups where he led turnarounds of recently acquired small businesses.
→ Current founder of MSP Sales Partners, where we currently help IT companies scale sales: www.MSPSalesPartners.com
→ Current Sales & Sales Management Expert in Residence at the world’s largest IT business mastermind.
→ Current Managing Partner of Repeatable Revenue Ventures, where we scale B2B companies we have equity in: www.RayJGreen.com
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Transcript
There are two things you need to coach, and most coaches only do one. And that gap is exactly why the people that you're coaching aren't actually hitting their potential. I've been listening to a lot of coaching calls this week—sales managers who are coaching their sales reps—and I keep hearing the same blind spot over and over. And here is what I mean: when you're coaching someone, doesn't matter if it's a salesperson, Olympic athlete, a business owner—doesn't matter—there are two distinct things that you need to address: the person and the process.
Coaching the person means it's—it's the inner game. Like the mindset blockers, limiting beliefs, motivation, self-belief. Like, you know, the stuff that is going to help someone marshal the internal resources they need to actually do the thing. Right? And and that's real. That matters. And some coaches are are very, very good at that.
Coaching the process means the technique. It's the tactics. It's the subtle improvements to execution that are going to move the needle on the performance, you know, in what they're doing. In sales, that might be, "Hey, let's tweak the script," or tonality, or, you know, how we're—the spacing between something. I mean, there's—like, sometimes it can be minor but technique changes. Or if you're—if you're coaching an Olympic athlete, it's tiny adjustments that are going to shave that extra tenth of a second off. Right?
And both—coaching the person and the process—are real skill sets. And most coaches are actually naturally better at one than the other. And hey, if you—if you are leading, like, a team and coaching people, I actually write about this kind of stuff every week in my newsletter. You can sign up at raysemail.com if you're interested.
Back to this: the process-only coach runs a really kind of like an informational boot camp, right? Because their people get it; like, they understand the technique. It's good information, but they don't have the mindset or the motivation to actually go implement that and put it to use. And, you know, think about it: like, you can hand an Olympic athlete a perfect technical breakdown, like, of—of their entire form, but if they're—if they're burned out, if they're feeling defeated, if they're checked out, if they don't believe in themselves anymore—like, none of that lands. Right? Like, the knowledge isn't very useful to them if they don't have the internal capacity to go act on it.
Now, the flip side of this is the people-only coach gets their team fired up, right? Everyone's energized, motivated. They, you know, you've got them in the right headspace, and then they go out and execute the wrong shit, right, with maximum enthusiasm. And so, you know, they've got great energy, bad technique, and and either way, you're stuck.
Right? And so you need both levers as a coach. And more importantly, you need to know when to pull each one, because some days, you know, someone needs, like, a mindset reset before any technique conversation makes sense to them at all. Right? And then that very same person, days later, may be locked in mentally, and then they need, like, a specific process change or a fix to kind of break through, like, a plateau or something. And the best coaches that I know are just really good at—they read the room, they diagnose what's actually blocking their performance, and then they respond to that. Like, understanding which lever do I need to pull with this particular person in this particular situation.
The takeaway is, like, figure out which one you naturally gravitate to. You know, most of us kind of have a clear default. You know, we lead with empathy and motivation, and and that's what we're good at coaching. Or, you know, some of us lead with, like, process and technique, and that strength will get you pretty far with people, but it won't get you the maximum performance with with the people that you're coaching. And once you know your default, you can get really intentional about making sure that you're using the other half of the toolbox. Right? Like, build it into your coaching sessions. Make it a habit. Like, ask myself: is this a person problem right now, is this a process problem right now? And that can be a really big unlock.
And that's what separates a coach who gets okay results from from their people and who they're working with, from the coaches who get act—maximum capacity, maximum potential, maximum performance, because they know when to pull which lever. So, I hope that helps. Adios.
