After The Bob Pike Group did an on-site workshop with Direct General in St. Charles, Mo., Amber Dobrovolny, district sales trainer for Missouri and Illinois, was excited to implement some of the things she had learned. Here are some of her favorite coaching tips she adapted to fit her situation.
"I feel like I took so much new information back with me that I was not even sure where to start. I have not yet had a workshop, but I have used a lot of the coaching material already. I now feel as if I have a plan when I go into an office. I have prepared questions to get the agents talking. I am also remembering that I should not be doing all the talking and that it is easier to get their buy-in when they say it. I have been asking a lot of "Show Me" questions so that I can see the pull-through and not just ask them if they got the information that we discussed before.
"I have been more productive in my coaching sessions. I am getting the agents to talk about their areas of opportunity instead of me telling them.
"I have also been living by the saying, 'Practice doesn't make perfect; it makes permanent.' So true, and I am watching for those skills that need to be re-taught and how I can get them to change those behaviors that are now permanent.
"I am working on putting together new material for a workshop that I am hoping to do here in my district alongside my district sales manager, and I am planning on using a lot of the facilitating techniques that you showed us. I am so looking forward to seeing the change in the energy level after I facilitate a workshop using some of these new activities."
Amber Dobrovolny
District Sales Trainer- Mo/IL
