Sales and crystal glasses

I had my first Executive coach at the age of 16.

I called him Dad, since I didn’t realise at the time that he was actually my executive (or business) coach.

I just started working as a sales representative for a cosmetic company and went to the first sales meeting one evening.

When I got back home, I was excited to tell my family about the incentives that was awarded if you made your targets.

After explaining how the incentive works, my father asked me: “So if you get one crystal glass for every R1,000 you sell then you need R6,000 sales to have a set?”

I said yes and my target was R1,000 for the next month.

So, I will get one glass.

He asked me: are you happy with getting one glass every month? And to collect all the sets in 18-24 months? That question changed my thinking on what I could achieve. The idea formed that I could sell R6,000 in ONE month and get the whole set! I never thought of it in that way. The possibilities suddenly seemed endless! Needless to say, I collected the whole set at the end of that month. And the next set the month after, until I had all the sets that was available.  

Why do I say that was my first Executive coaching intervention? I noticed a few things about that conversation:

·         He never told me what to do. He merely asked a question that got me

thinking;

·         He probed me to come up with my own idea on how to excel at what I could

be doing;

·         He planted the idea of six glasses vs one but still never “sold” the idea

directly to me;

·         He motivated me to take action by asking a simple leading question;

·         I saw my own potential and put it into motion and became a high

performer from that one intervention/conversation.

That is what Executive (and even Life) coaching is.

A coach is someone that “unlocks” your potential, guide you into a direction and motivate you to take action.

At the same time, the coach is giving feedback, monitoring your progress and helps you to stay focused on your own goals or desired outcome.

That one conversation unlocked the door to a successful career in sales and business generation for me.

It led me to managing others to achieve their goals and targets throughout my career. It also put me on a path of emotional intelligence that kept me ahead of the game, no matter what I was doing.

I became a manager for the first time at the age of 23, I am still an eager “student of life”, always looking for new challenges and a curious collector of knowledge.

I will always look back at that conversation as being the “starter” to a career full of joy, achievement and fulfilment for me.

I am hoping that my career as a coach will do the same for the clients that I encounter in my coaching interventions.

My focus is on coaching sales executives to become the top performers that they are capable of being.

I believe in the philosophy of “management by responsibility” and it takes a manager with high emotional intelligence to put that into action and effectively manage their sales teams.

So what does sales have to do with Crysal glasses? It is an idea. You create your own reality, you decide how far you want to go.

Your goal might not be a set of crystal glasses, but a better life, more money in the bank or a better lifestyle, whatever it is, you are in control of the outcome.

And that is my quest as a coach, to help you get to your desired outcome.

Join me?

Antoinette Venter, ActionCOACH Business Coach
antoinetteventer.actioncoach.com | antoinetteventer@actioncoach.com