A Brief History of the Art of Sales Coaching

It is impossible to know when the first sales coaching conversation occurred. One can imagine a young apprentice blacksmith, a potter, or a weaver learning both the craft and the skills for selling their wares at a marketplace. Or perhaps it goes back further to a community leader coaching young people in how to negotiate the best trade for furs and salted meat in the next village over.

We don’t know exactly how sales coaching existed in the distant past, but we do know when formal coaching programs began to emerge in the modern world and a rough outline of how they have evolved to today. Let’s take a look.

1. The Term “Coach” In Its Modern Form Emerged in Oxford, England in the 1830s
   According to Wikipedia, the term “coach” as in “sales coach” first emerged as slang at Oxford University in the 1830s. At that time, a “coach” was a vehicle, pulled by horses, that carried people or products from one location to another.
   
   Tutors who helped students study and prepare for exams became known as “coaches” because they “carried” the student through the process.
2. Formal Sales Coaching Programs Began to Emerge in the 1870s
   The post-Civil War era of the 1870s marked a time of growth and increasing industrialization of the United States and other areas of the world. This growth also brought an increased need for sales skills. Training and coaching programs began to pop up, often called “sales talks.” 
   
   At this time, insurance subscriptions were popular. Salespeople would go door to door selling subscriptions, then they would return every month to collect payment. Over time, a salesperson would find that they were too busy collecting to be making sales. Role division began, and the concept of “hunter” versus “gatherer” came into being.
   
   This mode of making a living also called for training and coaching to ensure salespeople were making as many sales as they could, and these often took the form of regular gatherings from more experienced and successful salespeople to impart their wisdom (“training”) and answer questions and conduct role-playing (“coaching”) with less experienced salespeople. These coaching conversations focused primarily on the art of persuasion.
3. Modern Sales Process and Coaching Emerged in the early 1890s to 1910s
   During the 1890s, prominent names began to emerge of individuals who were touting sales methodologies and processes and coaching salespeople in them. In 1904, a P.W. Searles wrote about teaching salesmanship to new recruits at manufacturing plants. Arthur Sheldon formed the Sheldon School in 1911 and offered correspondence courses as well as producing influential books.
   
   The development of formal training through these leaders provided a foundation for more effective coaching that was happening at a granular level.
4. Dale Carnegie Changed the Game in the 1930s
   Though not directly related to coaching, Dale Carnegie’s book, How to Win Friends and Influence People changed the landscape of selling in the 1930s. Its influence stretched into coaching programs and influenced what sales coaches focused on.
5. Sales Coaching Adapted to the Complex Environment of the 1950s
   The 1950s and 60s were a golden age of “Mad Men” type marketing and selling. This period saw a huge growth of formal sales process, methodology, training, and coaching programs. This was in response to an increasingly complex selling environment, in which consumers had more access to information and a wider selection of products and services to choose from in the post-WWII economy.
   
   Formal methodologies like AIDA emerged in this era, and entire training industries and coaching programs emerged alongside them. Coaching at this time remained largely ad hoc, as it had been throughout sales history.
6. Sales Coaching as Formal Practice Coalesced in the 1960s
   The decade of the 1960s saw an enormous growth in the formal development of sales process, methodology, and coaching, largely occurring within the caldron of the Xerox Corporation. Xerox during this decade invested several million dollars into the effort to differentiate their product by how they sell.
   
   Out of this emerged a large number of formal methodologies, and accompanying coaching programs. Coaching focused on helping salespeople learn the skills, abilities, and processes associated with the methodologies, and was often conducted in formal group coaching settings.
7. Sales Coaching Develops Cadences, Rhythms, an Entire Industry
   From the 1960s to today, sales coaching has become its own industry. There are entire organizations devoted to the study, practice, and implementation of coaching programs. There are training programs for coaches. There are books and think pieces on the types of sales coaching, coaching questions, coaching styles, how to be more effective at coaching.
   Our own ebook, How to Build an Effective Coaching System joins those ranks.
8. But Technology Has Lagged in Supporting the Sales Coaching Profession
   As coaching has evolved from ad hoc “sales talks” and conversations to formal programs inside top performing organizations, technology to support effective sales coaching has lagged. It may be easy now for a sales coach to see how many activities a salesperson has engaged in, or to listen in to a sales conversation, but it’s harder for them to see trend lines, or pinpoint where in the sales process a salesperson may be struggling. Equally hard to see which skills and abilities are lacking, or to track what conversations have been had and what personal goals the salesperson is working toward.

At Membrain, we wanted to address this missing piece in the sales coaching story. We built Membrain Elevate to address this and provide a central dashboard for sales coaches to operate from, that would place all the relevant information in their hands to have the most effective sales coaching impact they can. It’s built on our process-based B2B growth platform that provides granular insight into exactly where salespeople are struggling, and where their strengths are and provides everything the sales coach needs to support them in the most targeted, effective way.

We want to be part of the history of sales coaching, leveraging our technology to launch this essential part of the sales system into the next generation of effectiveness.