In general, scholars and practitioners agree that sales coaching enhances sales performance. Sales firms continue to invest billions of dollars towards coaching endeavors. However, despite the positive benefits of sales coaching, the fact is that most sales coaches are ineffective. In three essays, this dissertation aims to offer insight that will help companies and coaching programs improve the effectiveness of their sales coaches. The first essay explores the sales coaching process and how it is affected by factors related to the sales manager (coach) and the salesperson (coachee). Using in-depth interviews, we identified various skills, behaviors, and abilities that reflect the overall effectiveness of the sales manager as a coach, as well as gained a better understanding of how effective sales coach indirectly affects a salesperson’s performance. We also identified different behaviors, preferences, and characteristics related to the salesperson that affect the sales coaching process. The second essay is focused on the development and validation of a sales coaching effectiveness scale (SCES). We identified, measured and validated a three-factor, 16-item scale that reflect dimensions of effective sales coaches: involvement, rapport, and adaptability. The SCES scale is distinguished from previous coaching scales that were designed and validated in non-coaching contexts. The SCES scale offers benefits to practitioners and academics. The third essay is focused on measuring how effective sales coaches affect sales performance. Drawing on self-determination theory, we proposed a dual-process model in which effective sales coaches influence performance through motivation and through sales development. One, the results suggested that effective sales coaches intrinsically (versus extrinsically) motivate salespeople to exert extra effort towards selling, which increases their overall sales performance. Two, the results suggested that effective sales coaches enhance the selling confidence among salespeople, which allows them to adapt their selling behaviors to various selling situations and buyers, thus increasing their overall sales performance.

The main objective of this thesis is to explore the dependence between coaching and sales results of sales people during the Southwestern Company internship. In the theoretical part, I describe the concept of coaching and its history, on the basis of available literature and internet sources. Further, I devote to coaching models and tools that coaches use for improving the performance of coached people. At the end of the theoretical part, I define the specifics of direct sales and I depict the importance of direct sales nowadays. The practical part is devoted to the Southwestern Company, which uses direct sales to distribute educational products. I introduce the history of the company, its product portfolio and summer Southwestern Advantage Internship for university students. The centre of this thesis is the research, which I did during the summer 2012, when I applied coaching in communication with the sales people I worked with. The conclusion of this thesis is the link between theory and experience and also the following recommendations to apply coaching to increase the volume of production of the Southwestern sales people.