Gary Kubiak: Making History By Doing What Works

The ASLAN Other-Centered^® Leader 
Coaches Quiz Blog Series

Every winner has a coach, and every coach has a philosophy.  The ASLAN Other-Centered^® Leader Coaches Quiz matches your coaching style with some of the legendary coaches in sports.  Here is a deeper look inside the philosophy of one of today's best.

When Denver Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak faces Ron Rivera and the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 50, he will also make history as the first person to go to the Super Bowl as a player and as a head coach for the same team. But Kubiak is no stranger to the Super Bowl. As the backup quarterback to John Elway, he went in 1986, 1987 and 1989 (the team lost all three times).

Kubiak's coaching career found greater Super Bowl success starting in 1994 when he was the quarterback coach when Steve Young led the 49ers to victory over the San Diego Chargers in Super Bowl XXIX. He also helped coach Denver to two Super Bowl titles as offensive coordinator in 1997-1998.

Career Highs and Lows

Kubiak's career has been marked with many ups and downs. He spent seven years as head coach of the Houston Texans, leading the team to the playoffs several times and winning two division titles back-to-back, but never being able to get back to the Super Bowl. He was fired in 2013 just a month after having a minor stroke on the field, from which he has now fully recovered. The team's record that year was just 2-11.

After spending a year as offensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens, Kubiak was hired to be the Broncos' head coach (with John Elway as general manager) in January 2015. In just one short season, the organization has made it to the Super Bowl, thanks to Elway's skill in building the roster and Kubiak's ability to adapt his coaching style.

In the AFC Championship game on January 24th, Kubiak's Broncos hit opposing Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady 20 times, two more than during the entire 2014 post-season. They did this by changing their technique from primarily a blitz style defense to a three-man-rush, upping the pressure on Brady and holding Patriot running backs to just 31 rushing yards during the game.

Although it was a big departure from Kubiak's typical coaching pattern, he was able to identify weaknesses in the Patriot offense and devise a plan to counter them. Instead of sticking to a well-established pattern, Kubiak decided to focus on what would work, even if it meant scrapping his entire strategy up to that point.

It can be a similar situation when companies introduce sales training to their customer service reps (CSRs). CSRs are often resistant to the idea of selling, and supervisors must adjust their sales coaching strategies in order to break down this resistance successfully.

Instead of focusing on sales numbers and statistics, ASLAN suggests focusing on sales as a way of providing superior customer service based on customers' unmet needs. This excerpt from "Why Call Center Reps Hate to Sell - and What to do About It" explains how changing tactics can lead to a more successful outcome.

A New Paradigm

[Customer service] reps need you to provide them with a customer-focused communications strategy that they can willingly buy into. They want to know that management at the highest levels is not advocating manipulation and pushing product, and that the goal is to better serve the customer on every call. Reps will need to lead the discussion with customers and help them discover how they can improve their situation through options they weren't aware of. Reps will need to learn how to dig deeper and learn more about each customer's unique situation. Our customers expect us to be the experts in our business and our industry, and we owe it to our customers to use our expertise to help them.

The CEO of a thriving catalog business explained how he wanted customers treated through this example. "When a customer calls about a $150 set of steak knives, it's not good enough to just sell them those knives. We owe it to our customers to understand more about their expectations for those knives so we can deliver the best possible experience. If the caller is the wife of an amateur chef and she is buying the knives as a gift for him, she might not understand the frustration that a simple $150 set might cause for him. We owe it to her (and him) to explain how a $400 chef set is not only a better fit for the application, but the lifetime guarantee that comes with the more expensive set actually results in lower cost of ownership. Ultimately it is up to the customer to decide what, if anything, to purchase, but we fail our customers if we do no more than give them what they ask for."

Yesterday's Reps were doing a good job, but they were only providing partial customer service; they were merely meeting the stated needs of the customer. Reps were simply giving customers what they asked for and no more. Through training, tomorrow's Reps will learn how to dialogue with customers so as to ensure that even their unstated needs will be met. Really, we're not asking Call Center Reps to sell; we're asking them to expand each customer's awareness of relevant solutions so they can buy what they want. Sales are a natural byproduct of great service.

Sales coaches who want the best possible outcome will adapt their strategy to what works. Just like Coach Kubiak has adjusted his coaching style and techniques to find success and get the Broncos to Super Bowl 50. If you are looking for help with training for your customer service reps or sales team, ASLAN can help. ASLAN provides outcomes-based sales training that will help your CSRs learn to sell successfully through an Other-Centered^® approach that meets customer needs at a high level. Contact us today to learn more.