Account executive coaching is coaching on the AE's live deals: what the buyer has said, what the deal is missing, and what to say in the next conversation. It happens before the calls that decide a deal, straight after them, and every week on anything that has not moved.
An AE carries a pipeline of opportunities at different stages, each with its own buyers and its own gap. Skills show up deal by deal, so that is where we coach them. Our deal coaching guide covers the method in full; this page sets out the AE's side of it.
What an AE is coached on
An AE is coached on moving a specific deal to its next buyer step. That covers discovery (getting the buyer to name the problem and put a cost on it), reaching the people who decide, building the case for acting this quarter, handling pricing and procurement, and keeping the champion working on the inside.
The failure modes are well known. Toggle Switch, a training provider, lists them as demos before discovery, deals moving without access to decision makers, and pricing that comes up too late. Each one is visible on a live deal weeks before it costs the quarter, if someone looks. Coaching is that look, followed by a plan for the next conversation.
Deal coaching and deal inspection get confused. Inspection asks whether the deal will close and when. Coaching asks what the buyer has not yet said or done and how the AE gets it. The difference is laid out in deal coaching vs deal inspection.
The six questions every deal has to answer
Six questions work as the spine of any AE review, whatever the method:
- Was the problem ever real? Has the buyer named it in their own numbers?
- Is doing nothing free? What does carrying on as they are cost the buyer?
- Is there a real why-now, a reason it gets solved this quarter?
- Is the deal single-threaded, or has someone besides the champion said it must be fixed?
- Is the AE talking to real power, the person who signs?
- Did the buyer commit to anything real, a next step with an owner and a date?
Mark each one held or open. The coaching goes to the first question that is open.
The AE's coaching week
| Moment | How often | What the AE brings | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-call session | Before any call that decides a deal: signer, pricing, procurement, a competitive bake-off | The deal, the last buyer email, who will be on the call | The first thirty seconds of the call, in words the AE could say, and the one thing to find out |
| Post-call debrief | Same day as the call | What the buyer said, or the recording | The gap between what the buyer said and what the AE concluded, and the follow-up written |
| Weekly pass | Once a week, 15 minutes per stuck deal | Anything that has not moved since last week | One move per deal, with a date |
| One-on-one with the manager | Weekly | One deal the AE is unsure about | One skill gap named, worked on that deal |
| Forecast call | Weekly | Commit and best-case deals | Each commit deal names the buyer action that proves the stage |
Before the call that matters
A deal review is a call. The AE opens a call with the coach, names the account and the problem in one breath, and lets the coach ask. A good opener names the deal and the worry: "I have a proposal going out Friday and I am not confident in the number" (bring a deal to a call).
A good session runs fifteen to twenty minutes. Two minutes of questions to find out what the AE knows. The finding, usually the gap between what the buyer said and what the AE concluded from it. The move, asked for as words: "give me how I open the next call." Then the agenda: what the coach needs the AE to find out. That last step is the one people skip, and it is what makes the next session sharper than this one. Typing is there for when the AE cannot talk; talking gets more detail out, because people compress when they write.
After the call
Debrief the same day while the call is fresh. If a recording is connected, point the coach at it, because the difference between the transcript and the AE's memory of the call is often the whole coaching conversation. Ask what the buyer committed to, in their words, and compare it with what the CRM now says. Write the follow-up email in the session.
Some recording tools ask reps to coach themselves from their calls. Gong's help center, for example, recommends listening to your own calls once a week and asking your manager for feedback once a month (Gong). We read the calls too. The coaching on top is a plan for the next conversation, made the same day, on every deal.
The weekly pass on deals that have not moved
Once a week, take every deal that has not moved to its next buyer step and give it fifteen minutes. The coach carries the deal between sessions, so each pass starts from what the last one established (bring a deal to a call). The output is one move per deal and a date for it. A deal that gets no move two weeks running is a candidate to move down the forecast. The full review procedure is in how to run a deal review.
Worked example: one deal, four sessions (illustrative)
Illustrative: the AE, buyer and account are invented.
- Before proposalHold the proposal
- Ask the director what a lost day costs
- After that callWrite to the CFO
- Built on the director's number
- Weekly passNo reply in a week
- Ask the director to forward the note
- Before CFO meetingRehearse the first thirty seconds
- Three things to confirm
Sam, an AE, is working Elmsworth Health, a mid-size clinic group. Stage: proposal. The champion, the operations director, has said budget is approved.
Session one, before the proposal call. Sam calls Caty, the expert who works live deals in the team's own method. Sam leads with the approved budget. Caty asks who approved it, and Sam cannot say. Against the six questions, the problem is real (the director has said scheduling errors cost her team a day a week), but nobody has said what that costs in money, nobody has named a reason for this quarter, and Sam has never met the CFO. The move: hold the proposal and ask the director one question on Thursday, "What does a lost day a week cost you across the clinics, and who else feels it?"
Session two, after that call. The director put a number on it and said the CFO asked about it last month. Sam and Caty write the email asking for thirty minutes with the CFO, built on her number.
Session three, a week later. No reply from the CFO in a week. The move: ask the director to forward the note with a line of her own.
Session four, before the CFO meeting. Sam rehearses the first thirty seconds out loud and leaves with three things to confirm: the cost, the date the board reviews spending, and who else signs.
In the forecast call, Sam's manager asks what proves the stage. Sam has an answer in the buyer's words and a date on the CFO's calendar.
Four sessions a month, on every deal
An AE has more decisive calls in a month than a manager has hours to review. Any AE can have Sam's four sessions on any deal: the AE calls Caty about it by voice or video, or types when they can't talk, talks it through in the team's own method, and leaves with the words for the next conversation and what to find out. She remembers each deal between sessions, so session three starts from what the CFO did not reply to, and managers get a Monday read from Bryce of which deals need attention this week. The rep's side is at for reps. To see Caty work one of your own deals, talk to us.
FAQ
What should an account executive be coached on?
An account executive should be coached on moving each live deal to its next buyer step. That means getting the buyer to name the problem and its cost, reaching the person who signs, building a reason to act this quarter, handling pricing and procurement, and keeping the champion engaged. Coach each on the live deal where it is missing.
How often should an AE get coaching?
Before every call that decides a deal, after it the same day, and a weekly fifteen-minute pass on anything that has not moved, plus a weekly one-on-one with the manager. A monthly review is too slow; most decisive calls in a month would happen without one.
What is the difference between AE coaching and AE training?
Training teaches a skill to a group, usually away from deals. Coaching applies it to one AE's live deal before the next conversation. Research on training transfer finds that what happens back at work predicts whether people use a skill better than what happens in the classroom (Saks & Belcourt 2006, via our Game Winning Kickoffs field study).
How long should a deal coaching session take?
Fifteen to twenty minutes for a pre-call or post-call session on one deal. A weekly pass on a stalled deal can be shorter, because the coach starts from what the last session established. Longer sessions usually mean the AE brought several deals at once.
Should AEs coach themselves from call recordings?
Reviewing your own calls helps, and the AE should mark their own gaps first. On its own it looks backward. Pair it with a session before the next call that plans what to say and what to find out, so the review changes the next conversation.