This is a one-page sales coaching plan for one rep and one month. Copy the block below into a doc, a CRM note or your 1:1 agenda. It works with any methodology and assumes the sales coaching framework of a brief before each important buyer call and a debrief after it.
The template
SALES COACHING PLAN
Rep: Manager:
Period: (four weeks) Review date:
1. Pattern seen
What keeps happening on calls, with one buyer quote:
2. Skill (in our methodology's terms)
One, or at most two:
3. Live deals where it will be tested
Deal | Next buyer meeting | Why the skill matters here
____ | __________________ | __________________________
____ | __________________ | __________________________
____ | __________________ | __________________________
4. Evidence of change (what we will hear the buyer say)
On at least __ of __ deals:
5. A line to try
What the rep will say on the next call:
6. Weekly loop
Brief before each named meeting (5 to 10 min): yes / no
Debrief on a call within 48 hours (15 min), rep talks first: yes / no
7. Week-by-week notes
Week 1:
Week 2:
Week 3:
Week 4:
8. Review decision (on the review date)
[ ] Skill closed, next skill:
[ ] Extend four weeks, because:
[ ] Change skill, because:
Calls that support the decision:
How to use the template
Use the template by filling it from the rep's recent calls before you meet, then working it on live deals each week until the review date.
Fill in the pattern from calls. Read three to five of the rep's recent calls before you meet. Write the pattern and one buyer quote that shows it. The quote keeps the plan about the deal and away from the rep's personality.
Name the skill in your methodology. A MEDDPICC team writes "economic buyer"; a Gap Selling team writes "cost of the current state"; a team on the ValueSelling Framework® might write "the buyer's vision of the solution". Generic labels like "discovery" produce generic coaching.
List two or three live deals. Pick open deals with buyer meetings in the next four weeks where the skill will come up. Write the meeting dates.
Write evidence a transcript can show. "The buyer states the cost of the problem in their own figures" is checkable. "More confident" is not.
Agree the plan with the rep on a call. Let the rep draft fields 2, 4 and 5 in their own words, then tighten together. The questions to ask first are under the rep's half of the plan below.
Run the weekly loop and write one line a week. After each debrief, add a line to field 7: what the buyer said, whether the line was used, what changes next.
Review on the date. Read the rep's week-one and week-four calls side by side and tick one box in field 8. Look at the trend across calls. In our research on AI call scoring, trained human assessors marking the same calls disagreed on 18% of individual scores, so one number is a weak basis for the decision.
The full process behind each field is in how to build a sales coaching plan.
Filled-in example (illustrative)
The rep, deals and dates are invented to show a completed plan.
- Week 1Lindell: asked the line
- At minute 6
- Demo tied to the answer
- Week 2Sunmere: skipped the line
- Demo at minute 9
- Agreed to open with it next time
- Week 3Kessler: asked
- Buyer named a missed delivery penalty
- Deal moved to proposal
- Week 4Sunmere follow-up: asked
- Buyer gave a figure
SALES COACHING PLAN
Rep: Marcus (AE, commercial) Manager: Jo
Period: 3 to 28 Nov Review date: 28 Nov
1. Pattern seen
Demos happen before the problem has a cost. Quote, first call
with Lindell Foods: "Yeah, the manual process is a pain."
Marcus moved straight to the demo.
2. Skill (Gap Selling)
Establish the cost of the current state before any demo.
3. Live deals
Lindell Foods | 5 Nov second call | demo booked, no cost known
Sunmere Dental | 11 Nov discovery | new, first call
Kessler Print | 18 Nov follow-up | stalled after demo
4. Evidence of change
On at least 2 of 3 deals, the buyer puts a figure or a
consequence on the problem before the next demo or proposal.
5. A line to try
"Before I show you anything, what does the manual process
cost you in a normal month?"
6. Weekly loop
Brief: yes. Debrief on a call within 48 hours: yes.
7. Week-by-week notes
Week 1: Lindell. Asked the line at minute 6. Buyer: "Two
people, most of Friday." Demo tied to that.
Week 2: Sunmere. Skipped the line; demo at minute 9.
Debrief: agreed to open with it on the follow-up.
Week 3: Kessler. Asked; buyer named a missed delivery
penalty. Deal moved to proposal.
Week 4: Sunmere follow-up. Asked; buyer gave a figure.
8. Review decision
[x] Skill closed, next skill: who signs (decision process)
Calls: Lindell 5 Nov, Kessler 18 Nov, Sunmere 25 Nov
Three of three deals produced the evidence by week four, one of them after a miss in week two. Jo closed the skill and opened the next one from what the same calls showed was thin.
The rep's half of the plan
A plan written only by the manager tends to be followed only while the manager is watching. Before the first session, ask the rep three questions and write the answers into the plan in their words. Which recent call or deal went better than expected, and why? Where do they feel stuck right now, on a named deal? What would help: more practice, a manager on a call, a recording of a peer who does it well? A rep who picked part of the plan has a reason to bring it to the one-on-one, and the answers often show that the skill the manager chose is the wrong one to start with.
Three ways teams misuse a coaching plan
As a performance review in disguise. A plan with five development areas, written once a quarter, tells the rep they are failing and gives them nothing to do on their next call. Keep it to one or two skills and four weeks.
As a form for the file. If fields 6 and 7 stay empty, the plan is paperwork. The plan only works through the weekly brief and debrief. The manager's coaching skill matters too: across 1,246 pharmaceutical reps, frequent coaching from less skilled managers was linked to worse results (Dahling et al. 2016, via our kickoff field study). Writing the skill in the methodology's terms keeps the standard fixed whoever runs the loop.
As a practice assignment. Plans built around assigned drills have no deals in field 3 and no buyer in field 4. Practice can help a rep say a new line once out loud. The plan's evidence comes from live buyer calls.
Fitting the plan into a coaching rhythm
The plan sits inside the meetings a manager already runs, so put each field on a calendar before the first week starts.
| When | Meeting | What the plan feeds it |
|---|---|---|
| Before each named buyer meeting | 5 to 10 minute brief | Field 5, the line to try, on that deal |
| Within 48 hours after | 15 minute debrief on a call | One line in field 7 |
| Weekly | The 1:1 | Fields 3 and 7: which deals came up, what the buyer said |
| Every four weeks | The review | Field 8, with the calls attached |
| Quarterly | Team planning | Which skills closed across the team, and which keep reopening |
The quarterly line is where a manager with eight plans running sees the pattern. If the same skill shows up in five plans, it is a team problem, and it belongs in a team session or the playbook as well as in individual plans. Keep the individual plans running anyway, because the evidence of change still has to show up on each rep's own deals.
Adapting the coaching template to other skills
The coaching template works for any skill a rep can show on a buyer call, because its fields stay the same whatever the skill: the pattern seen, the live deals where it will be tested, the evidence of change you expect to hear from the buyer, a line to try and a review decision. Field 2 changes, and the evidence in field 4 and the deals in field 3 follow from it. To adapt it:
- Name the skill in the team's methodology terms, such as reaching the economic buyer or quantifying the gap.
- Write the evidence of change as something the buyer would say back on a call.
- Pick deals where the skill comes up this month, so practice happens on live opportunities.
- Keep the review on calls, comparing an early call with a later one.
For example (illustrative), a negotiation plan would swap the discovery quote for one where the rep conceded price without asking for anything in return, and the evidence of change becomes a buyer agreeing to a trade on the next call.
Running the plan for every rep
A manager can run this plan for three or four reps a month. Running it for every rep, every week, is where it breaks. In Replicate Labs the rep brings each named deal to an AI sales expert on a call, by voice or video, before and after the buyer meeting: Keenan on a Gap Selling team like Marcus's, Val on a ValueSelling Framework® team, and Caty for any other method. Typing is the fallback.
The manager asks Bryce what each rep worked on when writing field 7, and keeps the plan and the review, with the team view described on the for sales teams page and in the manager coach docs. To see how that would run for one of your reps, talk to us.
FAQ
What should a sales coaching plan include? A sales coaching plan should include the pattern seen on calls with a buyer quote, one or two skills named in your methodology, two or three live deals with meeting dates, the evidence of change in the buyer's words, a line for the rep to try, the weekly brief and debrief, weekly notes, and a review decision on a set date.
How long should a sales coaching plan be? A sales coaching plan should fit on one page and cover four weeks. One page keeps it to one or two skills; four weeks gives the rep enough buyer meetings on named deals to show a change. At the review, close the skill, extend it with a reason, or change it if the diagnosis was wrong.
Can I use this template with MEDDPICC or Gap Selling? Yes, the template works with MEDDPICC, Gap Selling or any other method. Write the skill in field 2 in your methodology's terms: the economic buyer or champion for MEDDPICC, the current state and its cost for Gap Selling, the buyer's vision for the ValueSelling Framework®. The rest of the template stays the same.
How do I know if a sales coaching plan worked? Compare the rep's calls from week one and week four on the named deals. If the evidence in field 4 shows up on the agreed number of deals, the plan worked. How to measure sales coaching effectiveness covers checking that the change holds three weeks later.