A good sales coach is one whose reps do something different on their next buyer call because of the session, and who checks afterwards that they did.
What the sessions produce
Skill matters more than frequency. In a study of 1,246 pharmaceutical reps, the manager's coaching skill predicted whether reps reached their goals, and frequent coaching from less skilled managers was linked to worse results (Dahling et al. 2016, summarized in our sales kickoff field study). More sessions from a weak coach can make things worse, so the useful question about any coach is what the sessions produce. The example below shows the difference on one deal.
Same deal, two sessions (illustrative)
A rep is preparing for a pricing call with a mid-sized software buyer. In the first session, the manager reviews the last call, scores discovery a 3 out of 5, and tells the rep to ask more open questions. The rep agrees. Nothing specific changes.
- Scores discovery a 3 out of 5
- Tells the rep to ask more open questions
- Nothing specific changes
- Asks what the buyer said the process costs
- The rep realizes they never asked
- They write one question together
- The buyer named a cost and a budget owner
In the second session, the manager asks the rep what the buyer said the current process costs. The rep realizes they never asked. Together they write the one question for the start of the pricing call: what it costs the buyer to keep doing it the current way, and who carries that cost. After the call the manager checks the notes. The buyer named a cost and a budget owner.
The skill gap was the same in both sessions. Only the second one produced a change the manager could see.
The habits of a good sales coach
Personality lists for coaches tend to read like job ads: patient, empathetic, a great communicator. Those help, but the habits below are what you can see in a session, and what a coach can practice.
They prepare. A good coach reads the deal record or listens to part of the last call before the session. They come in with one hypothesis about what the deal is missing, and they are ready to drop it if the rep shows them something different. A coach who walks in cold spends the first half of the session catching up.
They work on a live deal. The session is about a deal with a buyer conversation coming up, so whatever the rep learns gets used within days. Research on training transfer finds that what happens back at work is more strongly tied to use than what happens in the classroom (Saks and Belcourt 2006). Roleplays on invented scenarios have a place, and they work best when they are built from the rep's own deal.
They ask before they tell. "What did the buyer say when you asked about budget?" comes before "You should have asked about budget." The rep who finds the gap is more likely to fix it, and the coach learns whether the rep can see it unaided. The coach who talks most of the session sends the rep away with notes and no plan of their own.
They listen for the buyer's words. A good coach keeps asking what the buyer said, as opposed to what the rep thinks the buyer meant. Much of a deal's risk sits in the gap between the two.
They narrow it to one change. Five pieces of feedback produce none. A good coach picks the one change that would matter most on the next call and makes sure the rep can say it in their own words, out loud. "Be more confident" cannot be practiced; "ask the CFO what a missed renewal costs" can.
They hold the team's standard. Whether the team runs Gap Selling, MEDDPICC or its own playbook, the coach uses the same words and the same evidence test every time. Reps notice when two managers coach to different standards, and they start shopping for the easier one.
They judge calls by comparison. In our research on scoring sales calls, trained experts marking the same calls disagreed with each other on 18% of scores, and the test that held up was whether a scorer put calls in the right order. For a manager, that means comparing a rep's call with their last one, or with a strong call on the same stage, and naming the moment that made the difference. The reason behind a judgment is what the rep can act on.
They follow up. The next session opens with last week's commitment: did the rep ask the question, and what did the buyer say? Without the follow-up, the rep has no reason to think the change was expected. That loop of brief, observe and debrief is the core of a sales coaching framework.
The kinds of coaching a good coach runs
A good sales coach can run several kinds of coaching and knows which one a rep needs this week. Most weak coaching is the right habits applied to the wrong kind.
| Kind | What it works on | When it fits | What the rep leaves with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deal coaching | One live opportunity and its next buyer conversation | A meeting is coming up and the deal has a gap | The question for the next call, said out loud |
| Skill coaching | One skill across several deals, such as discovery or negotiation | The same gap shows up on deal after deal | One habit to practice, and the calls where it will be checked |
| Account coaching | A key account over quarters: relationships, expansion, risk | Large customers with several buying groups | A plan for the next person to meet and why |
| Group coaching | A shared gap across the team | Three or more reps miss the same thing | A team standard, with examples from the team's own calls |
Deal coaching is the default because it lands within days. Skill coaching comes out of it: when the deal sessions keep surfacing the same gap, the coach switches to the skill for a few weeks, still using live deals as the material. Group coaching is the way to stop repeating the same session with eight reps one at a time.
A good session, minute by minute
Thirty minutes is enough for one deal, if the time is spent in the right order.
| Minutes | The coach | The rep |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 2 | Asks which deal and why now | Names the deal and the next buyer conversation |
| 2 to 10 | Asks for the deal in the buyer's words, then for the evidence behind each claim | Tells the deal, and finds where the evidence runs out |
| 10 to 15 | Asks what the deal is missing | Names the gap, with help if needed |
| 15 to 25 | Asks what the rep will say to fill it, and has them say it | Plans the opening line and the follow-up, out loud, twice |
| 25 to 30 | Confirms the change and when they will check it | Commits to a date with the buyer |
The coach speaks least in the middle section. That is where most weak sessions go wrong: the coach fills the silence with advice, and the rep stops thinking.
Coaching different reps
The habits stay the same, but a good coach changes the weight depending on who is in front of them. Motives differ too: some reps move for the commission, some want to be the expert in the room, some want a promotion. Ask early what a good quarter looks like for each rep, write it in their notes, and frame the coaching point to fit.
A new rep needs more structure and more frequent sessions. Work their deals with them twice a week, give the opening line more help, and check the basics of the method each time. The goal is a rep who can tell a deal in the buyer's words without prompting.
A top performer rarely needs to be told what to do. Ask harder questions about the deals they are least sure of, and use them to stretch: a bigger account, a new segment, or helping a newer colleague. Top performers drift from the method too, usually on one habit they think they no longer need.
A rep behind plan needs a narrower focus. Find the one skill that, if it changed, would move most of their deals, and coach only that for a month. Look at the deals first. A rep with too few deals has a pipeline problem that coaching on discovery will not fix.
A rep who just lost a deal needs a short, honest review while it is fresh: which piece of buyer evidence was missing, and when could it have been found? Keep it about the deal. The lesson is the question to ask earlier next time.
Questions good coaches ask
The questions do most of the work. A good coach has a short set they come back to, adapted to the team's method:
- What does the buyer say the problem is, in their words?
- What does it cost them if nothing changes, and who told you that?
- Who signs, and have they heard the case from someone they trust?
- What happens between now and a signature, step by step?
- What did the buyer agree to do next, and is it on their calendar?
- What are you assuming about this deal that nobody on the buyer side has confirmed?
- What will you ask first on the next call, and how will you say it?
The last question is the one to never skip. A rep who has said the opening line out loud in the session has practiced it once before the buyer hears it. Which one-on-one questions coach a rep goes deeper.
Between sessions
Much of what makes a coach good happens outside the session.
A good coach keeps short notes per rep: the deal worked, the change agreed, the date of the buyer conversation, and what happened. Two lines per session is enough. Without notes, every session starts from memory and last week's commitment is forgotten. When the change shows up on the next call, the coach says so in the next session and names the moment.
They also protect the time. Coaching is the first thing to go when the forecast is due, so a good coach books the sessions as recurring meetings and, when something crowds in, moves them to another day.
Signs of a weak coach
Weak coaching often looks busy. These are the patterns to watch for in your own sessions or in a coach you are assessing.
- The session is a pipeline walk. Every deal gets a status question and none gets worked.
- The coach solves the deal. The deal moves faster this week, and the rep learns to bring every deal back next week.
- The score is the conversation. The session turns into a debate about whether a 3 should have been a 4, and the buyer never comes up.
How a manager becomes a better coach
Most sales managers were never taught to coach. They were promoted for selling. The good news is that the habits above can be learned the same way reps learn a method: on real sessions, with feedback.
Start by recording one coaching session a month, with the rep's agreement, and listening back for three things: who talked more, whether you asked before telling, and whether the session ended with one change said out loud. Then ask a peer manager or your own leader to sit in on one session a quarter and give you one note.
Calibrate with other managers. Score three or four calls together, blind, and compare. If you mark differently, find out why, because your reps hear your standard as the team's standard. Our guide to running a call calibration session has the steps.
Finally, get coached yourself. A director who runs a one-on-one with you on one of your reps, the same way you should run one with a rep on a deal, gives you feedback within the week. How to coach new sales managers covers that from the director's side.
Choosing an outside coach or a coaching tool
If you are bringing in a coach from outside the team, a training firm or a coaching product, the same test applies: will reps do something different on their next buyer call? Ask to see that before buying.
- Ask for a session on one of your own live deals. A coach who only works from their own examples will struggle to coach your reps on theirs.
- Check the method. Does the coach work in the method your team already uses, or bring their own? A second method on top of the first confuses reps.
- Ask how they follow up. One-off workshops fade. Look for a plan for checking the change on later calls.
- Ask what the manager sees. Coaching that happens out of the manager's sight cannot be reinforced in one-on-ones.
- For AI coaching tools, check the judgment. Ask how the tool's scores or feedback were checked against people your team trusts, and test it on calls your managers have already reviewed.
Doing it for every rep
The sales coaching framework sets out the full session model. For the weekly job, read how to coach sales reps; for a rep behind plan, read how to coach underperforming sales reps.
Coaching like the second session in the example above takes a manager who has time to prepare it, and few have that for every rep. Our AI sales experts give each rep someone to talk a deal through with on a call before it matters, in the team's own method, and give the manager a read across the team (for leaders). Talk to us.
FAQ
What is the most important skill for a sales coach? Diagnosis, meaning seeing what a specific deal or call is missing and helping the rep see it too. Research on 1,246 reps found the manager's coaching skill predicted goal attainment, and frequent coaching from less skilled managers was linked to worse results (Dahling et al. 2016).
Do top sellers make good sales coaches? Sometimes, though selling well and coaching well are different skills. A top seller knows what to do; a coach has to get someone else to do it on their own deal. The test is the same for anyone: do their reps change something on the next buyer call?
How do you know if a sales coach is effective? Look for the change on the next call. Did the rep do the thing agreed in the session, and did the deal move? Count changes seen in live deals. A coach can run many sessions and still produce none.
Is a sales coach different from a sales manager? Often they are the same person. A sales manager has many jobs, including hiring, forecasting and reporting, and coaching is one of them. A dedicated sales coach, or an AI sales expert, does only the coaching, which frees the manager's time for the reps and deals where they matter most. The habits that make coaching work are the same either way.