# The coaching conversation

Using the platform to make your one to ones better rather than to replace them, and what to do with a rep who is not using it.

Source: https://replicatelabs.ai/docs/managers/coaching-conversation
Last updated: 2026-09-03

---

The platform does not replace the coaching conversation with your reps. It changes what you spend it on.

Without it, most of a one to one is spent finding out what happened. With it, you arrive already knowing where the capability gap is, and the hour goes on the gap.

## Before

Fifteen minutes with the [manager coach](/docs/managers/manager-coach).

<figure class="dfig">
<div class="dframe">
<div class="dflow">
<div class="dstep"><span class="dstep-n">1</span><b>What is the pattern</b><span>Ask for this rep's recurring weak criterion.</span></div>
<div class="dstep"><span class="dstep-n">2</span><b>What is the evidence</b><span>Get the specific graded moments you can point at, so the conversation is about observable behaviour.</span></div>
<div class="dstep"><span class="dstep-n">3</span><b>How do I open it</b><span>Ask for an opening that makes it about the capability, not the number. This is the part managers most often get wrong unaided.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
<figcaption><b>Fifteen minutes of preparation.</b> The output is one gap, one piece of evidence, and one opening line.</figcaption>
</figure>

## During

Bring one gap, not five. A rep who leaves with one thing to work on changes it; a rep who leaves with five changes none of them.

Point at the evidence rather than characterising them. "On three of your last four rehearsals you moved to the solution before you had a number for the problem" is a different conversation from "your discovery needs work", even though both are the same finding.

<div class="dnote key">
<span class="dnote-h">Tell them the real shape, once</span>
<p>Do not tell a rep their coaching sessions are unreadable, because that is not true and it will not survive contact. Tell them what is: you see their roleplays, their call transcripts and their scores, and what they work through with their coach reaches you as what they are working on rather than as a transcript.</p>
<p>Say it in the first of these conversations. A rep who is quietly guessing at the answer always guesses somewhere worse than the truth.</p>
</div>

## After

Give the rep something specific to take back to their own coach. "Go and ask your coach to show you what quantifying impact sounds like on the Contoso deal, and bring me what it gave you" is actionable in a way that "work on your discovery" is not.

It also does something useful structurally: it puts your coaching and their coach on the same thread, so the next session picks up where your conversation ended.

## The rep who is not using it

Almost always one of three causes, and they need different responses.

<div class="dsplit">
<div class="dpanel">
<div class="dpanel-h">Never started properly</div>
<p>Opened it once with nothing real in hand, got a generic answer, concluded it was generic. The fix is to sit with them for one session on a real deal of theirs. It is fifteen minutes and it usually settles it permanently.</p>
</div>
<div class="dpanel">
<div class="dpanel-h">Thinks you are reading it</div>
<p>The fix is the paragraph above, said explicitly.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="dsplit">
<div class="dpanel">
<div class="dpanel-h">Genuinely does not need it this week</div>
<p>A rep in a heavy delivery stretch is not a problem. Look at the month and at whether their deals are moving, rather than at a weekly usage line.</p>
</div>
<div class="dpanel">
<div class="dpanel-h">Something is broken for them</div>
<p>A dead button, a call that will not start, a roleplay they cannot reach. All fail quietly. Ask before you assume reluctance. See <a href="/docs/reference/troubleshooting">Troubleshooting</a>.</p>
</div>
</div>