Deal coaching is a manager working one live opportunity with the rep to find what the deal is missing and agree the next move with the buyer.
What happens in a deal coaching session
The rep brings an open deal, usually one with a meeting coming up, and talks it through on a call with the manager. They look at what the buyer has said, check it against the team's methodology (the economic buyer under MEDDPICC, the current state and the gap under Gap Selling), and pick the one thing the next conversation has to produce. It is the debrief step of a sales coaching framework, applied to the deal.
- 01The rep brings an open dealUsually one with a meeting coming up
- 02Look at what the buyer said
- 03Check it against the methodologyThe economic buyer, or the current state and gap
- 04Pick the one thingWhat the next conversation has to produce
Skill coaching rides on it: a rep who keeps missing the economic buyer learns to reach them by doing it on three real deals. Transfer research finds that what happens back at work predicts whether a skill gets used better than the training itself does (Saks and Belcourt 2006, via our kickoff field study).
Example
This example is illustrative. Alex, a rep, has a deal at proposal stage, closing this month. In the session, the manager asks who signs. Alex says the operations director "will take it to finance." The manager asks for the director's exact words. Alex reads them from the call notes: "Leave finance to me. I'll walk them through it once we have final numbers."
Nobody in finance has been on a call, so the gap is the economic buyer. They agree the opening question for Tuesday's call with the director: "When you walk finance through this, what's the first thing they'll ask? Could we answer it together, with them, in 15 minutes this week?" Alex says it out loud twice until it sounds like a question and not a demand. The deal record shows the finance meeting booked by Friday.
Related terms
FAQ
What is the difference between deal coaching and skill coaching? Deal coaching works one live opportunity to find what it is missing and decide the next move. Skill coaching works a capability, such as discovery, across many calls. In our view, the two work best together: the skill is coached on the rep's real deals, so it gets used on a buyer call the same week.
Is a deal review the same as deal coaching? A deal review can be deal coaching if it ends in a specific move for the rep's next buyer conversation. Many deal reviews only inspect the deal for the forecast, asking for stage, amount and close date. That is inspection. Coaching starts when the manager and rep agree what the rep will do next.
Can AI coach a rep on a live deal? Yes. An AI coach can take the rep through an open deal on a call, read what the buyer has said, name what is missing against the team's methodology, and agree the next move. Our AI sales experts do this: Caty works the deal with the rep, and Bryce gives managers the read across the team (for leaders).