Two sales reps miss the same new business goal. Their manager schedules identical coaching sessions and tells both to make more calls. But one rep barely starts new conversations, while the other books plenty of meetings and sends proposals without uncovering a reason for the buyer to act.
The result is the same. The behavior behind it is different.
Start with the work behind the number. Look at activity and conversion by stage. Ask each rep to reconstruct a recent opportunity, and review a call or message when possible. Where did the conversation stall? What did the buyer agree to do next? What does the rep think happened? Treat your first explanation as a hypothesis until the evidence supports it.
Use assessments to sharpen the questions. A sales skills assessment can point to an area worth examining, such as prospecting or discovery. A behavioral assessment such as DISC describes communication preferences. It can help a manager discuss how the rep gives and receives information, adapts to buyers, and prefers to work through feedback. A DISC profile alone cannot tell you why a deal stalled or whether a salesperson can master a skill.
For the rep with too few first conversations, the next coaching step might be practicing an opening and reviewing outreach to a small set of accounts. For the rep whose proposals go quiet, it might be listening to a call and practicing questions that reveal the buyer’s business impact before proposing a solution. Ask each person what they see, then agree on one behavior to try in the next week.
Make the follow-up observable. “Improve discovery” is hard to coach. “Ask what is happening in the business and what changes if the problem continues before offering a proposal” gives the rep something to practice and the manager something to review. Set a date to examine actual buyer conversations together.
Heather’s Gem: “The same missed target can point to two different coaching conversations.”
Managers can use assessment data to see a person more clearly, but its value comes from the questions and practice that follow. If you want help building a consistent coaching approach for your team, book a conversation with Heather.
Related reading: Coaching vs. Managing: What Do Your Sales Reps Really Need? and The #1 Reason Most Pipeline Meetings Fail
