What is sales coaching? A complete guide

What is Sales Coaching?

Sales coaching is a process where sales managers or experienced individuals guide and mentor salespeople to improve their performance and achieve their goals. It involves providing feedback, support, and training to enhance skills, address weaknesses, and foster a positive and productive sales environment. Effective sales coaching is a continuous process that goes beyond initial training and onboarding, focusing on individual needs and development. For a deeper dive into the coaching cycle and its importance, visit our coaching cycle resource.

A successful sales coaching program should accomplish several key objectives:

• Guide sellers toward high-impact activities – Help representatives prioritize accounts and actions most likely to yield positive outcomes.

• Develop problem-solving skills – Rather than dictating solutions, coaches help reps diagnose issues and improve outcomes independently.
• Provide personalized guidance – Recognize each rep’s unique strengths, weaknesses, and motivations to create tailored development plans.
• Create continuous improvement – Establish an ongoing feedback loop that consistently enhances performance over time.

Unlike traditional training, which typically happens at specific intervals, sales coaching is an ongoing, personalized process designed to improve performance at both individual and team levels. It focuses on developing the soft skills essential for modern sales environments, such as communication, negotiation, and relationship building. To understand the distinction and how to leverage both, read our article on sales training vs. sales coaching.

Why is Sales Coaching Critical for Sales Success?

Sales coaching is crucial for many reasons. It enables reps to enhance their performance through feedback, practice, and repetition. It also allows sales managers to improve sales processes, training methods, and track progress and areas for improvement for their teams.

The impact of effective coaching on sales results is significant and measurable. According to CSO Insights, organizations with a formal, structured approach to sales coaching see a 10% increase in win rates compared to those with informal coaching strategies.

Research from Gartner shows that sales coaching is a top priority for high-performing sales managers who want to provide guidance in the moment when it’s most relevant. This “in-time” coaching approach has become increasingly important as sales cycles lengthen and become more complex.

Other critical reasons why sales coaching matters include:

• Adapting to complex buying journeys – Today’s B2B sales cycles involve multiple stakeholders and touchpoints across various channels
• Reinforcing training – Without ongoing reinforcement, knowledge from formal training sessions quickly fades
• Scaling best practices – Coaching helps identify and distribute winning strategies across the entire sales organization
• Building confidence – Regular coaching builds rep confidence in handling challenging sales situations

That’s where automated and personalized coaching comes into play, with AI helping push sales training and coaching forward in ways that weren’t possible before. For actionable advice on implementing effective sales coaching, explore our sales coaching tips.

What Does a Sales Coach Do?

A sales coach plays multiple roles in developing and enhancing the performance of sales representatives. Their responsibilities extend far beyond occasional check-ins or performance reviews. Here’s what effective sales coaches do:

Effective sales coaches understand that their role is not to micromanage but to empower. They ask thought-provoking questions that help reps arrive at their own insights rather than simply providing answers. This approach builds critical thinking skills that serve representatives throughout their careers.

Modern sales coaches also leverage technology to scale their impact. They use AI-powered tools to identify coaching opportunities, analyze conversation patterns, and deliver personalized guidance at scale across large, distributed teams.

Different Types of Sales Coaching

Sales coaching isn’t one-size-fits-all. Different coaching approaches address specific aspects of the sales process and rep development. While there’s no official consensus on categorization, coaching models typically fall into three main categories:

Strategic Coaching

Strategic coaching focuses on the big picture, helping sales representatives understand market dynamics, customer needs, and how to position solutions effectively. This type of coaching addresses:

• Market intelligence and industry trends
• Competitive positioning and differentiation
• Account planning and territory management
• Long-term relationship development

Popular strategic coaching frameworks include the GROW model (Goals, Reality, Options, Will), OSKAR (Outcome, Scaling, Know-how, Affirm & Action, Review), and AOR (Action, Observation, Reflection). These frameworks help align sales activities with strategic business objectives.

Tactical Coaching

Tactical sales coaching focuses on the specific actions and approaches reps use to achieve strategic goals. While strategic coaching introduces concepts like social selling, tactical coaching provides step-by-step guidance on implementation.

For example, a tactical coaching session might cover:

• How to effectively use LinkedIn for prospecting
• Techniques for handling specific objections
• Email templates and sequences that drive engagement
• Negotiation tactics for different buyer types

Tactical coaching often involves providing resources, tools, and playbooks that reps can immediately apply in their daily activities.

Skill Coaching

Skill coaching focuses on developing and refining fundamental sales capabilities through practice, repetition, and gradual increases in difficulty. This type of coaching typically addresses one skill at a time, such as:

• Active listening techniques
• Questioning strategies to uncover needs
• Presentation and demonstration skills
• Closing techniques and asking for commitments

Skill coaching often employs role-playing, simulation exercises, and recorded call reviews to provide specific feedback on execution and delivery.

Benefits of Sales Coaching

The benefits of implementing a structured sales coaching program extend far beyond revenue impact, though the financial results alone make a compelling case. According to RAIN Group data, successful sales coaching programs increase average deal size, sales activity, win rates, and new leads by 25%–40%.

Companies with formal sales coaching strategies achieve 91% quota attainment on average, compared to 85% for those using informal approaches. Beyond these impressive numbers, sales coaching delivers numerous additional benefits:

• Improved rep retention – Sales professionals value development opportunities and are more likely to stay with organizations that invest in their growth
• Enhanced customer experience – Well-coached reps deliver more value during buyer interactions, improving customer satisfaction
• Accelerated onboarding – New hires reach productivity faster when supported by effective coaching
• Greater adaptability – Coaching helps reps navigate complex, non-linear sales cycles with confidence
• Knowledge democratization – Best practices from top performers can be identified and shared across the entire team

According to HubSpot, more than half of all salespeople rely on peers for improvement tips. Effective sales coaching ensures reps learn from the right examples by capturing and distributing proven strategies from top performers.

For many B2B sales teams, these comprehensive benefits make sales coaching an essential investment rather than an optional program.

How Much Does Sales Coaching Cost?

Sales coaching investments vary widely based on program structure, delivery method, and organizational needs. According to Allego’s State of Sales Coaching report, three-quarters of organizations have implemented formal sales coaching training programs, though these differ significantly in scope and cost.

The primary cost categories for sales coaching include:

• Public programs – Range from $500 to $5,000, with lower-cost options often designed as lead generation for premium offerings
• Private programs – Range from $3,500 to $25,000 per day, with costs varying based on facilitator experience and program customization
• Internal resources – Time investment from sales managers and leaders (often the hidden cost of coaching)
• Technology – Sales coaching platforms and tools that range from $50–$200 per user per month

When evaluating coaching investments, it’s essential to consider both direct costs and opportunity costs. Research shows that 45% of managers feel they need more training in diagnosing performance issues, while 42% want more strategies for motivating reps and implementing action plans.

Even with high adoption rates of formal programs, many managers remain ill-prepared to coach effectively. Great managers aren’t necessarily great coaches by default. Organizations may benefit from hiring dedicated sales coaches to develop internal coaching capabilities and establish sustainable programs.

What are the different sales coaching types?

Much like sales methodologies, there’s a near-infinite number of coaching models to choose from, each designed to support different strategies, goals, and processes.

While there’s no official consensus, coaching models tend to fall into three main categories:

1. Strategic coaching

Strategic coaching focuses on the big-picture plan and covers market intelligence, emerging trends, and navigating the complexities of buying.

Popular models include GROW, a performance coaching model, OSKAR, a solution-focused framework that emphasizes individual progress, and AOR, a model for aligning sales activities, objectives, and outcomes.

2. Tactical sales coaching

Tactical sales coaching aims to help sellers develop the tactics sellers use to achieve strategic goals. Essentially, strategic coaching introduces big-picture concepts — say, social selling and where it fits into your overall strategy.

Tactical coaching is about “the how” so, you might host a workshop on using LinkedIn Groups for prospecting.

Here, you’ll want to provide step-by-step instructions and resources to support the effort.
Brainshark’s model for developing a video coaching strategy is a good example of tactical coaching in action:

Source

3. Skill coaching

Skill coaching is similar to tactical coaching but is more about fine-tuning specific tactics’ execution & delivery. Typically, skill coaching takes on one skill at a time and focuses on practice, repetition, and gradual increases in difficulty.

Sales Coaching Tips for Effective Team Development

Implementing an effective sales coaching program requires a strategic approach focused on developing trust, personalization, and actionable insights. Here are key tips for maximizing your coaching impact:

Start with Accurate Sales Data

For strategic processes like sales coaching, it’s essential to work from a unified data source—typically your CRM. However, according to Salesforce, 91% of CRM data is incomplete, creating visibility gaps that hinder effective coaching.

• Implement automated data capture to ensure complete records of all communications and activities
• Look beyond subjective CRM data to include engagement metrics and conversation analytics
• Establish a single source of truth that provides context for coaching conversations
• Use AI-enabled tools to identify patterns and coaching opportunities within your data

Without reliable data, coaches and managers waste time piecing together what happened rather than focusing on why it happened and how to improve.

Focus on Middle-Performing Reps

Many organizations rely heavily on a small number of star performers to generate most of their revenue. Brent Adamson and Matt Dixon, creators of Challenger Sales, note that coaches often focus on either top performers or struggling reps, neglecting the middle 60% of the team.

This common coaching mistake occurs because:

• Working with top performers affirms coaches’ abilities and provides ego gratification
• There’s a sense of urgency to help struggling reps meet minimum expectations
• The “B-squad” middle performers are left to figure things out independently

According to the Sales Readiness Group, sales coaching represents the “greatest point of leverage” for improving team performance. Even small improvements, when multiplied across your middle performers, can significantly impact overall results.

Rather than focusing coaching resources on top performers, treat them as valuable resources whose best practices can be documented and shared with the broader team.

Enhance the Customer Experience

Gartner recommends that sales representatives focus on building customer confidence by helping buyers make sense of the overwhelming volume of information available to them. This “sense-making” approach should be a central focus of your coaching efforts.

• Identify the most important information for each buyer’s situation
• Help customers ask better questions that lead to valuable insights
• Anticipate necessary changes in approach based on buyer signals
• Ensure customers reach decisions they feel confident about

According to the Miller Heiman Group, three customer engagement practices have the greatest impact on sales performance:

• Effectively communicating value messages aligned with individual needs
• Creating consistently positive interactions across all channels and touchpoints
• Conducting mutually beneficial meetings and calls with buyers

AI-powered coaching tools can eliminate guesswork by providing contextual alerts about how to respond to specific situations, helping reps deliver exceptional customer experiences consistently. For a deeper look into how sales coaching directly impacts performance, explore our insights on sales coaching performance.

Sales coaching Impact

Effective sales coaching isn’t about giving in-person feedback at random intervals. Instead, sales coaching success hinges on routine. If you’re not sure you can commit to consistent 1:1s and group workshops, eliminate or automate activities eating up valuable coaching time.

Identifying hidden waste centers allows you to optimize workflows by either eliminating or automating tasks that take away from valuable selling time and reinvest that extra time into your coaching program.

As an example, we interviewed sales managers using our Guided Selling platform to gauge its impact on sales productivity. On average, managers estimated that they spent 25% less time chasing down reps for status updates—time that could then be used for 1:1s or developing training content.

Still, figuring out where to focus that time requires some strategic thinking.

Every rep has unique strengths, weaknesses, and learning styles, making it difficult to determine what to focus on to get the biggest returns.

Start by answering the following questions:

• How much time will it take to coach individuals on specific skills?
• Which skills are most valuable? Value depends on what you’re trying to achieve — increased deal size, shorter sales cycles, more wins, etc.
• Which skills fail to influence outcomes — or worse, sabotage the deal?

You might also use a matrix or scorecard to guide the decision-making process. For example, The Sales Readiness Group (SRG) recommends analyzing individual skill sets using a combination of proficiency and motivation.

From there, you might use a simple table like the one below to start mapping out where you’ll spend your time.

As you gather more data, you’ll be able to accurately attribute specific actions to successful outcomes and determine sales coaching impact. Long-term, you’ll want to continue to evaluate the data to determine:

• Which strategies are working?
• Which reps are getting the best results
• Who is achieving “predictable wins?”
• How might your most effective strategies/channels/messaging be used throughout the organization? Or applied toward building a presence in a different market/sector?
• Which strategies aren’t working — and why?

From there, you can use those insights to refine your playbooks and coaching strategy to ensure even better results.

Sales Coaching Software and Tools

To ensure your sales coaching program delivers meaningful results, you need a structured approach to measurement. Effective evaluation combines quantitative metrics with qualitative assessments to provide a complete picture of coaching impact.

Key Performance Metrics

Quantitative metrics provide objective evidence of coaching effectiveness. The most valuable indicators include:

• Revenue impact
  • Changes in win rates
  • Average deal size
  • Overall quota attainment
• Pipeline metrics
  • Improvements in stage-by-stage conversion rates
  • Increased pipeline velocity
• Activity metrics
  • Growth in productive selling activities
  • Increased customer engagement
• Skill adoption
  • Frequency of coached techniques being applied in real sales situations

When analyzing these metrics, it’s essential to establish a pre-coaching baseline and track changes over time. This allows you to isolate the true impact of coaching from other variables that might influence performance.

Observational and Cultural Metrics

Qualitative assessments provide context and depth. Important indicators include:

• Behavioral changes – Observable improvements in how reps conduct sales conversations
• Confidence levels – Increased comfort and conviction in handling objections or complex deals
• Knowledge sharing – More collaboration and exchange of best practices across the team
• Coaching receptivity – Greater openness to feedback and consistent application of guidance

Cultural signals such as improved morale, lower rep turnover, and increased engagement are also key. These can be monitored through:

• Regular surveys
• One-on-one feedback loops
• Team retrospectives

For a detailed breakdown of how coaching influences outcomes like win rates and team morale, explore our guide to sales coaching performance.

To take it further, consider using a coaching matrix or scorecard that maps individual skill proficiency and motivation. This approach helps prioritize your efforts and track development systematically.

Sales Coaching Software and Tools

Modern sales coaching has evolved beyond in-person feedback sessions to include sophisticated technology platforms that scale coaching impact across large teams. Sales coaching software encompasses various tools from sales enablement and micro-learning to conversational intelligence and practice simulations.

Rather than seeking a single platform that does everything, focus on building a sales tech ecosystem aligned with your specific business goals and seller needs.

Brainshark

Brainshark is a data-driven sales readiness platform that provides sales teams with the knowledge and skills needed to engage buyers effectively. The platform allows users to generate dynamic content, develop training materials, and diagnose performance issues using AI-powered analytics.

Key features include:

• Controlled practice environment for video and text-based coaching assessments
• Readiness scorecards providing 360-degree views of rep skills
• Tools for designing and managing live training events
• Custom learning content creation and certification capabilities

SmartWinnr

SmartWinnr offers systematic sales coaching tools that allow coaches to upload competency frameworks aligned with their sales strategy and automate content delivery. The platform includes video-based coaching, practice, and assessment features with individualized feedback capabilities.

Key features include:

• AI-assessed video coaching for pitch refinement
• Product training with automated microlearning and knowledge retention tracking
• Gamification elements like leaderboards and interactive contests
• In-app messaging for team collaboration and best practice sharing

Qstream

Qstream is a micro-learning platform designed to drive behavioral change and reinforce knowledge with bite-sized, on-the-job lessons. The platform is particularly effective for knowledge retention and consistent application of sales techniques.

Key features include:

• Visual dashboards tracking sales fluency and improvement trends
• Compliance controls for regulated industries
• Analytics for diagnosing skills gaps and linking skills to outcomes
• Spaced repetition learning methodology to maximize retention

Chorus.ai

Chorus.ai provides conversational analytics that capture and analyze sales interactions across calls, emails, and virtual meetings in real-time. This intelligence helps identify what works in actual customer conversations.

Key features include:

• Multi-channel conversation recording and analysis
• Market intelligence on buyer themes and priorities
• Messaging insights with CRM integration
• Trend analysis for conversation topics and their impact on outcomes

Revenue Grid’s Unique Sales Coaching Features

Revenue Grid offers a comprehensive Guided Selling platform that uses AI to support sellers throughout the entire sales process. The platform helps sales leaders capture winning actions and incorporate them into coaching strategies, correlating training and performance with revenue results.

Unique features include:

• Digital coaching automation – Replace traditional verbal coaching with AI-driven sequences that guide reps toward the right actions at the right time
• Conversational intelligence – Surface patterns in customer interactions that correlate with wins and losses, allowing coaches to share real examples of effective techniques
• Interactive Revenue Signals – Provide contextual alerts that move reps through sales cycles efficiently, pointing them toward best practices for specific situations
• Complete pipeline visibility – Automatic data capture provides full visibility into all sales activities, helping coaches identify exactly where and how to intervene

Revenue Grid’s approach combines the best of human coaching expertise with AI-powered guidance, creating a scalable system that delivers personalized coaching at the moment of need.

Best Practices for Sales Coaching

Implementing an effective sales coaching program requires more than just good intentions. The most successful coaching initiatives follow these proven best practices:

• Establish a regular cadence – Effective coaching isn’t about random feedback; it requires consistent, scheduled sessions that reps can count on
• Create a safe environment – Psychological safety is essential for reps to be vulnerable, acknowledge weaknesses, and embrace growth
• Balance positive and constructive feedback – The most effective coaches maintain a ratio of approximately 3:1 positive to constructive feedback
• Focus on behaviors, not personalities – Address specific actions and their outcomes rather than making feedback about personal characteristics
• Use a structured approach – Follow a consistent coaching framework that includes observation, analysis, feedback, and action planning
• Involve reps in solution development – Ask questions that help reps discover insights rather than simply telling them what to do
• Leverage technology appropriately – Use coaching tools to scale impact, but don’t let technology replace human connection
• Measure and communicate results – Track coaching outcomes and share successes to build organizational support

Perhaps most importantly, effective coaches separate coaching from management. While related, these functions serve different purposes. Management focuses on accountability and results, while coaching centers on development and growth. Mixing these roles can undermine trust and limit coaching effectiveness.

Successful coaches also tailor their approach to individual learning styles. Some reps respond best to data and analytics, while others prefer stories and examples. Adapting your coaching style to each rep’s preferences increases engagement and accelerates improvement.

Building a Data-Driven Sales Coaching Program

Using the strategies, tools, and best practices outlined in this guide, you can build a data-driven sales coaching program that delivers measurable results for your organization. The most effective programs combine human expertise with technological capabilities to create a system that scales across teams while remaining personalized to individual needs.

Remember that sales coaching is a significant commitment that requires consistent investment of time, resources, and attention. While you’ll likely see some quick wins, the most valuable benefits emerge through sustained effort over time.

The future of sales coaching lies at the intersection of human insight and AI-powered guidance. By embracing this approach, you can create a coaching program that not only improves current performance but also builds the adaptive capabilities your team needs to thrive in an increasingly complex sales environment.

Ready to transform your sales coaching approach with AI-powered tools and data-driven insights? Book a demo to see how Revenue Grid’s comprehensive platform can elevate your sales coaching program and drive predictable revenue growth.