A weekly coaching cadence for sales managers

Sales managers are usually promoted for selling, then given no instruction on coaching. So coaching becomes whatever time is left over, which in a hard quarter is none.

A cadence solves that. Not more hours, just fixed ones with a defined shape.

The weekly shape

One on one, 30 minutes per rep

Same slot every week. The subject is one live deal the rep chooses and one the manager chooses. The manager asks questions and does not take over. If the manager ends up telling the rep what to send, the session taught nothing.

Four questions carry most of these conversations:

• What does the buyer say happens if they do nothing?
• Who else has to agree, and have you spoken to them?
• What is the next step, and does the buyer have it on a calendar?
• What would have to be true for this to close on the date you have given me?

Call review, 30 minutes per rep, every other week

Listen to one recorded call together. Pick a single skill to work on and ignore everything else. Trying to fix five things in one session fixes none of them.

Pipeline inspection, 45 minutes with the team

Not a status update. The manager tests deals against the stage exit criteria in front of everyone, which is what teaches the standard. Deals get moved backward in this meeting, and that is the point.

Deal review, 45 minutes, weekly

One rep presents a large or stuck deal and the rest of the team pressure tests it. This is where a group of individuals starts behaving like a team, because everyone contributes to a deal that is not theirs.

Rules that keep it alive

1. 01The sessions do not move. Rescheduling once teaches the team they are optional.
2. 02Coaching is about the skill, not the deal outcome. Rescuing the deal is a different meeting.
3. 03One improvement area per rep per month, written down and reviewed.
4. 04The manager's own manager asks about coaching in their one on one, or it will not survive.

For a team of six reps this is roughly six hours a week. Every manager says they do not have it. Every manager who starts doing it finds it by no longer working deals personally.

How to know it is working

Skill improvements show up in call quality within weeks, in forecast accuracy within a quarter, and in win rate after that. Do not judge the cadence by this month's number. Judge it by whether the reps are asking better questions than they were 30 days ago.