You will be able to choose the single most useful thing to coach from a call or meeting.
You listen to a rep's recorded call and fill a page with notes. The opening was rushed. They talked over the buyer twice. They mentioned the price too early, missed a hint about a competitor, forgot to summarise, and ended without a clear next step. In the feedback session you go through all of it, carefully and kindly. The rep nods, thanks you, and on the next call does almost exactly the same things.
Nothing on your list was wrong. There was just too much of it. This lesson is about choosing one thing.
People cannot change ten habits at once, though most can change one if they know exactly what it is and get to practise it. A long list of feedback leaves the rep with a vague sense of having done badly and no clear idea where to start. One point leaves them with something they can try on their next call.
So when you review a call, write your full list if it helps you think, then choose. The question to ask is: which of these, if it changed, would make the biggest difference to whether this rep's deals move forward?
Usually that means looking earlier in the call. A weak close is often the result of a weak discovery. If the rep never found out what the problem costs the buyer, no closing technique will rescue the deal. Fixing the discovery fixes several later problems at once.
When Wei Ming listened to one of Raj's first meetings, his list had seven items. He picked one. Raj asked a good first question about how the buyer ran payroll today, got an answer that mentioned overtime errors, and moved straight on to the product. Every other problem on the list, including the early price and the lack of a next step, followed from that moment. Raj never found out what the errors cost, so he had no value to anchor the price to and no reason to suggest a follow-up meeting.
The second rule is to coach what a rep does and leave alone what a rep is. "You need to be more confident" is about a trait. The rep cannot go and do confidence on their next call. "When the buyer pushes back on price, pause and ask what they are comparing it with, before you answer" is a behaviour. They can do that tomorrow.
Traits also feel personal. Being told you lack confidence or are too pushy sounds like a verdict on who you are. Being told to ask a second question sounds like a technique, which it is.
Turn every trait into the behaviour underneath it. If a rep "lacks confidence", what do they actually do? Perhaps they apologise before stating the price, or agree to send information when they could have asked for a meeting, and those habits are what you coach.
Wei Ming's choice for Raj was a behaviour: when the buyer mentions a problem, ask at least one more question about it before talking about the product. Something like "What does that cost you when it happens?" or "How often does that come up?"
A coaching point is easier to understand and remember when it links to the written sales process from module 4. It tells the rep where in a deal the behaviour matters, and it connects the coaching to a standard the whole team uses, instead of your personal preference.
Raj's behaviour belongs to problem confirmed. The exit criteria for leaving meeting agreed include the buyer describing at least one problem in their own words, and the main activities for problem confirmed include putting a cost on the problem with the buyer. Raj had been skipping that second part on almost every call, so Wei Ming could show him the page and say: this is the step you are missing, and here is the question that gets you there.
Linking the behaviour to the process also tells you where to look in the data. In module 8, you will see how a rep's conversion rate between two stages can point to the same gap from the numbers, before you have heard a single call.
Note the behaviour in writing, in the rep's file or a shared note, with the date and the call it came from. Keep it to a line or two: what the behaviour is, which stage it belongs to, and an example of what it sounds like.
This matters for the next session. Without a note, two weeks later you may remember the general topic but not the exact behaviour, and the rep may remember something slightly different. With a note, you can open the next session by checking whether the behaviour showed up. Lesson 6.4, Run a coaching session and follow up, builds the follow-up on this note.
Wei Ming's note read: "Raj, 14 May, first meeting with a logistics firm. Behaviour: when the buyer names a problem, ask at least one follow-up about its cost or frequency before moving on, at the problem confirmed stage. Example: 'How often do the overtime errors happen, and what does it take to fix one?'"
Some reps will ask why only one thing. Tell them honestly: the rest of the list is not forgotten, and it will come up in later sessions. One change that sticks is worth more than seven that do not.
In the activity below you will listen to one recorded call and write the single behaviour you would coach. Make sure everyone on the call knew it was being recorded, and if you do not have a recording, ask a rep to choose one of theirs.
Listen to one recorded call and write the single behaviour you would coach and why.
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