You will be able to sit in on a rep's meeting and collect useful coaching material without taking over.
You are sitting beside your rep in a client's meeting room in Ubi. Ten minutes in, the buyer asks about integration with their accounting system, and your rep gives an answer that is half right, and you know the full answer well enough to lean forward and say it. Everyone would get the correct information, the meeting would move on, and your rep would spend the rest of the hour as your assistant.
Lesson 1.2, When to join a rep's deal and when to stay out, was about joining a deal to help win it. This lesson is about a different kind of visit, where you join to watch, so you have real material to coach from afterwards, and that only works if you can stay quiet for the whole meeting.
Set the terms the day before, the same way you agreed roles in lesson 1.2. Tell the rep you are coming to observe, that they will lead the whole meeting, and that you will only step in if they ask you to or if something goes badly wrong.
Define "badly wrong" together. Wei Ming and Hui Min agreed it meant something that could harm the client or the company: a wrong statement about price or contract terms that the buyer might rely on, a promise the company could not keep, or anything that breached a rule. A half-right answer about a feature did not count. Hui Min could correct it in her follow-up email, and that would be a better lesson than being rescued.
Agree how you will be introduced. "This is Wei Ming, my manager. He's joining today to see how we work with clients" is enough. Then agree a signal Hui Min could use if she wanted help, such as turning to Wei Ming and asking, "Anything to add?"
Most buyers do not mind a quiet observer. If anything, it can show them the company takes the relationship seriously.
General impressions are almost useless for coaching. "It went well, good rapport, maybe a bit rushed at the end" gives the rep nothing to work on. What helps is what was actually said and when.
Write down specific words. The question the rep asked and the buyer's answer. The moment the buyer leaned forward or folded their arms. What the rep said straight after the buyer mentioned a problem. The exact phrase used to ask for a next step. Put a rough time beside each note, so you can find the moment again when you talk about it.
Keep a separate column for your coaching ideas, so you do not mix what happened with what you think about it. By the end of the meeting you will usually have several possible points. Choose one later, using the approach from lesson 6.1, Coach one behaviour at a time.
Wei Ming's notes from Hui Min's meeting with a cafe group included this line: "Minute 22. Buyer: 'We tried software before, it was a mess.' Hui Min: 'Ours is much easier to use.' Buyer went quiet." In the coaching column beside it: "Missed chance to ask what went wrong last time."
Take notes on paper or a notebook if you can. Typing on a laptop during a client meeting can look as though you are doing other work, and it distracts the rep.
Hold the debrief soon, on the same day if possible and certainly by the next. Both of you will remember the meeting well for a few hours. After a few days, memories blur and people start to remember the version that suits them.
A short debrief in the car, over coffee near the client's office, or on a call later that day is enough. It does not need a meeting room. Wei Ming and Hui Min talked for fifteen minutes at a coffee shop downstairs from the client's office.
Open the debrief by asking the rep what they think went well and what they would change. Do not give your view first. If you do, the rep will agree with it and you will learn nothing about how they see their own work.
Then listen. Hui Min said the opening went well and the buyer seemed interested. She would change the end, because she was not sure the next step was firm. She did not mention minute 22.
Now bring in your one point, and use your notes. "At about minute 22, he said they'd tried software before and it was a mess. What did you say next?" Hui Min remembered: she had said theirs was easier. "And what did he do?" He went quiet. "What else could you have asked at that point?" She suggested asking what had gone wrong. That became her coaching point, and they talked about how the answer would have helped her with the next step she was worried about.
Because the conversation started with her view, Hui Min was ready to hear the point. Because Wei Ming had the exact words in his notes, there was no argument about what had happened.
End the debrief by agreeing what she will try next time, and note it in writing as you would for a call review.
There will be meetings where staying quiet costs something. A deal may go less well than it would have with you leading. That is part of the price of building a team that can sell without you. Lesson 1.1 made the same point about closing deals for reps: this month's number goes up and next quarter's goes down.
If you find you step in on almost every observed meeting, your own definition of "badly wrong" has probably grown too wide, and it is worth agreeing it again with the rep.
In the activity below you will write an observation notes template for your own joint meetings. Design it so there is space for exact quotes with rough times, the moments that mattered, and one coaching point chosen after the meeting.
Write your observation notes template for joint meetings with space for quotes, moments and one coaching point.
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