Sales Coaching
Part of Sales enablement programmes
Identifying what prevents representatives from helping buyers
Trace a buyer question through the sales task to distinguish missing information, access, skill, authority and product-fit obstacles.
To find the obstacle, start with a buyer question the representative needed to answer and trace what happened from preparation to follow-up. Establish the expected response, observe the attempt and ask what made the difference. A missed target or complaint that ‘reps need training’ is a prompt to investigate, not a diagnosis.
Choose one decision to examine
Pick a recurring situation with a clear buyer need, such as understanding an implementation dependency before signing. Write down what a helpful response would include: the verified answer, any condition that affects it and a next step for the unresolved part. Ask the answer owner to confirm this standard before judging a representative against it.
Review relevant examples where organisational access rules permit. Account notes, approved materials, representative interviews and observed conversations can each reveal a different part of the work.
Use only customer information needed for the review. Note when the examples are too narrow to represent the wider team.
Trace the point of failure
For each example, ask:
- What did the buyer need to decide?
- What information and authority did the representative have at that moment?
- What did the representative say, show, ask or record?
- Which part helped the buyer, and which part remained uncertain?
- What prevented a better next step?
Do not assign a cause from the final outcome alone. A buyer may pause because of an internal approval constraint even when the representative gave a clear answer. A deal may advance despite an unsupported promise.
| What you find | Possible obstacle to check | First practical response |
|---|---|---|
| Current files give different answers | Unclear source of truth | Ask the accountable owner to settle and publish the answer |
| The approved answer is hard to retrieve | Access or organisation | Test retrieval with the people doing the task |
| The answer is found but explained inaccurately | Application of knowledge | Practise the explanation and review an attempt |
| The buyer needs a condition confirmed for their environment | Missing specialist decision | Route the question with its context and required response time |
| The buyer’s requirement cannot be met | Offer fit | Record the mismatch and discuss only verified alternatives |
These are hypotheses, not diagnoses. Check them with the people who own the content, process and buyer relationship. More than one obstacle may be present.
Common Obstacles and Practical Responses
- Obstacle
- Current files give different answers
- Response
- Ask the accountable owner to settle and publish the answer
- Obstacle
- The approved answer is hard to retrieve
- Response
- Test retrieval with the people doing the task
- Obstacle
- The answer is found but explained inaccurately
- Response
- Practise the explanation and review an attempt
- Obstacle
- The buyer needs a condition confirmed for their environment
- Response
- Route the question with context and required response time
- Obstacle
- The buyer’s requirement cannot be met
- Response
- Record the mismatch and discuss only verified alternatives
Make the diagnosis actionable
Write a finding that names the task, evidence and limit of the finding. For example: ‘In these reviewed implementation questions, representatives found the approved overview but lacked a confirmed answer about an exception.’ This is a fictional finding. It would point towards an owner decision before further training.
Assign an action to each confirmed obstacle and decide what would show improvement. If an answer is corrected, check whether representatives can find and use it in a suitable case. If a skill is practised, review an appropriate later attempt. Keep cases with no opportunity separate from cases where support was available but unused.
Tell representatives and managers what changed, where the approved answer lives and what remains outside their authority. Repeat the diagnosis when the buyer question, product or process changes; an old finding may no longer explain the current difficulty.
Key Elements of an Actionable Diagnosis
- Task
- Name the specific sales task under review
- Evidence
- Examples from account notes, interviews, observed conversations
- Limit of Finding
- Specify scope – e.g., 'in these reviewed implementation questions'
- Next Step
- Assign action to owner; define improvement metric
