Part 3: The Missing Middle Between Sales Targets and Coaching

Your sales team has a target to achieve. Your sales managers have attended coaching training. Your HR or L&D team has invested in developing people. Yet sales performance remains inconsistent.

Some salespeople perform well, while others continue struggling with the same challenges. Managers are expected to coach, but they’re not always clear about which selling skills need the most attention. Does this sound familiar?

In Part 1: Why Coaching Needs Sales to Work, we discussed why sales performance and coaching investment are connected.

In Part 2: The Quiet Gap Between Knowing and Doing Coaching, we explored why managers who understand coaching may still struggle to practise it.

There’s another important issue connecting these two discussions. Before managers can develop their salespeople effectively, the organisation needs to be clear about what its salespeople should be capable of doing. That’s the missing middle between sales targets and coaching.

Sales Targets Tell Us What to Achieve

Every sales organisation has performance expectations. They may include revenue, sales volume, gross profit, new customers, distribution or account growth. These targets are necessary. They help people understand what the business needs to achieve.

But targets alone don’t explain how salespeople should perform their work. For example, two Key Account Managers may have the same sales target. One manages a few large customers with complex buying processes. The other handles a larger number of smaller accounts. Both need to grow sales, but the skills required in their daily work may differ.

If we look only at their targets, we may overlook those differences. That’s why sales leaders need to define the selling capabilities required for each role.

What Does Good Selling Look Like in Your Business?

Let’s take a company that supplies products to food service customers. Its salespeople are expected to develop existing accounts and win new business. That sounds straightforward. But what should a capable salesperson actually be able to do?

Depending on the role, the answer may include:

• Identifying customers with genuine business potential.
• Understanding how customers use the company’s products.
• Discussing customer needs beyond price.
• Recommending suitable products or solutions.
• Managing opportunities through to a clear customer decision.
• Developing accounts without relying unnecessarily on discounts.

These expectations give managers something more useful than a sales target alone. They help managers understand which selling capabilities need to be developed.

Start With the Work, Not a Long Competency List

You don’t need to begin with a complicated competency framework. Choose one sales role and ask:

“What are the most important things this person must be able to do well to succeed?”

Then describe what those skills look like in actual customer situations. For example, instead of saying a salesperson needs commercial acumen, you might say: “The salesperson should be able to explain how a proposed solution could help the customer improve sales, reduce costs or manage operational problems.”

That’s easier for both the manager and salesperson to understand. It also provides a clearer basis for development.

Find Out Where the Capability Gaps Are

Once expectations are clear, the next step is to understand where salespeople need help. Avoid relying only on sales results. A salesperson may miss a target because of poor selling skills, but there may also be customer, market or operational reasons. Similarly, a salesperson may achieve a target while still having important development needs.

Look at the work itself. For example, if a salesperson is struggling to grow an existing account, explore how they identify opportunities within that account. Do they understand the customer’s business priorities? Can they identify other products or solutions that may be relevant? Are they speaking with the right people? Do they have a clear plan for developing the account?

The answers help you identify what the salesperson needs to improve.

A Simple Capability Review

For one sales role, start with three areas:

Keep the review focused on actual work. If managers identify too many development priorities at once, salespeople may struggle to know where to concentrate their efforts.

Match the Development Support to the Gap

Once you understand the capability gap, decide what kind of support is needed. This is where sales training, management guidance and coaching need to work together.

Consider three different situations:

Situation 1: The salesperson doesn’t know how to prepare an account growth plan.

They may need training, examples and guidance on how to prepare one.

Situation 2: The salesperson understands account planning but struggles to identify realistic growth opportunities.

They may benefit from coaching that helps them examine customer information, challenge assumptions and evaluate possible opportunities.

Situation 3: The salesperson has a good account plan but cannot access the customer information required to carry it out.

The organisation may need to improve its information or internal support.

These situations require different responses. When we understand the capability gap, we can choose the right support rather than expecting coaching to solve everything.

Give Sales Managers Clear Development Priorities

Sales managers already have plenty of responsibilities. If we expect them to develop their people, we need to make that responsibility practical.

Instead of telling managers to improve their team’s overall sales capability, agree on a few priorities. For example, a regional sales leader might identify that several account managers need to improve their ability to conduct business reviews with customers. The development priority could be: “Help account managers use customer performance information to identify and discuss new business opportunities.”

This gives managers a clearer direction. HR and L&D can then support the required learning, while managers help salespeople apply it in their work. The responsibility is shared, but everyone is working towards the same improvement.

How Sales Leaders, Managers and HR/L&D Can Work Together

Building sales capability requires coordination. Each group contributes something different.

For example, if the business wants to expand into a new customer segment, the Sales Director should clarify what success requires. Regional leaders and managers can identify where the team lacks experience. HR/L&D can help prepare relevant training. Sales Managers can support their salespeople as they begin working with those customers.

This gives everyone a clearer contribution to the same business objective.

Keep Sales Capability Development Relevant

Salespeople don’t develop every skill at the same pace. A newly appointed salesperson may first need to become confident in managing routine customer interactions. An experienced salesperson may need to strengthen negotiation, account development or stakeholder management skills. Someone moving into a sales management role faces another set of challenges.

This means development priorities should change as people gain experience and take on new responsibilities. It also means sales leaders should periodically review whether the capabilities expected of their teams remain relevant.

Customer requirements change. Products become more complex. New competitors enter the market. The way customers make purchasing decisions may also change. What worked well a few years ago may no longer be enough.

Three Questions to Review Every Quarter

During an existing sales management review, discuss:

1. Which selling capabilities are becoming more important for our business?

Look at changes in customers, products, competition and sales responsibilities.

2. Where are our salespeople struggling most?

Use examples from customer interactions, manager observations and business performance.

3. What development support should we prioritise next?

Decide whether the need is training, coaching, management guidance or better business support.

These questions help keep capability development connected to what the business needs.

Bringing the Three Parts Together

Across this series, we’ve explored three connected issues.

Part 1: Why Coaching Needs Sales to Work

Coaching requires business support and investment. That investment needs to address meaningful sales challenges.

Part 2: The Quiet Gap Between Knowing and Doing Coaching

Managers may understand coaching but still find it difficult to use in everyday situations. They need practical support to develop confidence and judgement.

Part 3: The Missing Middle Between Sales Targets and Coaching

Salespeople and managers need clear expectations of the selling capabilities required. Those expectations help determine where training, coaching and other development support should be directed.

When these three areas are considered together, sales leaders and HR/L&D can make better decisions about developing their teams.

Conclusion: Know What You’re Trying to Develop

Sales targets are important, but they don’t tell us everything about the capabilities of the people responsible for achieving them. Coaching is valuable, but managers need to understand which skills and behaviours they should help their salespeople improve. The connection is sales capability.

Start by defining what good selling looks like in your business. Identify where your people need help. Then provide the training, coaching and support that match those needs. Review the priorities as the business changes. When sales leaders are clear about what their people need to become better at, coaching has a much clearer purpose. And that gives the organisation a stronger basis for improving sales performance over time.