Activate the Sales Coaching Ecosystem: One Call at a Time

If I asked you how many of your Sales Managers regularly coach their salespeople in the field, would you know the answer? And if they do, would you know what they actually coach?

In some sales teams, managers spend a lot of time accompanying salespeople on customer visits. Yet much of that time goes towards checking account performance, resolving customer problems or helping to secure orders. These activities are important. But they don’t necessarily tell us whether salespeople are developing the skills they need to perform better.

This is where Activate, the first stage of my Sales Coaching Ecosystem™, comes in. In my earlier article, How to Build a Sales Coaching Ecosystem That Works, I explained how three stages: Activate, Enable and Sustain work together to make sales coaching more consistent across an organisation.

Activate focuses on three practical priorities: visibility, coaching focus and regular field observation. Let’s look at how sales leaders can put these into practice without making things unnecessarily complicated.

1. First, Find Out What’s Actually Happening in the Field

Before asking managers to conduct more coaching, find out how they currently spend their time with salespeople. You may discover that some managers regularly observe sales calls, while others mainly accompany their teams to meet important customers or resolve difficult account issues.

There’s nothing wrong with those activities. The question is whether managers also make time to observe and develop their salespeople’s selling skills. Start by speaking with your managers. Ask them:

• “When you go out with your salespeople, what do you normally focus on?”
• “How do you decide which salesperson needs coaching?”
• “What do you usually discuss after a customer visit?”
• “How do you know whether the salesperson has improved?”

You don’t need a lengthy survey. A few conversations, supported by a review of recent field activities, can give you a useful starting picture. Pay attention to the differences between managers. For example, one manager may regularly discuss customer questioning skills, while another concentrates mainly on the number of outlets visited. These differences help you identify where coaching expectations need to be clearer.

Your first task is to understand how coaching currently happens, not to introduce another reporting requirement.

2. Make Sales Behaviours Easier to Observe

Once you understand the current situation, the next step is to help managers recognise the sales behaviours they should be looking for. This is where a simple Sales Call Performance Checklist becomes useful.

The checklist should reflect what good selling looks like in your business. For example, if your salespeople manage distributor accounts, you might want managers to observe whether they:

• Review relevant sales and stock information before meeting the distributor.
• Discuss business opportunities using information from the account.
• Understand the distributor’s concerns before proposing an action.
• Agree on responsibilities and follow-up dates.

These are behaviours a manager can observe during an actual business discussion. Compare that with a checklist item such as “Demonstrates strong relationship management”. What does that mean in practice? Two managers may interpret it very differently. A better checklist describes what the salesperson is expected to do.

Keep the Checklist Short Enough to Use

One mistake to avoid is turning the checklist into a long assessment form. If managers have to evaluate 30 or 40 items during every customer visit, they may spend more time completing the form than paying attention to the conversation. Start with a manageable set of behaviours that matter most to your sales approach.

You can organise them around the main parts of a sales call, such as preparation, understanding customer needs, recommending solutions and agreeing on next steps. Then test the checklist with a few managers. Ask them: “Can you actually observe these behaviours during your normal customer visits?”

If an item is difficult to understand or observe, improve it. The checklist should help managers recognise what happens in the field. It should not become another administrative burden.

3. Give Managers a Clear Field Coaching Expectation

Having a checklist is useful, but it won’t make much difference if managers rarely observe their salespeople. Sales leaders need to establish a realistic expectation for field coaching. For example, you could begin by asking each manager to conduct at least one planned coaching visit per salesperson each month, where practical.

The appropriate frequency depends on team size, geography, customer coverage and the nature of the sales role. The important thing is to make the expectation clear and workable.

Separate Coaching Visits from Other Field Activities

Not every joint customer visit needs to be treated as a coaching session. Sometimes, the manager’s priority is to resolve a major customer issue, negotiate a commercial agreement or support a new account opening. That’s normal.

However, when a visit is planned for coaching, both the manager and salesperson should know its purpose. Before the visit, the manager might say: “I’ll join you for the first two customer appointments on Thursday. Let’s use those visits to look at how you’re handling customer discussions.”

This gives the salesperson time to prepare and makes the manager’s role clear. It also reduces the chance of the visit becoming another round of account checking.

Make the Schedule Realistic

If your managers are responsible for large territories or many salespeople, don’t impose a coaching schedule they cannot maintain. Discuss their existing field commitments and decide what is practical. A manageable coaching schedule that managers follow is more useful than an ambitious target that is repeatedly postponed.

4. Agree on One Coaching Focus Before the Sales Call

A checklist may cover several sales behaviours, but that doesn’t mean the manager needs to coach every item during one visit. Choose one priority based on what the salesperson needs to improve. For example, a salesperson may be confident in presenting products but struggle to secure clear commitments from customers. Instead of reviewing the entire sales process, the manager can focus on how the salesperson closes the discussion.

Before the visit, the manager could say: “Today, let’s pay attention to how you agree on the next step with the customer.”. Now both parties know what to look for. During the visit, the manager observes how the salesperson handles that part of the conversation. After the visit, they discuss what happened. This makes the coaching more focused and gives the salesperson a manageable area to practise.

Don’t Choose the Focus Based on Assumptions

A manager might say: “I think this salesperson lacks confidence.”. But what behaviour has led to that conclusion? Perhaps the salesperson struggles to respond when a purchasing manager asks for a price reduction.

In that case, the coaching focus could be how the salesperson explores the customer’s concern and explains the value of the offer. That’s something the manager can observe and the salesperson can practise. The more specific the behaviour, the easier it becomes to coach.

5. Help Managers Capture Useful Field Observations

During a customer visit, managers don’t need to record every word. They should capture enough information to discuss what happened accurately. A simple field coaching record can include:

This is an illustrative example of how a manager could document one coaching observation. Notice that the record describes what happened. It doesn’t label the salesperson as weak, careless or unmotivated. That distinction matters.

When managers base their feedback on observable behaviour, the discussion becomes clearer and more useful. It also makes it easier to compare progress over time.

6. Review the First Few Coaching Visits Before Expanding

Once managers begin using the checklist and conducting planned coaching visits, resist the temptation to roll everything out immediately.

First, find out whether the approach is working. After a few weeks, bring your managers together for a short discussion. Ask:

• “Which parts of the checklist are useful?”
• “Are there any behaviours that are difficult to observe?”
• “What coaching situations have been challenging?”
• “Are salespeople clear about what they’re working on?”
• “What should we adjust before continuing?”

You may discover that managers need simpler wording in the checklist, more flexibility in scheduling visits or help with a particular coaching situation. These findings are valuable. They tell you what needs attention before you introduce the approach more widely.

They also help you prepare for Enable, the second stage of the Sales Coaching Ecosystem™, where managers receive the training, tools and support needed to coach more effectively.

What Should Sales Leaders Look for During Activate?

At this stage, don’t expect immediate improvements in every sales performance measure. Instead, look for evidence that your managers are beginning to establish a consistent coaching practice. Here are four useful indicators:

You can review these through a small sample of coaching records and conversations with managers. Avoid judging success only by the number of completed checklists. A manager may submit every form on time without having a meaningful coaching discussion. What matters is whether managers are paying closer attention to sales behaviours and helping their people identify what to improve.

A Simple Way to Start Activate This Month

If you’re leading a sales team or managing several sales managers, here’s how you can get started:

Week 1 — Understand current coaching practices

Speak with your managers and review how they currently conduct joint customer visits. Identify differences in coaching frequency, focus and follow-up.

Week 2 — Agree on the behaviours to observe

Choose a small number of sales behaviours relevant to your business. Prepare a simple checklist and make sure managers understand each item.

Week 3 — Begin planned field coaching

Ask managers to schedule their first coaching visits. Each visit should have one agreed coaching focus and a short discussion afterwards.

Week 4 — Review what you’ve learned

Meet your managers to discuss what worked, what was difficult and what needs adjusting. Agree on the next round of coaching visits.

This four-week plan is a suggested starting point. You may need more time if your sales teams cover large territories or have different selling responsibilities. You don’t need to perfect everything in the first month. The aim is to establish a practical approach that your managers can use and improve.

Conclusion: Activate Begins with Clear Expectations and Real Field Observations

Activate is about giving sales coaching a clear starting point across your sales organisation. Sales leaders need to know how coaching currently happens. Managers need to understand which sales behaviours to observe. Salespeople need a clear focus for improvement. When these three things come together, field coaching becomes more purposeful and consistent.

Start with a small group of managers. Keep the checklist practical, establish a realistic coaching schedule and review what happens in the field. The observations you gather will also help you identify what support your managers need next.

That’s how Activate prepares the way for Enable, the next stage of building a Sales Coaching Ecosystem™. For the complete framework and how all three stages connect, read How to Build a Sales Coaching Ecosystem That Works.