Why does the way a manager coaches matter?
Coaching runs on feedback, and feedback can lift performance or drag it down. How the manager gives it decides which.
In 1996, Avraham Kluger and Angelo DeNisi pooled 607 effect sizes from feedback studies, covering 23,663 observations. Feedback improved performance on average, yet more than a third of the interventions made performance worse. Their reading was that feedback loses power as it pulls attention away from the task and toward the person. The studies span many kinds of work, and the authors say the task traits that shape these effects are still poorly understood.
A 2016 study in Personnel Psychology brings this closer to sales. Jason Dahling and colleagues tracked 1,246 pharmaceutical sales reps in 136 teams for a year. Managers' coaching skill, rated in a training exercise, was linked to their reps' annual sales goal attainment, partly through how clear each team was about its role. The study covers one company in one industry.
What questions show whether a sales manager coaches well?
Six questions, and one that sits under all of them.
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What did this manager help a rep do differently this week?
Coaching aims at a change in how someone works, so start with the change. Ask each manager to name a rep and the thing that rep now does differently because of their work together. Listen for something you could see in the rep's next customer conversation, such as how they open a site walk or how they present a price increase at renewal. A manager who answers with deal updates has described a review.
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How much of the one-on-one goes to the numbers, and how much to how the rep works?
Both belong in a one-on-one, and the numbers usually win the time because the forecast has a deadline and coaching does not. Ask a manager to walk you through their last few one-on-ones and notice where the detail sits. If every story ends at a close date or a forecast category, the rep was reviewed. If the manager can describe how the rep prepared for a bid review and what the rep will try next, the rep was coached.
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Does the manager see the rep work, or only hear about it afterward?
A rep's account of a customer meeting leaves out what the rep did not notice, and that gap is often where the coaching sits. Ask when the manager last saw this rep work live, at a customer site or in a meeting with a buyer, and listen for detail only someone in the room would know. A manager who coaches from the rep's retelling can only coach what the rep already sees.
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What do reps say they get from their manager?
Reps are the best witnesses to their own coaching. Julia and Trenton Milner, who study and teach leadership coaching, write in Harvard Business Review that in their experience managers tend to think they are coaching when they are telling people what to do. In skip-level conversations, ask reps what their manager has helped them get better at, and ask for an example. Listen for a skill the rep is building, and check whether the story matches the one the manager told you.
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Whose idea is the change the rep leaves with?
Herminia Ibarra and Anne Scoular, writing in Harvard Business Review in 2019, describe directive coaching, where the manager supplies the answer, and nondirective coaching, where the manager draws it out of the person. They also note that sometimes no coaching at all is appropriate. A rep racing a bid deadline may need a direct answer, while a rep who gets every answer from the manager learns to bring the next problem back. Ask a rep where their last change came from, and listen for whether they can explain why it works.
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Who coaches the managers?
A front-line manager often earns the job by selling well, and coaching is a different skill. In a 2018 survey of 580 managers at Australian organizations with more than 200 employees, Julia Milner and colleagues found that 30% to 40% had received some form of coaching training, depending on the type, and 40% wanted introductory or further training. The survey covers managers in general, with no sales breakout. Ask who watches each of your managers coach and talks it through with them afterward, because a manager nobody coaches keeps the skill they arrived with.
"Which of my managers changed how a rep works this month, and how do I know?"
It sits under the others because it asks for a change and for the proof of it. The questions above gather that proof from reps and from your own time in the field, and a manager's own report counts least. Ibarra and Scoular count leaders who embrace and model coaching among the things it takes to build coaching into a company, which makes this a question about your own coaching too.
What are the signs of good, or weak, sales manager coaching?
Good signs
- Managers name a specific rep and a specific behavior when you ask about coaching.
- Reps describe a skill they are building and can say why it matters to the customer.
- Managers spend time with reps at customer sites and can describe what they saw.
- What reps tell you matches what their manager told you.
- Managers ask you for help with their own coaching.
Warning signs
- Every one-on-one story ends at a close date or a forecast category.
- Managers describe coaching as telling reps what to do on a deal.
- Reps cannot name anything their manager helped them change.
- Managers learn how a customer meeting went only from the rep's retelling.
- Nobody has watched your managers coach.
Case study Fictitious numbers
A PE-backed commercial HVAC services company has three front-line managers and 24 sellers. The sellers renew maintenance agreements and bid on replacement projects. All three managers say they coach. A new VP Sales asks each seller, in skip-level conversations, what their manager has helped them do differently lately.
Of the 24 sellers, 9 name a specific change, such as how they walk a mechanical room with a facilities director or how they present a price increase at renewal. Another 11 describe pipeline reviews and forecast updates. The remaining 4 cannot name anything.
The 9 are spread unevenly. Seven of them report to one manager, who leads 8 sellers. The other two managers lead the remaining 16 sellers between them, and 2 of those sellers name a change.
- Named a specific change
- Described pipeline reviews and forecast updates
- Could not name anything
- Named a specific change
- Did not
Every manager said they coach. The sellers placed the change under one manager, the one who sees them work.
Before drawing any conclusion, the VP spends time in the field with each manager. The manager with 7 of the 9 joins sellers on site walks and talks through what happened on the drive back. The other two hear about customer meetings in one-on-ones, after the fact. The VP's next questions for those two are about where their time goes and who has ever watched them coach.
FAQ
What is the difference between sales coaching and a pipeline review?
A pipeline review asks where each deal stands and whether the forecast holds. Sales coaching works on how the rep sells, so the next deal goes better too. Both are part of a manager's job, and they can share a meeting. The difference shows in what the rep leaves with. An updated close date means the deal was reviewed. A new way to run the next site walk means the rep was coached.
Is sales coaching the same as sales training?
Training teaches a skill to a group, usually away from live deals. Coaching works with one rep on how they use that skill with their own customers. A seller can finish a training course and work the same way the next day. Coaching is where a manager helps the rep turn what they learned into a change a customer would notice.
How do you know if sales coaching is working?
Look for a change in how the rep works before you look for a change in results. Results lag, and a quarter's number blends coaching with territory and luck. The early evidence is a rep who can name what they now do differently, and a manager who has seen it in front of a customer. When those two accounts match, the coaching is working.
Can sales managers learn to coach?
Yes. Julia and Trenton Milner argue in Harvard Business Review that training leaders to coach pays off when the company first defines what it means by coaching and leaves room for self-reflection and feedback. Their 2018 survey with Grace McCarthy suggests fitting coaching training to each manager's own context. The paper notes that training can range from workshops to on-the-job learning.
Sources
- The effects of feedback interventions on performance (Kluger and DeNisi, Psychological Bulletin, 1996) checked 10 Oct 2026
- Does Coaching Matter? (Dahling, Taylor, Chau and Dwight, Personnel Psychology, 2016) checked 10 Oct 2026
- Most Managers Don't Know How to Coach People. But They Can Learn. (Harvard Business Review, 14 Aug 2018) checked 10 Oct 2026
- Training for the coaching leader: how organizations can support managers (Journal of Management Development, 2018) checked 10 Oct 2026
- The Leader as Coach (Harvard Business Review, November-December 2019) checked 10 Oct 2026