Sales Coaching and Performance Management for Sales Managers Training Course

Course overview

Sales managers are expected to deliver reliable revenue forecasts, improve conversion rates and retain capable sellers, yet many rely on pipeline reviews that inspect numbers without changing behaviour. When coaching is irregular, opportunities stagnate, salespeople receive vague feedback, and underperformance is addressed too late. This course equips managers to turn CRM data, observed selling activity and deal evidence into focused coaching conversations and defensible performance decisions.

Participants learn how to set role-specific sales standards, diagnose performance gaps, run structured one-to-ones, and coach against live opportunities without taking control of the sale. The programme applies funnel metrics, opportunity qualification, win/loss patterns, call observations and account plans to identify whether a problem is one of skill, activity, process, territory or motivation. Managers practise GROW coaching, SBI feedback, pipeline inspection, forecast challenge, performance improvement planning and recognition practices that reinforce the right sales behaviours.

Delivery combines instructor-led models with sales-management simulations, CRM dashboard analysis, peer coaching and casework based on realistic team performance data. Each participant builds a practical Sales Coaching and Performance Management Playbook containing a coaching cadence, scorecard, pipeline-review agenda, observation form, feedback scripts and a 90-day performance intervention plan. The result is a set of operating tools that can be introduced with their team immediately after the course.

The course is designed for experienced sales managers, team leaders and newly promoted managers who already understand their sales process and now need a consistent way to develop sellers and manage performance. It is equally valuable for commercial leaders seeking a common coaching standard across regions, channels or product lines.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Design a sales coaching cadence covering weekly one-to-ones, deal coaching, call observation and monthly performance reviews
• Build a sales performance scorecard using activity, conversion, pipeline coverage, velocity and forecast metrics
• Diagnose root causes of underperformance by separating skill, will, process, territory and capacity issues
• Conduct GROW-model coaching conversations that produce seller-owned actions and measurable commitments
• Apply SBI feedback to reinforce effective sales behaviours and address specific performance shortfalls
• Inspect pipeline quality using opportunity-stage exit criteria, qualification evidence and next-step discipline
• Create a documented performance improvement plan with standards, milestones, support actions and review dates
• Produce a 90-day Sales Coaching and Performance Management Playbook for a live or representative team

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Sales Managers — who need to improve team execution, forecast reliability and individual seller performance
• Regional Sales Managers — who must create consistent coaching standards across dispersed teams and territories
• Inside Sales Managers — who supervise high-volume activity, conversion metrics and call quality
• Business Development Managers — who lead prospecting teams and need to turn activity data into effective coaching
• Key Account Sales Leaders — who must develop account planning discipline and opportunity progression in complex sales
• Newly Promoted Sales Supervisors — who require practical methods for moving from individual selling to managing sellers

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have at least six months of experience managing, supervising or formally mentoring salespeople, or substantial experience as a senior salesperson preparing for a management role. They should understand their organisation's sales stages, basic pipeline terminology, revenue targets and common CRM fields such as opportunity value, close date and stage. Familiarity with Microsoft Excel and access to a laptop are useful for scorecard exercises. No prior qualification in coaching, HR performance management or a specific CRM platform is required; the course explains the relevant frameworks and uses sample data where needed.

Training methodology

Instructor-led modules introduce the operating models behind sales coaching, pipeline inspection and performance management, then participants apply them to realistic CRM extracts, call notes and team scorecards. Managers practise one-to-one coaching, feedback and forecast-challenge conversations in role plays, receiving structured peer and facilitator feedback. Small-group case studies require participants to diagnose declining performance and select proportionate interventions. Each day ends with a working tool, and the final workshop consolidates these into a 90-day implementation plan for the participant's own team or a supplied sales-team case.

Course outline

Day 1: Establishing the Sales Manager Performance System

• The sales manager's operating rhythm and controllable performance levers
• Leading and lagging indicators in a sales performance scorecard
• Activity, conversion, velocity and pipeline coverage calculations
• Role-specific standards for prospecting, qualification, opportunity management and account growth
• RACI responsibilities across seller, manager, sales operations and commercial leadership
• Weekly, monthly and quarterly review cadences
• Using CRM data quality checks to support credible coaching

Workshop: Participants build a draft team scorecard and management cadence from a sales-team data set, defining the measures and review frequency they will use.

Day 2: Diagnosing Performance and Inspecting Pipeline Quality

• Root-cause analysis for skill, will, process, territory and capacity problems
• Opportunity-stage exit criteria and evidence-based stage progression
• MEDDICC qualification evidence in complex sales opportunities
• Pipeline aging, slippage, stalled-deal and close-date analysis
• Forecast categories, commit criteria and manager forecast challenge
• Win-loss pattern analysis by segment, product, channel and competitor
• Using Salesforce Sales Cloud and HubSpot CRM dashboards for coaching insights

Workshop: Using a case pipeline, participants identify forecast risk, diagnose three seller performance issues and prepare a manager's pipeline-review agenda.

Day 3: Coaching Sellers Through Opportunities and Behaviour Change

• GROW coaching model for sales performance conversations
• Contracting the one-to-one: agenda, ownership, confidentiality and accountability
• Questioning techniques that surface deal strategy and seller assumptions
• Deal coaching without rescuing or taking ownership of the opportunity
• Call observation criteria for discovery, value articulation, objection handling and next steps
• Coaching action plans with behavioural commitments and evidence measures
• Adapting coaching style to seller capability and confidence

Workshop: Participants conduct a recorded GROW coaching role play based on a stalled opportunity and produce a seller-owned action plan.

Day 4: Feedback, Accountability and Performance Improvement

• SBI feedback model: situation, behaviour and impact
• Balancing recognition, developmental feedback and corrective feedback
• Documenting agreed standards, evidence and manager support actions
• Performance improvement plan structure, milestones and review dates
• Difficult conversations about recurring activity, conduct or results shortfalls
• Escalation boundaries and collaboration with HR business partners
• Avoiding bias through consistent evidence, language and review practices

Workshop: Participants write and rehearse a feedback conversation and a performance improvement plan for a seller missing both activity and conversion standards.

Day 5: Embedding a High-Performance Sales Coaching Culture

• Integrating coaching, pipeline review, forecast calls and performance reviews
• Peer learning, deal clinics and manager-led best-practice sharing
• Recognition mechanisms linked to repeatable sales behaviours
• Coaching dashboard design in Microsoft Excel
• Measuring coaching impact through leading and lagging performance indicators
• Managing adoption resistance and protecting time for coaching
• Ninety-day implementation planning and stakeholder communication

Workshop: Participants assemble and present their Sales Coaching and Performance Management Playbook, including a 90-day rollout plan, scorecard and review calendar.

Tools & standards covered

Salesforce Sales Cloud, HubSpot CRM, Microsoft Excel, MEDDICC

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions