Sales Team Leadership and Coaching for Sales Managers Training Course

Course overview

Sales managers are expected to deliver the number while building a team that can sustain performance without constant intervention. That requires more than inspecting pipeline reports or running motivational meetings. Managers must diagnose whether a shortfall comes from activity levels, opportunity quality, sales capability, territory conditions or inconsistent process execution; then hold purposeful conversations that lead to changed behaviour. This course equips sales managers to turn sales data, deal evidence and field observation into fair expectations, targeted coaching and reliable performance management.

Participants learn how to set team operating rhythms, translate revenue targets into leading indicators, run productive one-to-ones and coach sellers through live opportunities. The programme covers pipeline inspection, forecast challenge, deal coaching, call-review frameworks, territory and account prioritisation, and performance conversations. Managers practise using the GROW coaching model, SMART commitments, competency scorecards and structured opportunity reviews. They also learn how to distinguish coaching needs from conduct or capability issues requiring formal performance management.

Delivery combines instructor-led models with realistic sales-management cases, CRM dashboard exercises, role-played coaching conversations and peer feedback. Participants use sample Salesforce Sales Cloud and HubSpot Sales Hub reports to identify risks, prepare a coaching agenda and challenge a forecast. By the end of the week, each participant leaves with a 90-day Sales Team Leadership Playbook: a team cadence, KPI scorecard, one-to-one template, coaching plan, pipeline-review agenda and actions for two priority sellers or opportunities.

The course is designed for first-line sales managers, newly promoted team leaders and experienced managers seeking a more disciplined coaching and forecasting approach. It is suitable for B2B, account-management and field-sales environments where managers lead quota-carrying sellers and are accountable for pipeline quality, conversion and retention.

Course objectives

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

• Diagnose sales performance gaps using leading indicators, conversion metrics and opportunity evidence
• Build a sales team operating cadence covering one-to-ones, pipeline reviews, forecast calls and field coaching
• Conduct GROW-based coaching conversations that produce observable behaviour-change commitments
• Apply a structured opportunity-review method to improve deal strategy, next steps and qualification
• Challenge sales forecasts using pipeline coverage, stage conversion, close-date integrity and risk categories
• Create role-specific KPI scorecards linking revenue targets to controllable seller activities
• Deliver documented performance conversations that separate coaching, capability support and formal management action
• Produce a 90-day Sales Team Leadership Playbook for immediate implementation with a live team

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Sales Managers — who need to improve team performance, forecast reliability and coaching discipline
• Newly Promoted Sales Leaders — who must establish authority and management routines with former peers
• Regional Sales Managers — who lead dispersed sellers and need consistent inspection and coaching standards
• Business Development Managers — who manage SDR or new-business teams against activity and conversion targets
• Account Management Leaders — who need to coach retention, expansion and strategic-account selling behaviours
• Sales Enablement Managers — who support frontline managers with repeatable coaching tools and standards

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience selling into customers or managing a small sales team, and should understand basic sales terms such as pipeline, opportunity stage, quota, conversion rate, forecast and CRM. Familiarity with their organisation’s sales process and access to a recent team report or anonymised pipeline data will make the application work more useful. Participants should be comfortable reading simple tables and charts in Microsoft Excel or a CRM dashboard. No prior leadership qualification, coaching certification, Salesforce administration knowledge or advanced data-analysis skill is required. Complete beginners to management can attend, but should expect intensive practice in giving direction, feedback and accountability.

Training methodology

The programme uses short instructor-led inputs followed by applied management practice. Participants interpret CRM dashboards, inspect anonymised opportunities, prepare forecast challenges and rehearse one-to-one coaching conversations with structured observer feedback. Cases cover underperforming sellers, weak pipeline quality, late-stage deal slippage and inconsistent account coverage. Small groups compare management decisions against evidence rather than assumptions. Each day adds a component to an individual Sales Team Leadership Playbook, and the final session converts that work into a 90-day implementation plan for the participant’s own team.

Course outline

Day 1: The sales manager’s operating system

• The first-line sales manager’s controllable performance levers
• Revenue lag measures versus leading sales indicators
• Sales funnel mathematics: coverage, conversion and velocity
• Defining seller roles, standards and observable behaviours
• Creating weekly, monthly and quarterly management cadences
• Using RACI to clarify manager, seller and support-team accountabilities
• Baseline team-performance diagnosis from CRM and activity data

Workshop: Participants analyse a sample team dashboard and produce a prioritised diagnosis of the three performance constraints a sales manager should address first.

Day 2: Coaching sellers to improve execution

• GROW coaching model for sales-performance conversations
• Contracting effective one-to-one meetings
• Questioning techniques for uncovering seller thinking and deal assumptions
• Behavioural feedback using Situation-Behaviour-Impact statements
• Call-review scorecards for discovery, value articulation and next-step control
• Field-coaching observation and debrief methods
• SMART commitments and follow-up tracking

Workshop: In triads, participants conduct a recorded GROW coaching conversation about a stalled opportunity and produce a documented coaching commitment plan.

Day 3: Pipeline quality and forecast control

• Pipeline hygiene rules for close dates, stages, amounts and next steps
• Opportunity qualification using MEDDICC criteria
• Deal-review questions for stakeholder access, competition and commercial risk
• Pipeline coverage ratios and stage-conversion analysis
• Forecast categories, commit criteria and confidence scoring
• Challenging optimistic forecasts without undermining seller ownership
• CRM dashboard views in Salesforce Sales Cloud and HubSpot Sales Hub

Workshop: Participants run a simulated forecast call, classify deal risks and produce a revised team forecast with evidence-based assumptions.

Day 4: Performance management and team capability

• Distinguishing skill, will, process and territory causes of underperformance
• Competency matrices for sales roles and career stages
• KPI scorecards linking activity, quality, conversion and revenue
• Performance improvement plans with measurable checkpoints
• Difficult conversations on standards, conduct and accountability
• Delegating stretch assignments and using peer learning
• Recognition practices that reinforce desired sales behaviours

Workshop: Participants build a performance improvement plan and conduct a role-played accountability conversation for an underperforming seller.

Day 5: Leading implementation and sustaining results

• Translating annual quota into team goals and individual targets
• Territory and account prioritisation using revenue potential and whitespace
• Running effective sales meetings without status-reporting drift
• Cross-functional escalation with marketing, operations and customer success
• Using Microsoft Excel to track coaching actions and KPI trends
• Managing change when introducing new sales rhythms and standards
• Designing a 90-day sales leadership implementation plan

Workshop: Participants complete and present their 90-day Sales Team Leadership Playbook, receiving peer challenge on measures, cadence and implementation risks.

Tools & standards covered

Salesforce Sales Cloud, HubSpot Sales Hub, Microsoft Excel, Gong

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