Unveiling the State of Sales Coaching: Key Insights from Aircall & MySalesCoach

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This year, we teamed up with MySalesCoach to survey over 16,000 Sales professionals on the current state of sales coaching. From the huge response we received, we knew we were onto a topic that sales people were truly invested in, so we decided to take the conversation even further. Teaming up with Wiser Elite, we brought some of London’s finest up-and-coming sales stars together to offer their thoughts and advice on how businesses can improve their sales coaching in 2025 and beyond. 

Meet the panel:

Alex Wood, AE Team Lead at Aircall
Mark Ackers, Co-Founder & Head of Sales at MySalesCoach
Galit Weinberg, Director of SMB Sales & Sales Development at GoCardless
Rosi Young, Head of Enablement at Stenn Technologies

The session centred on the significance and intricacies of sales coaching, focusing on three key points: 

• The correlation between good coaching and achievement

• How much reps say they’re being coached vs. how much leaders think they’re coaching them

• The all-around quality of coaching

An engaging discussion, filled with insights, experiences, surprises and lively debate, the panel delved into the ever-evolving state of sales coaching, all hosted by the wonderful Izzy Bishop of Wiser Elite.

Watch the whole session here:

Sales coaching - The Current Status Quo

Starting with the results of an all-encompassing survey spanning over 1,600 sales professionals, the panelists unravelled the present landscape of sales coaching. Coaching remains a pivotal element driving sales success, with a significant impact on the performance of sales representatives.

The conversation revolved around the need for creating an open, safe space where managers and reps can discuss challenges without inhibition. As Galit Weinberg advocated, leaders need to create a psychologically secure environment for such conversations. The panel was in agreement on this: significant improvements in coaching can - and will - happen, if you provide an environment that fosters dialogue about coaching challenges, and underpins each individual’s value as an equal part of that conversation.

“I think every leader needs to create a psychological safe space for their reports to be able to have these conversations… Fail fast. Come to me. We’ll look at the situation, analyse, change the course of action, and you'll be surprised, if you have these conversations, how the performance of a rep or a manager changes.”
- Galit Weinberg, Director of SMB Sales & Sales Development at GoCardless

Supplementing Weinberg's perspective, our own Alex Wood emphasised how daily 'micro-coaching' and understanding each team member's communication style has been pivotal to her coaching practice. Alex put forward that adaptability in sales is of ultimate importance; coaching is a tool for fostering ownership and accountability within reps, not merely tips for closing more deals.

Surprises and Findings from the Research

The group also discussed how research from our survey uncovered a few surprises. An issue plaguing organisations is the shortfall of formal sales management training. Managers need to be trained on coaching almost as much as they need to coach their teams, but this is often overlooked in favour of repeating current sales training methods and ideologies to developing team members. Sales Leaders taking the time out to be trained themselves could vastly improve team performance overall. The survey also highlighted the disparity between managers’ perceptions of how much they’re coaching their teams vs. reps’ perceptions of how much training they’re receiving.

Alex Wood on the Wiser GTM panel

“Leaders are saying they're coaching, and they need the reps to be more trained and enabled, like if there's a new feature or there's a new tool they're supposed to be using. And the leader thinks “tick” that’s their coaching done. But actually coaching is more about holistic, long-term goals, fulfillment, how you’re feeling about hitting your quota in the short-term as well as where you’re going in the long-term - I think that’s where the disparity is coming in."
- Alex Wood, AE Team Lead, Aircall

Another topic which was surfaced by the survey was the lack of leadership coaching, even those freshly-minted into leadership roles from individual contributor roles. Galit discussed how so many companies promote their best reps to management, but the panel acknowledged that not all Account Coordinators are suitable for leadership - even the most successful sales performer might not be a great sales leader.

Our audience really got involved in the discussion

Diverse Coaching Approaches

Despite their shared belief in the power of sales coaching, the panelists carried unique perspectives on coaching approaches. Galit underscored the necessity of aligning with sales reps and other departments to deliver value to clients. Plus, she suggested that coaching isn't merely about skills but also about shaping attitudes.

Alex emphasised the difference between training and coaching, stressing the importance of asking questions and involving the reps in finding solutions, fostering a sense of ownership. A highlight was her advice about reps seeking coaching from leaders they admire or even considering external coaching.

Mark echoed Alex’s sentiments and dived deeper into the difference between being a manager and a coach. Managers are well-placed to train; they’ve probably been successful in that organisation; they’re great with the product, market, competitors, pricing etc. But this can often lead to managers just jumping on calls and getting reps out of sticky situations because they know they have better skills, answers and solutions. Coaching is more about letting the rep grow and improve through finding their own rhythm and exploring approaches that work towards their strengths.

The group discussed how there’s also a difference in a rep’s relationship with a manager vs. a coach. Mark believed that reps can’t necessarily discuss their frustrations, concerns and issues with a direct line manager, as it could be an uncomfortable conversation about the manager’s own approach. This triggered some debate about how best to create a ‘safe space’ for team members to discuss their concerns, as Galit believed that a good manager is still someone that their team feels comfortable talking to, even about tricky subjects.

Engaging Session with Lively Debate

With an engaged audience bringing their questions from the start, this was a great and valuable session for all who attended, and the conversation continued long into the evening beyond the panel. We had it all - deep discussion, expert insight, lively debate, and a few laughs too. With an array of perspectives, experiences, and advice to soak in, the session provided some intriguing insights into the evolving landscape of sales coaching.

Now we’ve given you a taste, how about a look at the whole story?
Download our report - The State of Sales Coaching in 2025 - now.

Published on December 2, 2024.