Coaching in performance management is the ongoing work a manager does with a person between reviews, on the specific behaviors that drive their results. The review looks back over a period, and coaching works on the next call, so a good review holds no surprises.
For sales teams, that means tying coaching to the calls people hold and checking it in the numbers the review uses. This guide shows where coaching sits in the performance cycle, what to measure, how to handle underperformance and what to keep out of the review. The weekly routine itself is in sales coaching.
What is coaching in performance management?
Coaching in performance management is the activity that changes behavior inside a system built to measure it. Four things get mixed up, and each answers a different question.
| Activity | The question it answers | When it happens | Evidence it uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Managing | Is the work on track? | Weekly, in pipeline meetings | Pipeline, forecast, activity |
| Coaching | What will you do differently on the next call? | Weekly or every two weeks | Recorded calls |
| Performance review | How did you do over the period? | Quarterly or yearly | Results and the trend in behaviors |
| Improvement plan | Can the gap close, by when, and with what help? | After coaching has not worked | Documented behaviors and results |
Most sales teams run the first row well and call it coaching. Frank Cespedes wrote in Harvard Business Review that most sales managers overestimate how much time they spend coaching, and that their conversations tend to cover results and pending deals (HBR, December 16, 2021, read November 3, 2026). Our post on activity coaching and win rate looks at that gap.
Where does coaching fit in the sales performance cycle?
Coaching sits between setting a standard and reviewing results. It is how a manager moves a person toward the standard during the period, and its record feeds the review.
Set the standard
A scorecard of steps for each call type, agreed with the team.
Coach on real calls
One behavior at a time, from a recent call, every week or two.
Review the trend
Monthly or quarterly: did coached behaviors change, and did results follow?
Decide
Recognize, develop further or start a formal plan.
The first step is the one teams skip. Without a written standard, coaching rests on the manager's taste, and the review has nothing to point to. Our guide to sales call scoring has scorecard templates you can adapt.
What should you measure in sales coaching?
Measure coached behaviors first and results second. Results arrive late and have many causes, while a behavior can be counted on the next calls.
Gartner made a related point in May 2026: relying on lagging indicators like win rates and deal size hides the real drivers of seller performance (Gartner, Steve Rietberg, May 4, 2026, read November 3, 2026). A review that uses only the number tells a person that they missed and gives no information on why.
| Kind | Examples | Use in the review |
|---|---|---|
| Lagging results | Quota attainment, win rate, deal size | The outcome, over a full sales cycle |
| Leading behaviors | Share of discovery calls with a cost question asked | Shows whether coaching is changing what people do |
| Coaching coverage | Share of people coached each week, share of calls scored | Shows whether the system is running at all |
Coverage is easy to forget. If a manager coaches three people and the other five go unseen for a quarter, the review of those five has no coaching record to draw on.
How do you handle underperformance with coaching?
Start with calls, move to a plan only if coaching has had a fair run, and write down each step. This order keeps the process fair to the person and gives the manager facts to stand on.
- Listen before you judge. Hear several recent calls of the same type. Find the one step the person misses most often.
- Coach that step for several weeks. One step, practice out loud, a date to check the next calls.
- Read the result. If the step improves and results do not, the cause may be territory, offer or role fit, and that is a different conversation.
- Move to the formal process if nothing changes. After coaching and practice with no change in the behavior, involve HR and follow your company's policy. We are not offering legal or HR advice here.
- Keep the record. Dates, calls reviewed, the behavior coached and what the later calls showed.
The record is the reason to coach on calls. "Asked about cost on 2 of 10 discovery calls in March, 6 of 10 in April" is specific and checkable. "Needs to be more consultative" is neither.
How does call data fit into performance management?
Call data gives the review something to look at beyond the number. Conversation intelligence records and transcribes calls, and scoring against a scorecard turns each call into a set of steps you can count.
Use it for coaching and for the trend in the review. Keep it out of compensation and public rankings. When a score decides who looks good, people start working on the score and stop being open about calls that went badly, and those are the calls worth coaching.
Scoring every call matters for fairness as well. A manager who hears a handful of calls sees a sample picked by memory and mood. Sales coaching software can score every call, so the review rests on the whole set. The guide to AI sales coaching shows how that loop works.
What does a coaching culture need?
A coaching culture needs managers who know how to coach, time on their calendar and a routine people can predict. Two training publishers describe the pieces. Training Industry points to role-play, peer coaching and scenario-based learning as ways to build coaching skill (Training Industry, read November 11, 2026). 15Five lists embedding coaching into daily workflows and using data and feedback to measure its impact (15Five, read November 11, 2026).
In a sales team, that becomes:
- Manager skill: practice the coaching conversation as well as the selling. The session How to Become a Great Sales Coach is a starting point.
- Time: a protected 1:1 slot that is not the pipeline meeting.
- Routine: the same loop every week, so people know what to expect.
- Peer coaching: let people review each other's calls on one step.
What goes wrong when coaching meets performance management?
Three things go wrong most often.
- Coaching becomes a warning. If people are coached only after missing quota, they avoid it. Coach the top of the team too.
- The review ignores the coaching record. The manager scores the quarter on the number and the coaching was for nothing.
- Standards differ by manager. Two managers score the same call differently, so people get different reviews depending on who they report to. Have managers score a call together each quarter and compare.
For the broader picture of how AI changes the role, see AI sales coaching vs traditional coaching. If you are choosing a program, best sales coaching gives criteria.
Where should you start?
Start with the coaching record. Pick one call type, write the steps, coach one behavior per person for four weeks and note what the next calls show. At the next review, bring that record next to the number.
The weekly routine is in sales coaching. If the record shows a behavior that changed and a number that did not, you have learned something real about the number, which is a better conversation than an argument about effort.