Why Sales Coaching Isn’t Working (and What Needs to Change)
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
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Sales coaching is widely recognised as one of the strongest drivers of performance. Research consistently shows a clear link between effective coaching and improved sales results.
And yet, for many B2B sales teams, coaching still isn’t delivering the impact it should.
In a recent episode of The Insiders Podcast, I sat down with Kevin Beales, Founder & CEO of MySalesCoach, to explore the findings from the State of Sales Coaching 2026 report – one of the largest surveys of its kind.
What quickly became clear is that there’s a growing disconnect between how sales leaders view coaching and how salespeople experience it.
Leaders Believe Coaching Is Improving. Salespeople Don’t.
One of the most striking findings from the report is the gap between leadership perception and seller reality.
Sales leaders report that they are:
Coaching more frequently
Spending meaningful time with their teams
Delivering coaching that works
Salespeople tell a very different story.
Around 40% of sales reps say they are rarely coached or not coached at all, and nearly half say the coaching they receive isn’t valuable. Compared with last year’s data, perceptions of coaching quality have declined rather than improved.
The issue isn’t effort or intent – it’s what’s being counted as coaching.
When Coaching Becomes Deal Review
Under pressure, one-to-ones often default to pipeline reviews, forecasts and deal inspection. These conversations are important, but they aren’t coaching.
Effective sales coaching focuses on:
Developing skills and behaviours
Improving long-term capability
Helping individuals grow as sellers
Deal reviews focus on short-term outcomes.
As Kevin and I discussed in the podcast, these two are frequently blurred together. Leaders feel they are coaching because time is being spent one-to-one, while salespeople experience those sessions as management rather than development.
Sales Coaching Still Lacks a Shared Definition
A recurring theme in our conversation was that sales coaching means different things to different people.
For many leaders, coaching is simply time in the diary. For salespeople, coaching means someone actively investing in their growth.
Without a shared understanding, coaching exists in name only. The result is frustration on both sides and a missed opportunity to improve performance.
The Missed Opportunity of Peer Coaching
One of the most underutilised elements of a strong sales coaching culture is peer coaching.
As sales environments become more remote – or even when teams are in the office but working in isolation – opportunities to learn from one another naturally disappear. Reps no longer hear how others phrase questions, handle objections or navigate complex conversations.
The best-performing sales teams are deliberate about creating space for peer learning, making it a core part of their sales coaching strategy rather than an informal afterthought.
AI Sales Coaching: Potential vs Reality
AI sales coaching tools are attracting significant investment, but the data suggests salespeople remain sceptical.
Only a small proportion of reps currently find AI coaching genuinely useful, and many organisations report limited impact so far. Where AI does add value is in areas such as roleplay, practice and accelerating onboarding, not replacing human coaching.
As we explored in the episode, the future lies in AI supporting managers, peers and external coaches, not attempting to replace them.
What High-Performing Teams Do Differently
The data points to a clear conclusion: sales coaching isn’t broken, but it does need redefining.
High-performing organisations tend to:
- Separate deal management from coaching
- Invest in developing managers as coaches
- Build deliberate peer coaching into their culture
- Measure leading indicators, not just revenue
Use technology to support (not replace) human coaching
Listen to the Full Conversation
Listen to the full episode to unpack the findings of the State of Sales Coaching 2026 report and explore what sales leaders can do differently to build coaching cultures that genuinely drive performance
