A recent coaching assignment with an SDR team reinforced something I see regularly.
The organisation was looking carefully at activity and meetings.
But when we looked at the conversations behind those numbers, a different picture emerged.
Some calls were strong.
Others created interest without really establishing a business reason to continue.
So instead of adding another generic sales training, we went back to the calls.
We listened.
We looked at:
→ the questions being asked
→ how well the SDR was listening
→ the depth of qualification
→ how objections were handled
→ whether enough value had been established before booking the meeting
Then we coached the specific behaviours.
Listen.
Reflect.
Practise.
Apply.
Review.
That made the coaching much more tangible.
Because “improve qualification” is difficult to coach.
“This is where you could have gone one level deeper — let’s practise how” is coachable.
And that distinction matters.
The objective isn’t simply to create better-trained SDRs.
It’s to create better conversations that produce better commercial outcomes.
Curious:
What do you coach first when an SDR is hitting the activity target, but the quality of the resulting meetings isn’t good enough?
#SDRCoaching #SalesCoaching #SalesPerformance #SalesEnablement