Coaching a sales team looks different than it did just a few years ago. It’s no longer about weekly call reviews and counting on reps to apply your feedback. Deals often take more time and prospects expect more insight along the way. If you lead a sales team, now’s the time to explore how AI can help you coach smarter and more effectively.
Allego’s David Ashe says leaders who know how to coach a sales team with AI will outperform those who keep doing it the old way. He believes AI is no longer a side experiment, but a powerful way for leaders to extend their reach and give reps the kind of support they couldn’t realistically deliver on their own.
In this issue of PromoPro Daily, we highlight Ashe’s tips for building a modern sales coaching system that blends AI with your personal expertise.
Step 1: Use AI to practice. Instead of jumping into a live deal, role play with AI. Ashe says it helps sales reps rehearse discovery, messaging and objection handling against realistic buyer behavior. They boost their confidence without slowing active opportunities.
Step 2: Deliver clear feedback with AI. After practice, Ashe says reps need feedback they can quickly understand and apply. AI can provide immediate feedback that highlights what worked, what didn’t and where improvement can be made. He says this structured guidance creates clarity and consistency across the team.
Step 3: Use AI insights to guide your coaching conversations. The next step, Ashe says, is to use AI-generated insights to add context to your coaching conversations. Think about what you want your team members to focus on specifically. For example, you might concentrate on deal strategy or mindset.
Step 4: Track progress and reinforce skills with AI analytics. Ashe points out how AI provides continuous visibility into how sales reps’ behaviors evolve over time. By monitoring patterns across conversations, you can see which skills are improving and which need reinforcement. Ashe says this ongoing insight can help you tailor your coaching more precisely and ensure development translates into sustained performance.
Sales coaching, just like the promo industry itself, is always changing. Instead of holding more or longer sales coaching sessions, lean into AI. Start with AI-driven insights and then work in your unique perspective. This approach can help you strengthen your team’s performance and close deals more efficiently.
Compiled by Audrey Sellers
Source: David Ashe is director of global sales development at Allego, a sales enablement platform.
