Effective Opportunity Coaching with the Buyer’s Perspective

I have observed numerous Pipeline Reviews conducted by managers with their sales teams. Here is what I think Sales Managers could do better.

1. Spend 10 minutes on the Pipeline Health.
2. Spend 30 minutes Coaching on Opportunities not in the proposal stage
3. Spend 20 min. on opportunities where the salesperson needs your help with

Pipeline Health

Prepare the following three kpi’s, ask your salesperson to do the same. Ideally, these are all automated.

Only three would you ask? Well, these three cover enough to coach on and demand progress month over month. They are simple, understood by salespeople and underperforming leads to tangible actions:

1. Pipeline Coverage Ratio
   Formula:
   Total Pipeline Value / Sales Target
   Why it’s a great KPI:
   This shows whether your pipeline is large enough to hit your quota. A ratio of 3:1 is often considered healthy (i.e., $3 in pipeline for every $1 in target), providing a sufficient buffer for deals that slip or fall through. It helps with forecasting accuracy and resource allocation.
2. Win Rate (Conversion Rate)
   Formula:
   (Number of Won Deals / Number of Qualified Opportunities) × 100
   Why it’s a great KPI:
   It tells you how efficiently you’re converting opportunities into revenue. A low win rate could indicate poor qualification, a weak value proposition, issues with the sales process, or pricing problems. Tracking this over time helps identify training needs or weaknesses in the sales process.
3. Stakeholders Engaged Before Proposal
   Formula:
   Total Stakeholders Engaged (Pre-Proposal Stage) / Number of Opportunities Reaching Proposal Stage
   Why it’s a great KPI:
   Reflects deal complexity and buying behaviour: In modern B2B sales, the average number of stakeholders involved in a purchase decision is 6–10 or more. This KPI helps ensure your team is engaging broadly enough.
   Predicts deal quality and likelihood to close: Opportunities with multi-stakeholder engagement are more likely to close, especially in larger or enterprise sales.
   Reduces proposal risk: Moving to a proposal with only one contact often leads to stalled or lost deals. This KPI guards against that.

Coaching on opportunities not in the proposal stage

I recommend coaching your team on opportunities, NOT in the proposal stage. Here, you have the most impact in terms of learning through self-reflection. After all, when you, as a manager, are not with them, they should be able to self-coach themselves to improve over time.

Ask your team members to prepare for the coaching session, providing three opportunities (each lasting 10 minutes) for coaching. Let them prepare their answer to the following ten questions.

1. Do you know what the potential customer does as a business? Consider:
   • How do they make money
   • What do you know about their supply chain
   • Who their customers are
2. Do you know what the potential Customer is looking to achieve as a business? Increase revenue? Reduce costs? Both?
   • Find out what the potential Customer is trying to achieve. It could be, for example:
   • Increasing revenue
   • Reducing cost
   • Increasing Customer Loyalty
   • Developing products
   • Expanding into a new market
   • (Every business wants to be more competitive, more successful, and to grow faster. Whatever their focus is, try to understand this from your potential Customer’s point of view and consider all the activities, resources and measurements that are involved.)
3. Do you know how they are planning to achieve this?
   • By being more competitive?
   • With market expansion,
   • Or cost-cutting programs, for example?
4. Have you verified with your contact what role they play in the organization?
   • Categorise your contact as either a User / Influencer / Decision Maker / Approver.
5. Have you engaged with other stakeholders, including the final decision-maker?
   • Talk to as many stakeholders as possible, from warehouse to middle and senior management. What interest do Operational, Finance and company leaders have in talking to you?
6. Do you know where the potential Customer and the relevant stakeholders are in their buying process?
   • Some just want to test the market on a price. Others may be at the start of the buying process and are confused, overwhelmed by the available information – the latter are more responsive to your insights.
7.  Have you shared ideas or insights to help the Customer with what they are trying to achieve?
   • Information becomes insightful for your potential Customer if it is something they don’t know and is relevant to a problem or challenge they are trying to solve.
8. What was their reaction? Do you know if they have shared your insights with other stakeholders?
   • If your insights were changing their perspective, a great test is to see if they have shared this information with others.
9. Have you discussed the impact to their business of not capitalising on your insights?
   • Often, having a clearer understanding of the risk of not changing is more impactful than seeing the opportunity of changing.
10. Have you shared the solutions you can offer to address their issues and challenges?
    • When discussing your solutions, ensure that they effectively address the previously identified issues. This must be very clear to your potential Customer.
      
      

It’s Not About You, But About Them

Can you see that when selling and coaching from the buyer’s perspective, it’s not about you, but about them?

When coaching on Pipeline Health, ensure they understand and agree that these three KPIs are sufficient to monitor regularly. Trust them, for 95% salespeople are on their own and without your coaching. Only then will they, after the coaching session continue to improve.

When coaching on the Opportunities. Preparation is key, for you and them. Don’t disappoint them by coming half-prepared.

Let’s stop confusing salespeople with complex pipeline reviews.

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