73% of Managers Spend Less Than 5% of Time Coaching – Carew CEO Shares Frameworks High-Performing Teams Use Instead

With coached sales teams achieving significantly higher quota attainment and win rates, Jeff Seeley outlines proven models sales leaders can apply immediately

CINCINNATI, OH, UNITED STATES, February 11, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The business case for sales coaching is overwhelming. Companies with formal coaching processes achieve 91.2% quota attainment compared to 84.7% for companies with informal approaches. Reps who receive more than two hours of coaching per week have a 56% win rate, while those with less than 30 minutes weekly manage only 43%. Yet despite decades of evidence, the vast majority of sales managers still default to managing deals rather than developing the people who close them.

According to Jeff Seeley, CEO of Carew International, the problem is not that sales leaders do not believe in coaching. It is that they lack a reliable framework for doing it well. “Most managers spend their days putting out fires. Coaching builds fireproof reps,” said Seeley. “Sales leaders love the thrill of winning the deal. There is an internal battle between ‘why am I always having to close deals’ and the adrenaline rush of coming in and saving the day. The best leaders learn to channel that energy into developing their teams instead.”

Two Frameworks for Every Coaching Situation
Carew International has spent more than 50 years refining the methodologies it teaches in its sales leadership programs. Two coaching models in particular, the GROWTH Model and the Direction Model, give sales leaders a practical way to meet every rep where they are in their development. These models are taught and practiced inside Carew International’s sales leadership programs and refined through decades of real-world application.

The GROWTH Model is a structured conversational framework built around six steps: Goal, Reality, Options, Way Forward, Track, and Hold Accountable. It works best with experienced, self-motivated reps who have the skills but need help with strategic thinking. Rather than dictating solutions, the leader asks questions that guide the rep to identify their own path forward. The rep does most of the talking while the leader guides, not dictates. That ownership is what makes behavior change last.

The Direction Model provides more structured, instructive coaching for reps who are new to a role, lack confidence, or have performance gaps requiring immediate correction. The leader defines the desired outcome, outlines the specific behaviors that lead to it, confirms understanding, and delivers targeted feedback. It is short-term guidance that builds the foundation for long-term development. Once a rep gains confidence and competence, they can transition into GROWTH-style coaching conversations.

“The key is matching your approach to the rep’s readiness level,” Seeley explained. “When you coach through questions rather than commands, you build sales reps who can confidently think for themselves. That is how high-performing sales teams stay high-performing.”

What Sales Leaders Get Wrong About Coaching
Seeley points to several patterns that undermine coaching effectiveness across organizations of all sizes. Leaders who jump to solutions instead of asking questions rob reps of the learning opportunity. Saving feedback for quarterly reviews strips it of impact. Effective coaching happens in real time, after a call, during a pipeline review, or while accompanying a customer visit. And focusing exclusively on what is wrong backfires. Research suggests it takes eight positive experiences to overcome one negative, which means negative-only coaching significantly decreases the effectiveness of the coaching moment.
Perhaps the most common trap, according to Seeley, is making coaching about the leader’s own experience.

“‘Here’s how I would do it’ shifts focus away from the rep’s development,” he said. “Telling someone how to do something puts 100% of the ownership on the leader. When the solution fails, guess whose fault it is?”

Coaching the Reps Who Outperform You
Seeley also addresses a challenge that intimidates many sales leaders: how to coach someone who has been consistently outperforming expectations. The answer, he says, is to shift from skill coaching to thinking coaching. Rather than teaching tactics, leaders should focus on mindset, reflection, and continuous improvement, asking questions such as, “What’s working best for you right now, and why?” or “If you had to replicate your success across the team, what would you teach first?”

The goal is to stretch top performers, not steer them.

Above all, Seeley stresses that consistency beats intensity. Five short coaching conversations a week will outperform one long meeting every month. Coaching should feel like a partnership, not a performance review. What reps discover for themselves, they remember.

Read more in Carew’s latest article, Sales Coaching Techniques That Work.

For more than 50 years, Carew International has been a trusted partner to organizations seeking to elevate sales performance. Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, Carew delivers research-backed sales training, leadership development, and customer service programs that create measurable, lasting behavior change. Carew’s flagship programs include Dimensions of Professional Selling^® (DPS^®), Excellence in Sales Leadership (ESL), and Excellence in Customer Service^® (ECS^®). Its proprietary methodologies, including LAER: The Bonding Process^®, have helped thousands of professionals and organizations worldwide achieve breakthrough results. To learn more, visit www.carew.com.

Anna Luther
Carew International
aluther@carew.com
Visit us on social media:
LinkedIn
Facebook
YouTube
X

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.