01/09/2026
A member of the board let us call him every week and grade his sales pitch.
Six months. In German. Recorded.
I had never seen an industrial organisation do that before.
We were launching a global programme for one of the commercial vehicle brands you pass on the motorway every day.
Most organisations start these rollouts at the bottom. The salespeople first, because management assumes they are the ones with the problem.
This client started at the top.
Our coach called their senior leadership team every week. Including a member of the management board.
Same hard question every time:
"If I were your customer, why should I buy your truck when the competitor is eight per cent cheaper?"
Recorded. Scored. Coached. Repeated seven days later.
He improved exactly the way a salesperson improves. Slowly, uncomfortably, and then obviously.
That single decision changed the entire rollout.
When an experienced rep somewhere in Europe said, "I have sold these vehicles for 25 years, I do not need a weekly call", his regional director had a simple answer:
"The board did it. I did it. It was not easy. Your turn."
You cannot buy that authority with a training budget.
Most executives announce that standards must rise, then book their team a seminar.
Very few have the stomach to go first.
Commercial leaders, honest answers: would you take that weekly coaching call knowing every rep in your network would see the score?