Coaching Plans

A selection of our publicly available coaching plans. Our full library — covering more scenarios across sales, collections, and face-to-face — is available to clients.

D1 Directive +

Not yet competent · Not yet willing or confident

D2 Coaching +

Not yet competent · Willing and confident

D3 Supporting +

Competent · Not yet willing or confident

D4 Delegating +

Competent · Willing and confident

WILLs should be SMART: Specific, Motivating, Attainable, Relevant, Trackable. Each experiment needs a clear Trigger (when to do it) and Action (what to do). Learn more about Situational Leadership, development levels, and setting good experiments

Agent denies weaknesses

eyes openD1

Agent is unwilling to accept the Reality of the situation and will not admit to the possibility that there are things that are not perfect in some aspect of their call behaviour.

Entry

Agent undervaluing themselves to customer

tiny bettyD2

Agent is not platforming well; they are not effectively indicating the scope of their role and their commitment to getting a solution for the customer at the start of the call.

Angry customers

avian furyD3

Agent has difficulty handling customers with high negative emotion such as angry or upset customers.

Entry

Apologising without understanding the customer

deep waterD1

Agent is not asking the right questions to get to the customer's underlying concern and is consequently making superficial or inappropriate offers.

Being more succinct

flash floodD2

Agent is too longwinded; they could say what they need to say more succinctly.

Building rapport with customers you dislike

will warmD3

Agent only engages with customers that they build a natural rapport with.

Entry

Closing call when customer is unhappy

fail trialD1

Agent has difficulty in handling a conversation where they cannot give the customer what they want; agent cannot close down the call effectively.

Coaching strong agents

blue starD4

Agent is extremely competent and the coach can't see anywhere they need coaching.

Complex explanations

huge mazeD2

Agent does not deliver a more complex explanation well; customer not understanding even if the agent is articulate.

Concluding the call well

neat brickD4

Agent is concluding the call without clear signposting about the specific steps the customer should take next — customer is leaving the call confused.

Customers who are harder to understand

lost trackD3

Agent is less effective with particular types of customer (ethnicity, gender, age).

Dealing with customers' deeper issues

root tagsD3

Agent does not handle well a complaint about a core process that is not likely to change.

Fear of quoting full price

sale openD2

The agent quotes a minimal baseline price on the call to secure the appointment, withholding full costs and relevant add-ons until arriving at the customer's home.

Grounding customer understanding before explaining

page afterD3

The agent moves into a complex explanation before confirming the customer has understood the foundational issue they raised first.

Handling low points in day

lazy daysD2

Agent has very variable performance across the day.

Entry

Holding emotion while leaping to action

high pointD2

The coachee and group members are uncertain how to stay present with a service user's distress and still move decisively into practical help.

Improve empathy skills

foxy heartD2

Agent is demonstrating a lack of empathy with the customer, missing key cues about customer's underlying motivation for the call.

Low agent confidence

head downD1

Agent demonstrates low confidence on calls and is not inspiring confidence in customers — resulting in customer less satisfied than they should be with the resolution achieved.

Entry

Making better promises

bank trustD2

Agent is not making effective promises to the customer and the customer is continually looking for clarification.

Making coaching relevant for agent

band phoneD3

Agent has a low interest in coaching or in personal development.

Entry

Making promises that others will deliver

chain linkD2

Agent is not making promises where there is any dependency on another part of the organisation to execute.

Promise

Making suitable offers

wrong entryD2

Agent is not making suitable offers during a service call (offers trivial or self-serving).

Mandatory statements

cute robotD1

Agent does not start the call well and leads with regulatory statements before engaging the customer.

Missing customer needs on outbound calls

press playD2

The agent speaks to product features throughout the call without picking up on customer cues that reveal what the customer actually needs.

Over-prepared and not listening carefully

rigid bladeD3

Competent agent has problems when their call preparation does not align with the customer's need.

Over-preparing to call

full loadD2

Agent is going into a call overprepared and is not listening to the customer.

Positioning your value to the customer

tall glassD3

Agent underestimates the significance they have to the customer and treats the trust the customer has in them trivially.

Recovering when call plan fails

front forkD1

Agent cannot recover when their call plan fails. Agent gets stuck in a negative cycle and cannot recover or gracefully exit the call to come back later.