How to have a meaningful 1:1s

Use this guide for ongoing 1:1s with your sales team

Having regular 1:1 meetings with your sales team is essential for effective communication, sales execution, and building strong relationships. These meetings provide an opportunity to discuss key deals, address challenges and roadblocks, and talk about career development.

The goal of the 1:1 should focus primarily on what the individual gets out of it, and if done well, allows the manager to get a ton of insight from the meeting, as well. So, how should you make the most of your 1:1? Make sure to provide a framework of the agenda that will stay the same each week. That way your rep knows exactly what they need to provide each week, and it drives accountability on both sides. Here’s a selection of topics that I cover:

Sentiment: This is a popular term we use at Coda to get a quick understanding of how someone is feeling today. It’s usually described using a scale of 1 to 5 smiley faces, with a quick one or two lines on how that person is feeling. This can help you get a sense of how you need to show up emotionally for your rep that day: do you need to provide a pep talk after a lost deal, share in their excitement for a demo that went well, or provide advice if they are feeling lost.

Weekly goals and targets: Have a section that focuses on their goal and progress to goal. This could start out with the quarterly quota listing progress to-goal. You can also add in KPIs such as pipegen / opportunities created in the last week, meetings booked and open pipeline. Knowing you will cover the KPIs each week drives accountability on the rep side, and allows you as a sales coach to dig in on what needs focus. You’ll also get themes from your team each week that you can surface to leadership regarding the state of the business - if pipegen is low that week for the whole team, it might be a good flag to dig into lead flow and review in your pipeline meeting with marketing.

Open topics: I always make sure to include open agenda items that are top of mind for your rep. These might be roadblocks that your team needs you to help with, or they could be used to talk through a customer conversation that week, or even strategizing on a deal.

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