She’d spent millions.

Training. Resources. Endless role plays. Her team was polished, prepared, and practiced yet results stayed flat.

“Venkat, we’ve thrown everything at this. What are we missing?”

I asked her one question.

“How are these role plays translating into real plays?”

She went quiet for almost a minute.

That silence told me everything.

Her people could perform in a room. The gap showed up the moment they stood in front of a customer.

So we took the coaching out of the classroom and into the field.

And that’s when the real picture emerged… 3 dysfunctions we hadn’t seen before:

1. The “me” syndrome

Talking about themselves instead of the customer.

2. The deaf ear effect

Rushing to respond, instead of listening for what the customer was really saying.

3. The forgettable experience

Meetings that ended forgettably, instead of leaving something the customer would remember and repeat.

The talent was already there. The translation needed building.

Over 6 months, we worked with every manager to role model the right behaviors in live customer conversations. Real, in the moment, with real stakes.

The team stepped up. And they showed up differently.

The result?

↳ Two of their best quarters ever. Back to back.

↳ And a growth pipeline they hadn’t seen before.

Here’s what 20+ years of working with Fortune 500 sales organizations has taught me:

Most leaders assume they have a talent problem.

They actually have a translation problem.

What’s learned in the training room stays there until someone builds the bridge to the customer.

So here’s the question worth asking about your own team:

Are your best people winning in the room, or winning in front of the customer?

Because those are two very different scoreboards. And only one of them shows up in your pipeline.

*** 

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