Feedback in Sales Teams: Regular, Specific, and Focused on Behavior

Why do salespeople get so little useful feedback?

Sales has more numbers than almost any other part of a business. Revenue, close rate, number of proposals: every salesperson knows at the end of the month where they stand. Still, many lack something important. They know their rate has dropped, but not why. They know an order was lost, but not what they could have done differently in the conversation.

That is rarely due to a lack of will on the part of leadership. Owners and sales managers have little time, and feedback on numbers is quick to give. Feedback on behavior, by contrast, requires having heard a conversation or read a proposal. And critical feedback is uncomfortable, so it gets postponed until it erupts as frustration.

This piece asks: what feedback helps salespeople sell better, and how do you give it in everyday work? To answer it, we first distinguish the kinds of feedback, then look at what research shows and whether it follows that you should only praise, and end with OIN Feedback, the right rhythm, and typical mistakes. It complements the article Leading a Sales Team, which describes the one-on-one as a fixed meeting.

What kinds of feedback are there in sales?

Jaworski and Kohli (1991) developed a classification that is still useful today. They distinguish feedback by two characteristics. The first is its subject: does the feedback relate to a result, such as revenue or deals closed, or to a behavior, such as the way a conversation was run? The second is its direction: is it positive or negative? This produces four kinds.

The four kinds work differently, and that is the core of this guide. The next sections cover what research says about it and what follows for a small business.

What does research say about feedback to salespeople?

In their empirical study of salespeople, Jaworski and Kohli found that positive feedback serves two functions. It informs, and it motivates. Accordingly, it had a clear effect on performance and satisfaction. Negative feedback did inform, but it did not motivate, and it improved performance only to a comparatively small extent. Positive feedback on results had the strongest overall effect on performance, positive feedback on behavior the strongest on satisfaction. Notably, negative feedback did not reduce satisfaction with the supervisor. Criticism is therefore less dangerous to the relationship than many managers fear.

Chakrabarty, Oubre, and Brown (2008) tested this with a national random sample of industrial salespeople in the United States. There too, positive feedback on results was clearly related to performance. Negative feedback, whether on results or behavior, was not related to performance. And positive feedback on behavior worked more strongly when the manager sold adaptively themselves, meaning they adjusted their approach to each customer. So whoever praises behavior must know what good behavior looks like.

The work by Chakrabarty and colleagues is based on a survey and measures associations, not causes. The study by Jaworski and Kohli is more than thirty years old. Its result, however, matches more recent work, including the study by Bolander and colleagues (2020) presented in the article Leading a Sales Team: among salespeople without prior experience, appreciative feedback on good work went along with faster growth.

Does that mean: only praise from now on?

No. The results do not say criticism is harmful. They say criticism alone moves little. A salesperson who only hears what they did wrong knows afterwards what to stop doing, but not what to do instead. And they tend to associate conversations with their manager with discomfort rather than progress.

Sujan, Weitz, and Kumar (1994) show in a widely cited paper why the kind of feedback has an effect beyond the individual comment. They distinguish salespeople with a learning orientation, who want to get better, from salespeople with a performance orientation, who mainly want to look good. According to their results, a learning orientation led salespeople to work not only harder but also smarter, meaning they deliberately expanded and used their knowledge of sales situations. And both orientations could be influenced by the manager's feedback.

In practice this means: criticism is necessary, but it should relate to behavior and include a next attempt. Then it becomes a learning opportunity. Criticism of results with no reference to behavior, such as “Your numbers are bad,” is the form that achieves the least.

OIN Feedback: observation, impact, next attempt

To keep feedback specific and focused on behavior, a fixed pattern helps. Owners Council calls it OIN Feedback. It has three parts and works for praise as well as criticism.

1. Observation

   Describe what you saw or heard, precisely enough for the other person to recognize it. No judgment, no character trait. Not “You were impatient,” but “You interrupted the customer twice while he was talking about his supplier.”

2. Impact

   Say what this behavior caused or can cause, for the customer or for the result. “After that he only gave short answers, and we still don't know why he wants to switch.”

3. Next attempt

   Agree on what will be done differently or the same next time, and when you will talk about it. For praise, the next attempt means: repeat it. For criticism: try a specific alternative.

An example of praise using the pattern: “You named the price range and then stayed silent for ten seconds. The customer said on his own that it was within his budget. Do exactly that at the next first meeting.” An example of criticism: “In the proposal, the price is on page one and the value on page four. The customer only asked about a discount. In the next proposal, put the three consequences the customer named at the beginning.”

What good behavior in a conversation can be measured against is described in the guides The First Sales Meeting and Handling Objections. They provide the standards to which the observation can refer.

How often and when do you give feedback?

Feedback works best when it is timely. Feedback on a conversation from three weeks ago reaches nobody anymore. At the same time, a small team does not need an elaborate feedback process. A simple rhythm on three levels is enough and fits the sales rhythm described in the article Leading a Sales Team.

The one-on-one follows the sequence from the article on team leadership: choose a conversation, ask first, name one point, practice, agree. OIN Feedback is the third step. The last step matters most: every one-on-one begins by asking what became of the next attempt from last time.

Which mistakes make feedback worthless?

Rich (1998) describes coaching in sales as the interplay of three parts: the manager's feedback, role modeling, and the salesperson's trust in their manager. By that account, feedback alone is not enough. Without trust it is experienced as control; without a role model it stays abstract. The most common mistakes follow from this.

• Too late: The feedback comes weeks after the conversation, when nobody remembers it.
• Too much: Ten points at once. None are retained. One point, two at most.
• Only results: People talk about close rate and revenue, never about the behavior that leads to them.
• Only criticism: Good work is taken for granted; mistakes are addressed.
• No role model: The manager demands what they do not do themselves, such as listening or following up.
• No follow-through: The next attempt is agreed but never mentioned again.

The last mistake is the most common. An agreed next attempt that nobody asks about tells the salesperson the feedback was not meant seriously. How a culture develops in which such conversations are normal is described in the essay Building a Sales Culture. What else drives salespeople is covered in the article What Motivates Salespeople.

First steps for this week

Feedback can be improved without preparation. These steps fit into a normal week.

1. Listen in on a salesperson's customer conversation without stepping in, and note two specific observations.
2. Right afterwards, give OIN Feedback, preferably on something that went well.
3. At the next weekly meeting, praise a specific behavior, not a result.
4. Schedule a one-on-one every two weeks for each salesperson, if that does not exist yet.
5. Write down every agreed next attempt and begin the next one-on-one by asking about it.

After a month you will notice the conversations changing. Salespeople bring situations they want to talk about on their own. That is the best sign that feedback is received as help and not as control.

We started by asking what feedback helps salespeople and how to give it in everyday work. Research suggests that positive feedback has a stronger effect on performance and satisfaction, while critical feedback mainly informs. It does not follow that you should only praise. What follows is to anchor every piece of feedback in an observation, name its impact, and agree on a next attempt, at a fixed rhythm rather than only once frustration has built up.