Stop Practicing on Customers
Are your sales reps practicing on your customers?
For most revenue teams, the answer is uncomfortably close to “yes.” The first time a seller’s skills are truly put to the test is often during a live customer conversation—when the stakes are highest, and the margin for error is lowest. By the time a misstep happens, the damage is done: a lost deal, a shaky relationship, or a risk to your forecast.
That’s the real cost I unpacked with Christina Brady, CEO and co-founder of Lustre. With years of experience leading revenue teams and advising growth companies, Christina doesn’t mince words. She points out that too many organizations only recognize their teams’ gaps after they've already cost them real business.
There’s a smarter, less expensive way to learn.
1. Customer Calls Should Not Be the Diagnostic Tool
Christina framed the problem in a way many sales leaders will recognize. Leaders often rely on lagging signals to find skill issues. Quota is missed. Churn moves in the wrong direction. Pipeline quality slips. A manager listens to calls after the fact and finds the pattern.
By then, the buyer has already experienced the gap.
That is the risk in treating customer conversations as the first real test of readiness. The organization may have trained the team. It may have checked the onboarding box. But it still may not know whether each person can execute the conversation in front of them.
That difference matters.
A completed training path tells you someone attended. A proficiency signal tells you whether they are ready.
What revenue leaders need to do:
- Define readiness: Identify the customer conversations each role must handle well
- Measure proficiency: Test skill before the rep reaches the buyer
- Watch patterns: Treat missed calls as evidence of a system gap, not just a rep issue
2. One-Size-Fits-All Training Hides Individual Risk
When performance slips, most teams respond with broad training. Everyone gets the same session. Everyone hears the same message. Everyone receives the same follow-up.
That can feel efficient. Often, it is not precise.
Christina’s argument is that every rep carries a different skill profile. One may struggle with discovery. Another may miss buyer signals late in the deal. A third may know the product but fail to shape urgency. The same training cannot address all three with equal force.
This is especially visible in onboarding. New hires come from different companies, selling motions, markets, and levels of experience. Yet many onboarding programs treat them as if they need the same path at the same pace.
Then leaders wonder why ramp time varies so widely.
What revenue leaders need to do:
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- Segment gaps: Separate knowledge issues from execution issues.
- Tailor onboarding: Focus early practice on the skills each person lacks.
- Protect managers: Give managers specific coaching targets, not vague development themes.
3. Practice Works When It Is Tied to the Moment
Christina used a simple comparison from her background as a musician. General practice can feel like time served. Specific practice before a performance feels different.
Sales teams work the same way.
Asking a rep to complete a random role play often creates low adoption. The rep does not see the connection. The manager may not see the urgency. The activity becomes another task outside the flow of work.
But practice tied to an upcoming call is different. The seller knows why it matters. The manager knows what to inspect. The organization can see whether the skill gap is likely to appear in a live deal.
That is where practice becomes operational.
The goal is not more training volume. The goal is better timing, better targeting, and better evidence that the rep is ready for the next conversation.
What revenue leaders need to do:
- Tie timing: Connect practice to upcoming buyer interactions.
- Name stakes: Make clear which skill gap could affect the deal.
- Inspect progress: Track whether practice changes behavior, not just completion.
4. Managers Need Cleaner Coaching Signals
Frontline managers are often asked to coach, inspect pipeline, forecast, run team meetings, support deals, and handle internal reporting. Then they are told to review calls and find the development pattern.
That is a lot to ask.
In the podcast, Christina described a different management motion: give managers a clearer view of where each person is strong, where they are exposed, and where coaching should happen before revenue is affected. That changes the manager’s role.
The manager is no longer searching through every interaction for clues. They are acting on a signal.
This matters because most coaching systems break down at the point of execution. Leaders know coaching matters. Managers know they should do more of it. But without a clear diagnosis, coaching becomes generic.
What revenue leaders need to do:
- Clarify focus: Give managers the two or three gaps that matter most.
- Coach before: Intervene before the call, not only after the loss.
- Track behavior: Measure whether coaching changes the seller’s execution.
🎧 Listen to the Full Conversation
Want to pressure-test how your organization measures seller readiness before revenue is at risk? Listen to Ray Makela and Christina Brady discuss why customer calls should not be the first real test of proficiency, how predictive enablement changes the coaching motion, and what revenue leaders should consider before adding another AI tool to the stack.