Stop Practicing on Customers

Revenue leaders often know where performance broke only after the customer has already felt it. The harder question is whether the team could have seen the skill gap earlier.

Training can be completed. Calls can be reviewed. Managers can coach after the fact. But when the first true test happens in front of a buyer, the business is learning at the most expensive moment.

SBI’s Ray Makela and Christina Brady, CEO and co-founder of Lustre, discuss why seller readiness needs to be measured before live customer conversations. Christina shares how revenue teams can identify proficiency gaps earlier, connect practice to real buyer interactions, and give managers cleaner coaching signals before missed deals, slow ramp, or churn risk appear.

Key Talking Points:

• Why customer calls often become the first real test of seller readiness
• How lagging KPIs can hide early proficiency gaps until revenue is already at risk
• Why broad training often misses the specific skill issues each seller needs to correct
• How prescribed practice can improve adoption by tying development to upcoming buyer conversations
• What managers need to coach with better timing, clearer focus, and stronger evidence
  
  
  

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