Skill Drill: Coaching Reps for Print and Packaging

Direct Answer

This drill builds call-coaching skill in print and packaging sales managers — the ability to review a real rep's discovery or pricing call and coach it with questions instead of just telling the rep what they did wrong. A sales manager runs it with 3–8 reps and team leads in 50 minutes.

The team walks away able to run a structured GROW model coaching conversation off a recorded call, using a Gong-style call-review habit, so reps leave owning their own next step instead of waiting to be told.

Why This Drill Matters in Print and Packaging

Print and packaging sales is a margin-and-relationship business where the same accounts get re-quoted by three vendors every quarter. A rep selling corrugated boxes, folding cartons, labels, or commercial print is competing on lead time, spec match, and trust — not just price. The difference between a rep who hits quota and one who doesn't is rarely product knowledge; it's how they run the call.

Do they uncover the real spec and volume early, or do they jump to a quote? Do they handle "your competitor is cheaper" or fold?

Managers in this industry coach badly for one specific reason: most were the top closer, so they "coach" by hijacking the call ("here's what I would've said") or by listening to a ride-along and giving a list of fixes the rep nods at and forgets. Neither builds skill. Telling produces compliance; coaching produces capability.

When the manager owns the insight, the rep owns nothing.

This drill installs two real practices. The GROW model (Goal, Reality, Options, Will — developed by Sir John Whitmore and Graham Alexander, taught in *Coaching for Performance*) gives the manager a four-step structure to coach a call without lecturing: agree what the rep wanted, look honestly at what happened, generate options, and commit to a next step the rep chooses.

The Gong-style call review — listening to or reading the transcript of a real recorded call and tagging specific moments — replaces vague "you should be more consultative" feedback with "at 4:12 you quoted before you knew their annual volume; what could you have asked first?" Sales-development bodies and methodologies including Sandler Training, The Challenger Sale, and the research published by RAIN Group all converge on the same point: rep skill is built rep-by-rep, call-by-call, with specific evidence and the rep doing the thinking.

What You'll Need (5 min prep)

• Group size: 3–8 reps and team leads. Trios work well — one coach, one rep, one observer.
• Materials: one real recorded call or transcript per rep (pull from your CRM or call-recording tool ahead of time; a print discovery or re-quote call is ideal), a printed GROW model card, a "call-review tagging" sheet (timestamp, what happened, what to try), and a timer.
• Room setup: trios at separate tables so audio doesn't overlap, or one shared call played for the whole group if you only have one recording.
• Handout: the GROW card — Goal ("what did you want from that call?"), Reality ("what actually happened — let's listen"), Options ("what else could you have done?"), Will ("what will you do on the next one?").

Round 1 — Set the Scene (5 min)

Name the bad habit out loud. Read this verbatim:

"When I started managing, I coached by stealing the call. I'd say 'here's what I would've done' and feel helpful. The rep nodded and changed nothing, because it was my insight, not theirs.

Today we practice the opposite: you're going to coach a real call with questions, and the rep is going to do the thinking. If you find yourself talking more than the rep, you're doing it wrong."

Teach GROW in two minutes using the card. Then teach the tagging habit: "We don't say 'be more consultative.' We say 'at this exact moment, here's what happened, here's what to try.' Specific beats general every time."

What good looks like: every coach can recite the four GROW steps and knows their job is to ask, not tell.

Round 2 — Run the Reps (20 min)

Form trios: coach, rep (whose call is being reviewed), and observer. Play or read the rep's real call. The coach runs a GROW conversation off it. The observer tracks one thing only: the talk-time ratio — is the coach asking or telling?

Use this real print-and-packaging call scenario if you don't have a recording handy:

Scenario — the re-quote that got out-priced: A rep is re-quoting 50,000 folding cartons for a regional food brand. On the call, the buyer says, "Your number came in 9% over the incumbent." The rep immediately offered a 7% discount without asking about volume commitment, lead-time needs, or why the brand was shopping at all.

The coach's job is to use GROW so the rep *discovers* that they discounted before they understood the buyer's real driver (it turned out to be a missed delivery from the incumbent — price was a smokescreen).

Coach the GROW steps:

• Goal: "What did you want out of that re-quote call?"
• Reality: "Let's listen to the moment they pushed on price. What did you do?"
• Options: "Before dropping 7%, what could you have asked?"
• Will: "On your next re-quote, what's the one question you'll ask before you touch price?"

Run 8 minutes, then rotate so a new person coaches. Two reps minimum.

What good looks like: the coach asks more than they tell, and the rep names their own fix (e.g., "ask about the incumbent's service before discounting") rather than being handed it.

Round 3 — Pressure Test (10 min)

Now make the rep resist. Bring two trios together. One person coaches; the rep plays "defensive" — they justify, deflect, and blame the buyer ("they were never going to switch anyway"). The coach must stay in GROW and keep the rep in the Reality and Options steps without getting pulled into an argument or caving into telling.

Read this verbatim:

"When a rep gets defensive, the easy move is to give up and just tell them the answer. Don't. Stay in the questions. 'Help me understand what you were seeing in that moment' beats 'you should have asked about volume' every time. The defensive rep is the one who most needs to do their own thinking."

Run two 4-minute rounds, swapping the coach. Debrief: did the coach stay in GROW, or did they cave into telling when the rep pushed back?

What good looks like: the coach keeps asking even when the rep deflects, and lands a Will step the rep actually commits to.

Round 4 — Debrief and Lock It In (10 min)

Go around the room. Each coach names: (1) the one moment they tagged in their rep's call, (2) the option the rep generated, and (3) the Will step the rep committed to. Then each *rep* states what they'll do on their next live call. Write the Will steps on the board so they're public and trackable.

Close by reading:

"Next week I'll pull each of your calls and check whether the Will step actually showed up. That's the whole point — not a nice conversation in this room, but a different question on a live call with a real buyer. Coaching that doesn't change the next call is just talking."

What good looks like: every rep leaves with one specific, committed change to make on their next real print or packaging call.

Scaling It: 5-Minute, 30-Minute, and 60-Minute Versions

5-minute version (pipeline huddle): Play 60 seconds of one real call. The manager models a single GROW question on it ("what did you want from that call?") and the rep answers. One tagged moment, one question, one Will step. The lesson: coach the moment, not the whole call.

30-minute version (standard): Run Rounds 1, 2, and a compressed debrief. One full GROW review per trio. Enough to install the "ask, don't tell" reflex and the tagging habit.

60-minute version (deep build): Run all four rounds, then add a live round: a rep makes a real follow-up call (or a tight role-play of one) immediately after being coached, and the team watches the Will step show up in real time. This closes the loop from coaching to behavior in one session.

Common Mistakes and Coaching Cues

• Hijacking the call ("here's what I'd do"). Cue: "Your insight changes nothing. Ask the question that gets the rep to *their* insight." Telling produces nodding, not skill.
• Vague feedback ("be more consultative"). Cue: "Tag the timestamp. 'At 4:12 you quoted before knowing volume' beats any adjective." Specific beats general.
• Skipping the Goal step. Cue: "If you don't agree what the rep wanted, you'll coach to *your* goal, not theirs." Always start with Goal.
• Caving when the rep gets defensive. Cue: "Defensiveness is not a reason to start telling. 'Help me understand what you saw' keeps them thinking."
• No Will step. Cue: "A coaching call with no committed next action is just a chat. End every review with one specific change for the next live call."
• Coaching the price, not the process. Cue: "In print and packaging, the fix is almost never 'discount less' — it's 'discover the real driver before you quote.' Coach the questions, not the number."

FAQ

We don't record calls. Can we still run this? Yes. Use the printed scenario in Round 2 as a role-play, or have a rep recap a recent real call from memory while the coach runs GROW off the recap. Recordings make tagging sharper, but the GROW structure works on any real call the rep can describe.

How is coaching different from a ride-along where I give feedback? A ride-along usually ends with the manager's list of fixes. Coaching ends with the rep's own next step. The GROW Options and Will steps force the rep to generate and commit, which is what makes the change stick.

My reps quote fast because customers demand it. Isn't discovery a luxury? In print and packaging, the fast quote is exactly how you lose margin and lose to the incumbent. One or two discovery questions about volume, lead time, and why they're shopping usually reveals the real driver — often it's service, not price.

Coach the question that buys you that insight.

What if the rep's call was genuinely good? Then coach the next level. Use GROW to find the one moment that could have gone from good to great — a deeper discovery question, an earlier trial close. Strong reps still leave with one Will step.

How often should we run this? Run the full 50-minute version monthly and the 5-minute huddle version weekly off real calls. The weekly cadence is what builds the call-review habit; the monthly version deepens the coaching skill on the managers.

How do I know if it's working? Check the next live call. If the Will step shows up — the rep asks the volume question before quoting, handles the price push with a question instead of a discount — the coaching landed. If it doesn't, the coaching was telling in disguise.

Bottom Line

After this drill, your sales managers can take a real print or packaging call, run a structured GROW conversation that gets the rep doing the thinking, tag specific moments instead of giving vague feedback, and end with a committed Will step that shows up on the next live call. Re-run the 5-minute huddle weekly and the full 50-minute version monthly.

The only proof that matters is the next call sounding different — a question where there used to be a discount.

Sources

• Performance Consultants — The GROW Model
• Coaching for Performance by Sir John Whitmore
• Gong — Call Recording and Conversation Intelligence
• Sandler Training — Sales Coaching
• The Challenger Sale — Challenger Inc.
• RAIN Group — Sales Coaching Research
• Harvard Business Review — The Right Way to Coach Salespeople
• Printing Industries of America / PRINTING United Alliance

*Call-coaching skill drill — a runnable team training exercise for print and packaging, with verbatim scripts, timing, and coaching cues.*