The State of Sales Coaching in 2026: What the Latest Sales Coaching Statistics Reveal

The latest State of Sales Coaching 2026 report reveals some of the most important sales coaching statistics of 2026, highlighting a growing disconnect between how leaders believe they are coaching and what reps actually experience.

Based on responses from sales professionals across global markets and industries, the report uncovers critical trends in coaching consistency, coaching quality, leader capability, and the rising influence of AI in development.

While leaders think they’re coaching more than ever, the data shows a very different reality for sales teams—one that is impacting performance, confidence, and long-term skill development.

This report is designed to answer a single question:

Is sales coaching keeping up with the demands of today’s sellers—or falling further behind?

Download The Survey Here:

The complete State of Sales Coaching 2026 report includes:

• Full data visualisations

• Side-by-side comparisons with 2025

• Insights into coaching effectiveness by tenure

• Where AI is helping—and where it’s hurting

• What high-performing teams do differently

• Commentary from MySalesCoach’s leadership team

• Downloadable graphics for you to share your thoughts on LinkedIn

Key Sales Coaching Statistics for 2026

Sales Coaching Is Getting Progressively Worse

Despite more tools, more AI, and more talk about “coaching culture,” the fundamentals are moving in the wrong direction:

• 45% of reps now rate the coaching they receive as below average—up sharply from 29% last year.

• 41% say they are never or rarely coached.

• And yet, 64% of sales leaders believe they are spending more time on coaching than 12 months ago. 

This is not a small perception issue. It’s a structural execution problem—and it’s costing teams quota every quarter.

Coaching Is Still the Strongest Performance Lever For Quota Attainment… When It Actually Happens

The data could not be clearer: coaching frequency is directly tied to quota attainment.

• In teams where reps are coached weekly or more, 76% are hitting quota.

• When coaching drops to monthly, attainment falls to 56%.

• At quarterly or less, it sinks further to 47%. 

In other words: the moment coaching becomes irregular, performance becomes unpredictable.

Leaders are rightly obsessing over pipeline coverage, forecasting, and productivity tools. But the most reliable performance lever remains stubbornly old-fashioned:

If you want predictable results, you need predictable coaching.

That means a rhythm of weekly, structured, behaviour-led sessions, not “quick deal reviews” squeezed in between forecast calls.

Leaders Believe Their Coaching Is Great. Reps Disagree.

So where is the disconnect coming from?

Leaders point to familiar constraints:

• Lack of time is the top barrier (around a third of leaders cite this).

• Almost a quarter struggle to measure the impact of coaching.

• A similar proportion openly admit they don’t feel equipped with the skills or frameworks to coach well. 

On the ground, reps feel the impact of that capability gap. What leaders call “coaching” often looks like:

• Inspecting deals instead of developing skills

• One-off interventions instead of consistent guidance

• Generic advice instead of tailored, role-specific coaching

The result: leaders feel like they’re putting in the effort. Reps feel like they’re largely on their own.

The Experience Paradox: Your Most Valuable Reps Are the Most Neglected

One of the most striking findings from the report is what happens to coaching over time.

• Newer reps (0–2 years) are more likely to receive regular coaching.

• As tenure increases, coaching frequency drops—but the desire for more support rises.

• Reps with 6–10 years’ experience are both the most under-coached and the most hungry for help. 

The industry has clung to a persistent myth: “Experienced reps just want to be left alone.”

Your data says the opposite. Tenured sellers want sharpening, challenge, and perspective. They’re often the ones handling the biggest, most complex deals—and yet they’re coached the least.

That’s not just an enablement miss. It’s a revenue risk.

Who Coaches the Coaches?

Another uncomfortable truth: most sales managers have never been properly coached or trained as coaches themselves.

• Only 34% of leaders say they’ve ever had any training or support to become a more effective coach.

• Just 1 in 5 leaders has a coach of their own. 

We keep promoting top performers into leadership, then handing them a target and a team, but not the toolkit. 

Is it any surprise that:

• Coaching is delivered ad hoc.

• Conversations default to pipeline interrogation.

• Leaders believe their coaching is effective, but reps rate the quality of their coaching so poorly. Do Leaders know what effective coaching looks like?
• 22.6% of Leaders said their main barrier to coaching that it is 'difficult to assess the impact of coaching'. If reps aren't being coached in the right way, is it any wonder they aren't seeing or feeling the impact?

If coaching is the biggest performance lever in the business, then leader development is not a nice-to-have—it’s infrastructure.

You wouldn’t let your reps “figure out” how to sell your product without training. Yet many organisations still expect managers to “figure out” how to coach.

External, Independent Sales Coaching Wins

When asked who they’d prefer to be coached by, reps send a very clear message:

• 59% prefer an external coach

• Only 23% prefer their manager

• The rest split across peers and enablement 

That’s not about disloyalty. It’s about trust and effectiveness.

Reps want:

• Objectivity – someone who isn’t also their performance reviewer

• Consistency – regular sessions, not occasional “drive-by feedback”

• Credibility – coaches who have seen multiple patterns across teams and industries

When internal coaching is inconsistent, superficial, or tied too closely to inspection and pressure, reps naturally seek development elsewhere.

Forward-thinking organisations are already responding—by combining manager-led coaching with external expert support rather than betting everything on stretched frontline managers.

AI Is Growing, But Reps Don't Believe it is The Only Answer

It would be easy, and very convenient for a lot of organisations, to hopefully assume AI will fix the coaching gap. Yet, the reality is more nuanced.

Investment in AI coaching tech is surging:

• Around 35–40% of companies are already investing in AI coaching tech.

• Another 40–45% expect to invest within the next year.

• Only about 15% say they are unlikely to invest at all. 

But adoption is outpacing belief.

When reps were asked what development methods are “extremely useful”:

• 48% chose human coaching

• 39% chose human + AI hybrid coaching

• Only 13% chose AI-only coaching

And the trust gap is stark: most reps are sceptical of AI-only coaching, while fewer than 2 in 10 doubt the usefulness of human coaching.

The most important stat of all:

75% of sales reps and leaders believe the need for coaching has increased because of AI—not decreased. 

AI is raising the bar: more data, more activity, more complexity, more pressure.

Reps don’t want a bot to replace their coach. They want AI to remove friction so that human coaching can happen more often, and be more focused and impactful.

The future isn’t AI vs. humans. It’s AI-powered, human-led coaching.

What High-Performing Teams Will Do Differently in 2026

Taken together, the findings aren’t just a diagnosis—they’re a roadmap.

Sales organisations that win the next decade of performance will:

1. Make weekly coaching non-negotiable

   Treat it like pipeline review or forecast calls: a core operating rhythm, not a “nice if we have time” activity.

2. Invest in managers as coaches

   Give leaders the frameworks, training, and support they need to run effective, repeatable coaching conversations—not just manage numbers.

3. Stop neglecting tenured reps

   Build specific coaching tracks for experienced sellers focused on complex deals, strategic thinking, and sharpening advanced skills.

4. Adopt hybrid Human + AI models

   Use AI to surface insights, analyse calls and emails, and track behaviour change—so human coaches can focus on judgement, challenge, and confidence.

5. Bring in external expertise where it counts

   Blend internal manager coaching with external specialist coaches who can provide objectivity, depth, and consistency across the team.

The Key Takeaway for Sales Leaders

If you’re a sales leader reading this, the takeaway isn’t “you’re not doing enough.”

The takeaway is: you cannot afford to leave coaching to good intentions and spare moments.

• Your reps are telling you they’re under-coached.

• Your data is telling you that frequency directly drives quota.

• Your tenured sellers are quietly signalling that they want more, not less, from you.

• And your AI investments will only pay off if they’re attached to real human coaching, not left to sit in dashboards and scorecards.

The organisations that respond now—by building consistent, expert-led, human + AI coaching systems—won’t just hit this year’s number. They’ll build a true competitive advantage in how their people sell, improve, and grow.

Close the Coaching Gap With External Expert Support

If your reps are asking for more coaching than your managers have the bandwidth, time or expertise to provide, you’re not alone—and you don’t have to solve it internally.

MySalesCoach gives your team access to world-class, external sales coaches who provide the consistency, objectivity, and expertise your reps are telling you they need to succeed in sales.

With MySalesCoach, your organisation gets:

• Dedicated expert coaches matched to each rep based on goals, skill gaps, and experience level.

• On demand, structured coaching sessions that drive the behaviour change your operating rhythm depends on.

• Objective, specialist guidance—free from internal bias, performance reviews, or pipeline pressure.

• A scalable coaching system your managers can rely on to develop their teams while staying focused on strategy and execution.

Book a call with our team to see how expert coaching can transform your team’s performance in 2026.

About the Report - Who Took Part

The State of Sales Coaching 2026 brings together insights from salespeople across the UK, Europe, North America, and APAC. Respondents include a wide mix of sales leaders, frontline managers, SDRs/BDRs, AEs, and senior enterprise sellers, representing both high-growth scale-ups and established enterprise organisations.

Participants span a broad set of industries including SaaS, technology, professional services, manufacturing, media, and telecommunications, reflecting the diverse realities of modern sales environments. The survey captures perspectives from those receiving coaching, those responsible for delivering it, and those building enablement systems—giving a full 360° view of how sales coaching is currently executed, experienced, and valued in 2026.

Download the full State of Sales Coaching in 2026 report here.

FAQ: Sales Coaching Statistics 2026

1. What is the State of Sales Coaching 2026 report?

The State of Sales Coaching 2026 is a global study conducted by MySalesCoach to understand how sales coaching is being delivered, experienced, and valued across modern sales teams. It captures insights from hundreds of sales professionals—from SDRs and AEs to Heads of Sales, Directors, VPs, and Enablement leaders—across multiple regions and industries.

2. Who took part in the 2026 sales coaching survey?

Respondents came from the UK, Europe, North America, and APAC, representing industries such as SaaS, technology, professional services, manufacturing, healthcare, financial services and more. The report includes perspectives from both sales reps and sales leaders, offering a balanced 360° view of coaching today.

3. What themes are included in the sales coaching statistics for 2026?

The report explores several core themes, including:

• Coaching frequency and perceived coaching quality

• How leaders’ self-reported coaching compares to reps’ lived experiences

• Barriers preventing managers from coaching effectively

• The decline in coaching support for tenured reps

• The rise of AI coaching tools and the growing mistrust of AI-only coaching

• Who reps actually prefer to be coached by

These themes reveal clear trends in where coaching is working—and where it’s falling short.

4. What were you hoping to learn from the 2026 survey?

The goal of this year’s survey was to determine whether the coaching gap identified in previous years has narrowed or widened. We wanted to understand how coaching frequency is changing, how coaching quality is perceived, whether AI is helping or hindering development, and whether sales leaders feel equipped to coach effectively.

5. Why is there a growing disconnect between leaders and reps?

Early findings show that while many leaders believe they’re coaching more, reps overwhelmingly report receiving less meaningful coaching. Leaders often feel confident in their approach, but reps describe coaching as inconsistent, surface-level, or absent—especially among mid-tenured and senior reps.

6. What do the statistics reveal about coaching for experienced reps?

The report shows that coaching often drops off as reps become more experienced, despite experienced sellers being the group most hungry for support. This “tenure neglect” is one of the biggest missed opportunities identified in the survey.

7. Is AI improving coaching effectiveness?

The data shows that while AI adoption is accelerating, reps remain sceptical about AI-only coaching options. Human coaching is still viewed as the most useful development method. The strongest future model appears to be human-led coaching supported by AI, not replaced by it.

8. Why should organisations pay attention to the 2026 sales coaching findings?

Because coaching continues to be one of the most powerful drivers of quota attainment, behaviour change, and long-term sales performance. The 2026 report shows a coaching crisis that is worsening—not improving—despite advances in AI and increased awareness of coaching’s importance.