Coaching with confidence: AI for sales managers

Why traditional coaching falls short

Let's explore today's coaching challenges through the perspective of Maya — a sales manager leading a mid-sized team of account executives. She knows coaching drives results, but between everything else on her plate, it often slips through the cracks. And when she does find time, it's hard to know where to focus.

Maya's traditional coaching methods are falling short because they're:

• Manager dependent: Rely entirely on a manager's time and bandwidth. When capacity is low, coaching simply doesn't happen.
• Event driven: Triggered only during formal milestones or when problems surface — not tied to day-to-day performance.
• Reactive: Feedback is delivered late, often under pressure, and after deals or opportunities have already been lost.
• Disconnected: Siled from enablement content, data, and workflows — making outcomes hard to measure and nearly impossible to scale.

A better way to coach across the team

AI-powered coaching doesn't just save time — it empowers sales managers to lead with confidence and clarity, not confusion. With platforms like Seismic's Aura AI, coaching shifts from ad hoc and reactive to proactive, personalized, and scalable.

For managers like Maya, that means having a system that surfaces insights in real time, recommends next steps, and automates what normally took hours, allowing her to focus her time where it matters most — her team.

Aura AI is also made up of purpose-built agents — from analytics and meeting insights to coaching rooms and chat — each designed to solve a specific challenge in the manager's day-to-day.

Let's take a look at how they work together to support Maya and her team.

Real-time visibility into what matters

Maya no longer starts her day sifting through dashboards or rewatching random call recordings. Instead, she opens Aura Analytics Agent and simply asks, "Who's struggling with late-stage deals?" or "Who's using the new messaging?" Aura surfaces the right trends — performance gaps, content usage, engagement signals — all in one view. With that level of clarity, Maya can act faster, coach smarter, and keep deals on track.

With Meeting Insights for Managers (coming 2026), Aura takes this one step further — proactively flagging key call moments like pushback or messaging gaps, and delivering summaries that show Maya exactly where to step in and provide guidance.

Practice that builds confidence

Let's say Maya notices that Jordan is losing momentum in competitive deals, she doesn't wait for a formal review. Instead, she assigns him a scenario through Aura Role-Play Agent. In minutes, he's practicing objection handling with real scenarios, using approved messaging, and getting instant, AI-powered feedback.

And it's not a one-and-done experience. Jordan's performance feeds into Aura Powered Scorecards that track progress over time, recommend next steps, and highlight skill gaps Maya might otherwise miss.

Sales coaching that resonates

Before AI-powered coaching, Maya tracked coaching notes across scattered docs, email threads, and half-finished spreadsheets. Now, everything she needs lives in one place: the Enhanced Coaching Room (coming 2026).

In it, she sets goals, leaves feedback, and tracks progress over time. It's not just a record — it's an active workspace where coaching turns into action and development becomes visible.

Aura Follow-Up Agent keeps her coaching on track — logging next steps, nudging both Maya and her reps, and making sure nothing falls through the cracks.

Instant answers, real-time support

During the week, her sellers don't wait for Maya to send materials or dig through folders. Instead, they turn to Aura Chat Agent. It answers questions in real time — serving up relevant talk tracks, case studies, and win stories pulled directly from Seismic's content hub.

This gives Maya more time to focus on strategy and high-impact coaching, while her team gets what they need to engage buyers effectively. And because the guidance is always on-brand and up to date, Maya can trust her team is showing up with the right message every time.

Scalable insights, smarter enablement

When Maya wants to zoom out, she opens the Team Performance Dashboard (coming 2026). It gives her a birds-eye view of her team's coaching engagement, skill development, and rep benchmarks — all with AI-powered recommendations for what to do next.

But the real magic? None of this happens in isolation. If Aura detects consistent gaps — say reps struggling with a new product message — sales managers and enablement teams are immediately informed. They can update training or content in real time, creating a continuous coaching-to-enablement feedback loop that strengthens every team member.

From coaching moments to an AI-powered coaching ecosystem

With Aura AI, sales managers like Maya finally have what they've needed all along — a way to coach effectively on an individual level, even on a packed schedule. What were once isolated moments of feedback are now part of a connected, always-on coaching system that adapts to each rep, reinforces best practices, and turns insight into action.

Ready to uplevel your coaching?
Speak with our team to see how Aura AI can transform the way your managers coach.