Improvement Loops
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Why Improvement Loops Matter
Training alone doesn’t change performance. Coaching alone doesn’t scale. Inspections alone don’t create growth.
What drives lasting sales effectiveness is improvement loops—repeatable cycles that diagnose what’s working, reinforce the right behaviors, and correct what’s broken.
The problem in most sales organizations is that there are no true loops. Training happens once and is forgotten. Deal reviews focus on dates, not behaviors. Managers give inconsistent feedback, and reps default back to old habits. The result? High spend, low adoption, and no sustained improvement.
ASG built Improvement Loops into the Problem-Centric OS™ to solve this. They are the engine of continuous reinforcement that connects skills, opportunities, and forecasting into one system.
What Improvement Loops Are
Improvement Loops are structured, repeatable cycles that:
- Observe real behavior in the field.
- Describe what was done (factually, without judgment).
- Explain the impact of that action.
- Prescribe a new action to perform instead.
- Explain the expected impact of the new behavior.
- Absorb & Apply — confirm understanding, practice, and apply.
- Assess absorption — re-observe to ensure the change sticks.
This model creates a closed coaching loop that goes beyond “good job” or “do better.” It shows reps what they actually did, why it mattered, what to do instead, and what outcome it should create—then verifies whether the change has been absorbed.
The ASG ODP Loop (Expanded)
Name the actions you saw, not the ones you didn’t. Keep it factual.
Example: “You opened the call with broad, general questions and then pivoted quickly into a product demo.”
Example: “Because the questions stayed broad, you didn’t uncover cost impact, so the CFO was left with no urgency to act.”
Give clear direction on what to do differently.
Example: “Next time, lead with quantification questions like: ‘How often does this happen? What does it cost you each time?’”
Show the expected outcome of the change.
Example: “If you ask those questions, you’ll uncover financial impact that makes the problem urgent and meaningful for the CFO.”
Confirm the rep understands the prescription. Have them restate it in their own words and practice it (roleplay, snippet, drill).
Example: “Repeat back how you’ll start the call next time, and let’s practice one of those quantification questions now.”
Why This Works
Most coaching breaks down because managers point out what wasn’t done:
- “You didn’t quantify impact.”
- “You didn’t multi-thread.”
- “You didn’t close for next steps.”
That feedback is vague and hard for reps to fix.
By contrast, ASG’s loop grounds feedback in what the rep actually did—observable behaviors—then links those behaviors to business outcomes. This makes coaching concrete, constructive, and actionable.
In other words:
Improvement Loops replace judgment with clarity, and hope with repeatable progress.
Example: A Loop in Action
Without Improvement Loops (status quo):
- Rep attends discovery training.
- One week later, they’re on a live call. They fail to quantify impact.
- Manager inspects CRM and says, “You didn’t ask about the business case.”
- Rep feels defensive, unsure how to fix it.
With an ASG Improvement Loop:
- Rep attends discovery training.
- Manager listens to a call.
- Describe: “You asked, ‘How is your current process working?’ and then pivoted into a demo.”
- Impact: “Those questions didn’t uncover cost impact, so the CFO has no financial reason to prioritize change.”
- Prescribe: “Next time, ask, ‘How many hours a week are lost because of rework?’”
- Expected Impact: “That will uncover quantifiable costs that make the problem urgent.”
- Absorb & Apply: Rep restates, “Next time, I’ll lead with quantification questions. For example, ‘How much downtime per week does this cause?’” They roleplay it with the manager.
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Where Improvement Loops Fit in the OS
Improvement Loops operate across all three layers of the OS:
- Skills Layer: Training is reinforced through loops so skills are only considered “learned” when observed and applied.
- Opportunity Layer: Loops turn deal reviews and pipeline checks into behavior inspections, not just stage updates.
Forecast Layer: Loops tie missed forecasts back to root causes in Opportunity or Skills—fixing problems systemically, not just blaming reps.
“Before we started working with ASG, our sales cycle was somewhere between nine and 18 months depending on the deal size. When we look at just the first quarter post training, the sales cycle is 89 days.”
Alicia Rasta, EVP and Head of Global Sales – Televerde
How to Assess Your Improvement Loops
Ask yourself:
Do managers describe what reps actually did?
Or are they mostly pointing out what wasn’t done?
Do we explain impact?
Are reps shown the consequences of their current actions and the benefits of new ones?
Do managers follow a consistent loop (ODP+I)?
Or does every manager coach differently?
Do we confirm absorption?
Do reps restate prescriptions and practice them before moving on?
Is improvement tracked over time?
Are specific skills revisited until mastered?
Do missed forecasts trigger loops?
Or are they treated as end-point failures with no feedback loop into Skills or Opportunity?
The Right Way to Leverage Improvement Loops
When built into the OS, Improvement Loops deliver:
- Lasting behavior change. Skills move from knowledge to habit.
- Consistent coaching. Every manager uses the same structured framework.
- Higher win rates. Reps continuously improve problem-centric discovery and execution.
- Forecast accuracy. Missed numbers become opportunities to fix systemic issues, not just punish individuals.
- Cultural alignment. Coaching becomes constructive and expected, not punitive or inconsistent.
Closing Thought
Improvement Loops are the heartbeat of the Problem-Centric OS™. They ensure the system isn’t just taught, but reinforced, observed, and continuously improved.
Training without loops is wasted. Coaching without loops is inconsistent. Forecasting without loops is unreliable.
With loops, every rep is on a path of constant improvement, every manager has a framework for reinforcement, and every leader can trust that problems are being solved at the root—not papered over with activity.
That’s why ASG built Improvement Loops into the OS: to turn enablement into performance, performance into evidence, and evidence into predictable revenue.
When Every Fix Fails, It’s Time for a System
Let’s talk about how the Problem Centric™ OS can drive predictable growth in your organization.