Your best reps are often "unconsciously competent" and can't explain their own success. Before an SKO, leaders must help these individuals deconstruct their process and build a prescriptive presentation, translating their individual "art" into a replicable science for the entire sales team.
Don't expect an AI agent to invent a successful sales process. First, have your human team identify and document what works—effective emails, scripts, and objection handling. Then, train the AI on this proven playbook to execute it flawlessly and at scale. The AI is a scaling tool, not a strategist from day one.
SKOs often fail with high-level corporate presentations. A better approach is to put top-performing reps on stage to share specific, tactical "how-to's" for key sales activities like cold calling, email outreach, and champion building, fostering peer-to-peer learning.
To make deep qualification a team-wide habit, sales managers must do more than just talk about it. They need to 'lead from the front' by joining customer calls and personally asking the critical questions. This demonstrates the correct technique and signals that it's a non-negotiable part of the sales culture.
To make role-playing an effective training tool, sales leaders must demonstrate vulnerability by going first in front of everyone. This signals that the goal is collective improvement, not performance evaluation, and encourages reps to engage openly without fear of judgment.
Instead of traditional classroom training, Stone would take new salespeople on live sales calls. They'd observe him, attempt a pitch themselves, and receive immediate feedback. This rapid, immersive cycle built competence and confidence quickly, even for those without a college degree.
When one rep achieves a significant win in a new vertical, use the SKO to create industry-specific breakout sessions. Have that rep detail their exact process, sharing materials and insights to enable the rest of the team to replicate that success across similar accounts.
Your company doesn't need to invent the perfect way to handle every sales challenge. The "gold standard" already exists within your team. The goal of an SKO is to create interactive forums, like role-plays, to discover and amplify this hidden, peer-generated brilliance.
Instead of a generic agenda, effective CROs design SKO content to solve the specific, known stages where their sales team consistently gets stuck, such as discovery or reaching the economic buyer. If you don't know these bottlenecks, you're not ready to lead.
An automated workflow analyzes call transcripts and sends immediate, private feedback to the sales or CS rep on what they did well and where they can improve. This democratizes high-quality coaching, evens the playing field across managers of varying skill, and empowers motivated reps to upskill faster.
A founder's ability to sell is not proof of a scalable business. The real litmus test for repeatability is when a non-founder sales hire can close a deal from start to finish. This signals that the value proposition and process are teachable, which is the first true sign of a scalable go-to-market motion.