The Practice Gap: Why Revenue Skills Decay Faster Than You Can Train Them

Every quarter, I hear the same frustration wrapped in different words:

“Our reps know what to do. They just can’t do it consistently.” That’s not a talent problem. It’s not a motivation problem. It’s a practice problem. When revenue responsibility blurs across Sales, CS, and Account Management, the first thing that quietly disappears is deliberate skill repetition. And when reps stop practicing, the same three gaps show up again and again.

The storytelling gap

One leader told me their reps “show features instead of demoing outcomes.” They know the platform cold. They can click through every workflow. But when a prospect asks, “So why does this matter?”, the narrative falls apart. The story never quite lands.

The issue isn’t product knowledge. It’s that reps haven’t rehearsed the outcome-driven storyline under pressure. They’ve never practiced translating features into impact while being interrupted, challenged, or rushed. So when the moment arrives, they default to what feels safe: the demo tour.

The discovery disconnect

Most teams are good at opening questions. I hear a lot of: “What’s your biggest challenge right now?”

I hear much less digging that follows. The second and third layers (implications, urgency, downstream impact) rarely show up consistently. Not because reps don’t understand the theory, but because one-off discovery workshops can’t change conversational reflexes.

Discovery is a skill that lives in timing and follow-through. And timing only sharpens with repetition. Without 6 or more weeks of deliberate practice, reps revert to surface-level questioning as soon as real pressure enters the call.

The closing fade

This one is painfully consistent. Reps run solid calls for the first 80%. Strong rapport. Decent discovery. Clear interest. Then the close arrives and everything softens. Next steps are vague. Commitments are implied, not secured. The ask feels apologetic instead of confident. One enablement manager told me their team struggles with “setting clear next steps and asking for the sale.” Their plan was another closing workshop the following week.

Here’s the pattern I see: that workshop will help briefly. Then old habits resurface. Because closing confidence isn’t retained through slides or scripts. It’s built by saying the words out loud, repeatedly, until they feel normal.

The common thread across

None of these are knowledge gaps. Reps know what good storytelling sounds like. They know they should dig deeper in discovery. They know they should ask for next steps clearly. What they don’t have is a safe, repeatable place to practice those moments until the behavior sticks.

When practice is rare, public, or performative, skills decay fast. When practice is private, frequent, and pressure-tested, skills compound.

So let's connect and show you how