Eliza, a new sales hire, had posted an abysmally low closing ratio in her first 60 days on the job. She was spending most of her time with prospects who ended up picking her brain for advice and information...and then disappearing. Frank, her manager, asked her during a coaching session why she thought that was happening.
"I guess I'm not all that great at presenting yet," Eliza said. "Do you have any suggestions on how I could improve in that area?"
"Well," Frank said, "maybe the issue isn't your presentation skills. Let's walk through what happened in the last discussion you had with someone. How did that go?"