Next sales drill: 4 feedback questions to ask

A

Key takeaways

• Ask which skill the rep wants to practice next.
• Ask about confidence with a clearly labelled scale.
• Ask what is making practice difficult.
• Ask for the next drill while checking how results are counted.
• These are editorial suggestions, not a validated survey or a certification test.

B

Direct answer: ask four questions and read results carefully

When building the first question, you can create a question or statement and provide answer options (up to 12) from which your audience can choose, according to Microsoft. This structure supports the first check, where the manager asks the team to identify the specific skill they want to practice. The manager should not treat the resulting answer as a measure of current ability. The question asks for a preference, not a test result.

The second check involves asking about confidence. The manager should use a scale with clear text labels so the rep knows what each number or point means. The manager must not assume that a high confidence score equals high skill. The scale measures how the rep feels about their ability, not how well they actually perform.

The third check asks what is making practice difficult. This question captures obstacles. The manager should look for patterns in the answers, such as lack of time or unclear goals. The manager should not infer the views of people who did not answer. The answers come only from those who chose to respond.

C

Ask which skill the rep wants to practice next

Start the feedback collection by asking reps to identify the specific sales skill they want to practice next. This question frames the upcoming team drill around self-reported needs rather than manager assumptions. When building this question in a digital tool, you can structure it as a multiple-choice poll. This limit helps keep the list manageable while covering common coaching areas like objection handling, discovery questions, or closing techniques.

You must decide whether each rep selects one skill or several. According to Cisco, multiple choice questions can have single answers where the attendees choose one answer, or multiple answers where the attendees choose all answers that apply. For planning a single team drill, a single-answer constraint is often more practical. It forces the rep to prioritize one primary focus area, which simplifies scheduling and coaching preparation. If you use multiple answers, you may receive a list of skills that is too broad for a single session, requiring further triage.

When you review the responses, look for patterns across the team. If several reps select the same skill, that suggests a common area for group practice. If selections are scattered, you may need to segment the team or hold individual coaching sessions. Hold that conversation with a Sales One-on-One Agenda for Coaching Software Sellers. Keep the question focused on the next practice session. Do not ask for long-term career goals or general feedback in this specific question. Those topics belong in separate conversations or surveys.

D

Ask about confidence with a clearly labelled scale

When you ask a rep how confident they feel about a specific skill, the number they select is a self-report, not a measured ability. To keep the feedback readable, attach plain text labels to every point on the scale. In the Star Rating Question documentation, if your question has rating labels for all answer choices, every answer choice label displays the corresponding rating label that you entered in the survey design, according to SurveyMonkey. This setup ensures that a "1" is not just a number but a defined state, such as "Needs significant support." Without these labels, a manager might misinterpret a low score as a lack of effort rather than a specific knowledge gap.

The range of the scale matters for how you interpret the spread of answers. In the Star Rating Question documentation, by default, the scale is set to 5, but you can choose any number from 2 to 10, according to SurveyMonkey. A five-point scale is often sufficient for quick team checks because it forces a clear middle ground. If you expand the range to ten, you gain more granularity, but you also risk splitting the team into too many small groups to act on. The documentation for Poll attendees during a Teams meeting notes that you can customize the ratings scale up to 5 and display those ratings by stars or numbers, according to Microsoft. This upper limit of five in that specific context suggests that for live, real-time feedback during a meeting, a shorter scale keeps the interaction fast and the results easy to scan. Do not merge these scales; they belong to different products with different configurations.

E

Ask what is making practice difficult

Capture obstacles by allowing free-form text input rather than forcing choices. In the "Poll Attendees in Webex Training" documentation, Short Answer questions let attendees enter free form responses to questions according to Cisco. This format suits open-ended prompts like "What is currently blocking your practice?" because it does not limit the rep to predefined categories. When you use a rating scale to measure difficulty, be aware of how non-applicable responses affect the math. The "Star Rating Question | SurveyMonkey" documentation states that the answers from respondents that select the N/A option will not be factored into calculating the weighted average according to SurveyMonkey.

When interpreting the results, keep the denominator clear. If a rep selects N/A, their response is excluded from the weighted average calculation as described in the source. This prevents a non-applicable answer from skewing the numerical result toward a lower or higher value than the actual difficulty level reported by those who answered. You should review the raw text responses from the Short Answer section to identify specific blockers, such as lack of time, unclear goals, or tool issues. The free-form nature of these answers provides qualitative context that a numerical scale cannot capture.

Do not assume that a high average difficulty score indicates a specific problem without reading the text comments. The weighted average is a summary metric, not a diagnostic tool. Your editorial recommendation is to pair the numerical scale with a text field in every practice survey. This allows you to see the pattern of obstacles across the team. If multiple reps cite the same blocker in their free-form responses, that is a stronger signal for the next drill than a single high score.

F

Ask for the next drill and check how results are counted

Selecting the next drill requires verifying how the tool counts responses and who receives the data. In Conduct polls in Google Meet - Computer - Google Meet Help, the moderator is automatically emailed a report of the poll results after the meeting, according to Google. The same documentation notes that participant names aren't shared in the case of anonymous polls, according to Google. This setting applies specifically to anonymous polls; it does not guarantee privacy for named responses or other data types. Before you promise privacy, use Coaching survey privacy: 4 checks before you promise. This limit applies to the meeting-host context and does not change how poll results are calculated or reported.

Mobile access affects who can participate in the poll. In Conduct polls in Google Meet - Computer - Google Meet Help, you can't create, but can respond to polls on mobile devices, according to Google. Reps can still answer from their phones, so the drill can include remote participants.

Interpreting results requires checking the denominator. In Poll Attendees in Webex Training, the poll results are based on the percentage of attendees who chose each answer out of the total number of attendees in the training session, not the total number of attendees who filled out the questionnaire, according to Cisco. This distinction is critical for interpreting feedback. If 10 people are in the session but only 5 answer, the percentage reflects the 10-person base. A 50% result in this context means 5 out of 10 attendees chose that option, not 5 out of 5 respondents. Do not mix response and attendance denominators when reviewing the data.

G

Reference table: vendor rules and limits

The following table summarizes the specific configuration limits and calculation methods documented by four vendors.

These limits define how data is captured and calculated within each platform. For Microsoft, the documentation notes that you can specify whether options are randomized using the Shuffle Options settings according to Microsoft. It also states that you can select to keep responses anonymous according to Microsoft. Google documentation also notes that you can add up to 25 co-hosts once inside the meeting according to Google.

SurveyMonkey documentation states that by default, a rating of 1 star has a weight of 1, and a rating of 2 stars has a weight of 2 according to SurveyMonkey. The documentation cautions that a question set to 50% width would only take up 50% of the survey's width on mobile devices according to SurveyMonkey.

H

Illustrative example of one team check

Use round figures only as an illustration. Ten people sit in the practice discussion and five reply. Three of those five name discovery questions as the next skill, and two name objection handling. On a five-point confidence scale, the five replies are two, three, three, four, and four. Two replies say time is the obstacle, and one says the goal is unclear. Three of the five ask for a discovery-question drill. Plan one group drill on discovery questions, and set a separate conversation for the two who chose objection handling. Read the scores as self-reported needs, with plain words on each point of the scale.

Write the four suggested questions in your next team-practice notes, label any scale in plain words, and plan how to discuss answers without naming an individual unnecessarily. Then write today's targets with Sales rep practice goals: 5 checks to write today.

I

FAQ: how can a sales manager ask the team what to practice next and interpret the feedback carefully?

Which four questions can I ask before planning a drill?

Use the four editorial checks identified in this guide: ask which skill the rep wants to practice, their confidence level, what makes practice difficult, and what the next drill should be. Keep the questions focused on self-reported needs rather than objective skill scores.

Should a confidence scale have text labels?

Yes, if you enter rating labels for all answer choices in the survey design, every answer choice displays the corresponding rating label you entered, according to SurveyMonkey. This ensures reps see plain words rather than just numbers when selecting their response.

How should I handle N/A answers?

Respondents who select the N/A option are not factored into calculating the weighted average, according to SurveyMonkey. This exclusion prevents non-applicable responses from skewing the numerical result of the confidence scale.

Can reps answer a poll from a phone?

Reps can respond to polls on mobile devices, but they cannot create polls there, according to Google. Ensure your team knows they can participate from their phones even if the manager must use a computer to set up the poll.

Is the reported percentage based on respondents or all attendees?

Poll results are based on the percentage of attendees who chose each answer out of the total number of attendees in the training session, not the total number of attendees who filled out the questionnaire, according to Cisco. Always check the denominator before interpreting the result to avoid mixing response and attendance numbers.